Block MSN on home PC whenever necessary
Hey guys
I'd like to know how to block MSN on a home PC. Problem is that someone is misusing Live Messenger when they should be concentrating on studying. OS is Windows XP Home and they have a wireless network. This block/unblock messenger application should be an easy task and be available whenever necessary. They have no certain time-window when it needs to be blocked, just when a need arises.
Thanks in advance.
I'd like to know how to block MSN on a home PC. Problem is that someone is misusing Live Messenger when they should be concentrating on studying. OS is Windows XP Home and they have a wireless network. This block/unblock messenger application should be an easy task and be available whenever necessary. They have no certain time-window when it needs to be blocked, just when a need arises.
Thanks in advance.
TrustWise
Go to control panel, internet options, control tab. Enable content control, move the slider to the right and add MSN to the blocked sites. The user will need a password to access the site.
ASKER
Will that disable MSN Messenger application so they can't chat with others?
No, try this
Experts-exchange.com/Q_206
Experts-exchange.com/Q_206
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No problem, panda internet security offers great parental controls if you're interested. pandasecurity.com
use local security policy to do it and don't allow the person the knowledge to do and undo it:
click start menu=>run
type secpol.msc=>click ok to UAC prompts
In the Local Security Policy window:
right click Software Restriction policies=> click "New Software Restriction Policies" this will add Security Levels and Additional Rules sub directories.
Right click Additional Rules and select New path rule
In the window that appears click the browse button and browse to wherever msn.exe is located, I don't have it installed so I could not verify where that is.
Select the msn.exe and use the below drop down box to select disallowed.
With this setting, the user will received a "this program is not allowed to run" message when they
try to execute msn.
To undo this, follow the above directions only select "basic user" or "unrestricted" instead of "disallowed"
Do not touch anything else in the local security policy window, it is easy to locked out everyone from the PC requiring at best a lot of time repairing and at worst a re-install in order to get your system back.
So please only do what has been stated by me here.
Another thing is if you select "unrestricted user" this is the same as running msn as administrator but applied to all users on the PC. If the users in question have administrative access then it is not an issue.
click start menu=>run
type secpol.msc=>click ok to UAC prompts
In the Local Security Policy window:
right click Software Restriction policies=> click "New Software Restriction Policies" this will add Security Levels and Additional Rules sub directories.
Right click Additional Rules and select New path rule
In the window that appears click the browse button and browse to wherever msn.exe is located, I don't have it installed so I could not verify where that is.
Select the msn.exe and use the below drop down box to select disallowed.
With this setting, the user will received a "this program is not allowed to run" message when they
try to execute msn.
To undo this, follow the above directions only select "basic user" or "unrestricted" instead of "disallowed"
Do not touch anything else in the local security policy window, it is easy to locked out everyone from the PC requiring at best a lot of time repairing and at worst a re-install in order to get your system back.
So please only do what has been stated by me here.
Another thing is if you select "unrestricted user" this is the same as running msn as administrator but applied to all users on the PC. If the users in question have administrative access then it is not an issue.
hhhmmm WindowsXP home eh. Appologies, there is no secpol.msc in the Home version.
The only way I see to do this with XP Home is to manually ,manipulate the ntfs permissions on the msn executable itself every time you would like to change permissions for the user in question. If the user in question also has administrative rights to the PC then the user would be able to simply change them back.
The only way I see to do this with XP Home is to manually ,manipulate the ntfs permissions on the msn executable itself every time you would like to change permissions for the user in question. If the user in question also has administrative rights to the PC then the user would be able to simply change them back.