How do I lock down a Tablet Pc

I wouldn't mind objecting on the grounds I answered the question.

The solution offered is of no help as I don't understand what needs to be done. It suggests doing things but doesn't actually explain how! I am happy to accept an answer that can tell me what to do not some general comments.

This was why I was leaving the question open.

Sorry, here is a step by step for each of the things I listed before.

Password Protecting The Bios:

Boot machine & enter the bios either by pressing del or F1, the system should tell you the button to press to get into the bios.
Once there search around for password protection. Usually PC's have two options, one to password protect the bios and one to password protect the system from booting. You only want to protect the bios as the other will require a password to be entered every time the system is booted.
Once you have set the password, save changes and reboot. You can test it worked by going back into the bios, you should be prompted to enter the password.
If by the off chance you have forgotten the password or something like that it can usually be flushed by changing a jumper on the main board ... see the manufactures documentation for this one.

Thanks for that, what about the other bits when they get into windows? Accessing the security policy and setting my app up instead of the explorer.exe?

Setting Low Access Users & Auto Login:

I can't give you 100% details on this one because I don't use Vista but the premise should be the same no matter what OS you run.

You need to find the User Manager, in XP this can be found by right clicking on my computer & choosing Manage. This will bring up computer management. Under system tools you should find Local Users & Groups. Expand this out and choose the Users folder. In here you will need to create a default user. Right click on the users folder and select new user. Enter in a name eg User and you can also enter full name & description. Leave the password section blank, untick user must change password at next logon, tick user cannot change password, and password never expires. Click OK and you should have created a basic user account.

If by chance the system says the password doesnt meet the minimum requirements, put in a password like user123.

To make the system auto-login using this user open the run command & type: control userpasswords2

On this page there should be a check box to say users need to enter a password to log in. Uncheck this and click ok. The system will then ask which account you want to log in by default. Enter the one you have just created along with the password if it required you to use one.

Once this has been set the system should auto-login using this account.

I'll write them in sections ... more comming

Let me know if the user password section doesn't work. Again I don't have vista running on any of these machines but I can chase it up and find out the correct procedure if need be.

Replacing Explorer.exe:

If something wont work in Vista it would probably be this one but it will give you the gist.

If you have a standard installation of windows you should find located in C:\Windows\ a file called explorer.exe. This is windows as we know it. When windows starts it launches this program which gives you your desktop & everything. If you dont want the desktop but want your program to start rename the explorer.exe to explorer.old and put your program in the c:\windows folder and rename it to explorer.exe.

If it doesnt allow you to rename explorer.exe try booting the machine into safe mode by pressing F8 while the machine is booting. Once in safe mode repeat the process above.

Computer Security Policy:

This can be accessed by going to Start --> Programs --> Administrative Tools --> Local Security Policy.

Step through each policy and have a read what it does then decide if you want to set it. You can usually choose who this policy gets applied to as well.

If Administrative Tools isnt there it can be found in the control panel (Start --> Settings --> Control Panel --> Administrative Tools)

You will also have to disable the ability for users to run task manager (Control + Alt + Delete and Contorl + Shift + Escape).

Had a quick glance at this site which looks like it has the information you want:
http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/103275-task-manager-enable-disable.html

Looks like it's a setting in the local security policy that I talked about before. Also looks like it may have a few other things you may be interested in.