W2K User Issues

[Boosheboo]

I am new to this board (usually hang out at TechIMO) and new to W2K Pro. I posted a few of these questions over at TechIMO and thought I would post here as well seing how there is a dedicated forum for W2K.

First, is there a way, other than removing/hiding the add/remove programs to any user group other than a Power User? I was suprised to see that a restricted user can remove programs. I think I just figured this one out. A Guest can remove programs for themselves but not remove it system wide. Right?

Second, I have noticed that some of the programs that I install, either as a power user or administrator, does not show up in the start menu in all user groups. Why? Is there a way to ensure that all programs in my start menu is available to all users? I just cannot understand why the start button>programs is not the same in all user accounts.

Last, I have noticed that I can install some programs as a restricted user and some programs will only install as an administrator. Is this contolled by the particular application itself or W2K. If it is controlled by WK2, is there a way to ensure that only an administrator or power user can install programs? I made an account for my boys (teenagers) on my computer and made them a part of the guest group. I do not want them to be able to install or remove any programs. Is this possible?

Well, thanks for any help!

[snowmonkey]

there are too many question here but I will do my best to follow it in order:

First: Guest should NOT be allowed to install of remove any application what so ever. All the permission for all the users are control by system policy which is located in:Control Panel / Aministrative Tools / Local Policy

Second: Not all the application will install on All User Profile and that is security related. You have to look at the big picture where a company could have thousands of computers and each computer could be used by few people whom have different need for the software so security is part of the reason.
Part two of Second: Yes there is a way of adding all the application you want you every users profile: Right Click on Start button, go to Explorer / there you can see all the users profile with all applications that are installed on their profile.

Finally: The way application gets installed on the computer is part of design on it which is controlled by the software not Windows 2000. Now the tricky part of setting user permision if to have proper type of file system, If your operating system is not installed on NTFS partition then you can forget about different user profile, you MUST have NTFS before you could restrict other users (FAT32 does not work %100).

So please get to the board and let use know if you do have NTFS or not, and if not do you require help converting your current system to NTFS.


cheers

[Ekj530]

>>>>I changed my name from BooSheBoo to this one. I did not realize that I had responded under the new account.


I know that my questions were a bit lengthy and somewhat unorganized. Thanks for taking a stab at it. You did help,

My partition is NTSF. Since I posted, I have figured some of it out: software control, users who cannot make system wide changes, etc. At first, when I removed a program in a guest account, I was horrified. I could see my boys having fun pushing buttons. lol But, then I realized that these changes were not system wide.

So, I have been experimenting with allot of trial and error. But, at least I am learning. The help files are not that easy to decipher, but, I think that has to do with the fact that it is a business OS which assume a certain level of expertise if you are going to tinker around with such things.

Once again, thanks. If you do have any further suggestions or desire to enlighten me further in this area, it would much appreciated!

Chris

[snowmonkey]

Chris,

There other option of keeping you kids out out your files but not your computer. I have two boys and I know what it is like. The way I have my computer setup is like this: I have installed software called Partition magic 8.0, this software allows you to split you hard drive to what ever size you want to,so I did (10 gig for kids, 20 for me and set both partition as primary), then I used a modlue that comes with partition mage 8.0 which is called Boot Magic. Now when I boot my computer it comes a an option page called Kids or Parents and each of these option can take you to you portion of hard drive where you have installed your operating system, and of course the two operating system do not interact with one another so your kids can't see your files or remove the accidently, also you can have password for Boot Magic when it start.
One more thing, Partition and Boot magic allow you to run up to four operating system on the same computer so if you kids want to install windows xxx on their partition they can with out messing up your setting.

if you need help with that then send me personal MSG


cheers

[Ekj530]

Thanks for the ideas. Actually, my boys usually have their own computer. However, I sold it a few weeks ago to build them a better one and am waiting for the case. When they do get thier computer, I want to set them up as a standard user so that they cannot not do too much damage to the computer.

Once again, thank you for the help. I really appreciate it!