Teenager-proof a computer

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Again, quote if I'm wrong, but no one said to give away services?

How many people would continue to come back to you if they had to come back every other week? Not many, and I don't think money would be the end all cause of it either.

I had a pretty awesome mother and father who did an outstanding job in raising my brother and I... but there were things that I was determined I was going to do, no matter the price. With children, you pick your battles. You won't win them all. I don't care how good of a parent you are. You just won't.


And on the subject of boot CD's and linux.... as stated they may be able to out fox an elderly woman who doesn't even know how to type but many won't be able to defeat the likes of most people on here.
 
When someone keeps talking about the poor old soul raising a grandkid by herself that can't afford much, it usually means there has been a sob story of some kind and thoughts of discounting rates. This is an inference on my part, and, if wrong, so be it. It still doesn't change the initial assessment. The kid, or his friends, will find a workaround, or get hold of granny's machine. It's inevitable because the root cause, behavior, has not been addressed. This means, eventually, another visit, or two, or three. Yes, I would bill for every visit. This is not mean or heartless; it's business. Would a tire shop replace your tires gratis after you burned them bald doing burnouts?
 
How about this.......

Acronis True Image.

Use Secure Zone feature with F11 option to restore on reboot.

Set up machine with correct parameters as wanted, then image.

Let them mess-up the computer and use it until it gets too bad.

Then have Grandma restart using the F11 option and give it back to them in the original condition.

Yes, there is a password option.

Yes, they can't update Flash, Java, security updates, etc........ who cares, any viruses, malware, programs, files, porn, music, etc. will be deleted upon restore.

Store files, documents, etc. on thumbdrive/external drive

Maybe set up a schedule to restore on a regular basis regardless.

Use with an admin and limited account and they will soon get the message, it's easier to use the friend's computer.
 
angry_geek said:
When someone keeps talking about the poor old soul raising a grandkid by herself that can't afford much, it usually means there has been a sob story of some kind and thoughts of discounting rates. This is an inference on my part, and, if wrong, so be it. It still doesn't change the initial assessment. The kid, or his friends, will find a workaround, or get hold of granny's machine. It's inevitable because the root cause, behavior, has not been addressed. This means, eventually, another visit, or two, or three. Yes, I would bill for every visit. This is not mean or heartless; it's business. Would a tire shop replace your tires gratis after you burned them bald doing burnouts?
Click to expand...

^^^^^^^^This! ^^^^^^^^
 
All I'm saying is that there could be a chance that this grandmother really doesn't have much control here.


Usually grandparents do not have as strict of a realtionship with grandchildren as the relationship between a child and his parents.

As I've said, every child does something wrong and so do fully grown
men and women on a daily basis. Granny could be fighting a losing battle
here and TechLady wants to even the playing field for the grandmother.

Personally I'd want the same thing.

Don't get me wrong. I provide repeat service for quite a lot of people
and I do it quite happily. I don't care how much porn they watch and
how many "you've won a boat" links they click on. I tell them not to
and they insist they don't. I only tell them for their own benefit, because
I don't want them to think "what the crud, I just paid this guy to fix the
computer last week and its locking up again".

I would want to provide the grandmothers with the tools to prevent this
or atleast have "some" level of control.

Children wind up smoking, chewing, doing drugs and getting pregnant at 16 all the time. These same children have parents who try very very hard to lead a good example for the children, teach them right and wrong, have consequenses and want the best for them.

I'm just saying it "might" not be bad parenting in every case.
 
Bubbajoe said:
Only a partial fix, but what about using OpenDNS as the DNS server?
Click to expand...

Yes, I always start with that, at a minimum. It doesn't really even come close to the kind of lockdown that really needs to happen...but yes, it's a great start!

People--why all the haterade? I asked for a technical solution for a technical problem and you fire off a barrage of personal judgments on people you know nothing about. And LOL, the strongest hatrerade from the people that are completely childless. :rolleyes: Come, come. Let's save the nastiness for the deserving...like Microsoft ;)
 
TechLady said:
People--why all the haterade? I asked for a technical solution for a technical problem and you fire off a barrage of personal judgments on people you know nothing about. And LOL, the strongest hatrerade from the people that are completely childless. :rolleyes: Come, come. Let's save the nastiness for the deserving...like Microsoft ;)
Click to expand...


You asked for a technical solution for what is clearly a parenting/non-technical problem. Thats why you got some of the answers you did.
 
gunslinger said:
You asked for a technical solution for what is clearly a parenting/non-technical problem. Thats why you got some of the answers you did.
Click to expand...

Yes, I realize that is your opinion, thanks. A whole bunch of others in this thread managed to actually answer the question though--you know, offer real solutions--and that was more helpful.
 
TechLady said:
Yes, I realize that is your opinion, thanks. A whole bunch of others in this thread managed to actually answer the question though--you know, offer real solutions--and that was more helpful.
Click to expand...

Ah. I guess parenting children is not a "real" solution anymore. Pardon me for being old fashioned and trying to cure the problem and not blindly throw useless tech at the symptoms of the problem. You didn't want people to actually answer you, what you wanted was affirmation of what you already believed.

Hope it works out for you, but I'd be willing to bet you will be back, again and again until the "real" problem is fixed. ;)
 
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We sell a Program to our customers in this situation OR Public access computers and its call Drive Vaccine. Its pretty much a Replacement for Windows steady state as you all may know that has stopped passed Vista. Drive Vaccine Restores your computer to its baseline on restart everytime. Its pretty reasonably priced and the same company also has a Freeware called Reboot restore RX but the problem you may find in your case the freeware can be turned off without any username or password thats where drive vaccine comes in handy, this way they are unable to access or disable the program because it will have a username and password. the company is horizon data sys. feel free to google them. www.horizondatasys.com Hope this helps anyone still looking
 
Local Group Policy

With windows 7 you can set up more than one local group policy. You could lock down the user in question via local group policy and not have that group policy setting effect other users on that machine. Of course if the the person knows the user name and password for the other account this could be easily bypassed.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc730760.aspx
 
I didn't read the whole thread but I have a client with 3 kids under 16 and they mess up computers on daily basis, in seconds even. I suggested each of their computers should have a standard account for daily use and mom has password for the only admin account for when they need something legit installed.

I haven't seen them in months after implementing this. I guess that's a bad thing.
 
Easiest way would be to disable windows installer in local group policy settings. No software to install, etc ... would take like 30 seconds to disable
 
Morrison5891 said:
Easiest way would be to disable windows installer in local group policy settings. No software to install, etc ... would take like 30 seconds to disable
Click to expand...

+1 for that.

Even better, apply passwords to and ban the teenager from all other computers in the house and install Arch on the teenagers with a printed install/getting started guide next to it.
 
SunBreeze said:
+1 for that.

Even better, apply passwords to and ban the teenager from all other computers in the house and install Arch on the teenagers with a printed install/getting started guide next to it.
Click to expand...

That would imply they are actually being a parent and setting rules. We can't have that and that is clearly not the type of solution she is looking for here. She is looking for a tech solution to a non-tech issue.
 
The grandparent, as far as I can tell, never actually asked for the computer to be locked down. I didn't re read all six pages, but I think tech_lady is just trying to give granny some ammo.

It's not our job to tell parents how to raise their children. Lets say granny did ask for some computer armor. There are solutions for that of different levels, and some will even be effective. If that is want granny wants to pay for, then that is what granny gets.

In cases where children (or even adults) are wrecking computers and someone in the chain gets upset for the cost of repairs then I explain to them what caused the infection and how to safeguard against it in the future. If they ignore my warnings, but still pay for more repair work then I happily take their money.

It hasn't happened yet but if after being educated in what not to do and they still do it and are upset about the reinfection, I would simply let them know that if they continue their usage habits the problems will continue. IF there were some magic fix software, I would sell it to them and let them use that as a fix to the problem. EDIT: And I knew the fix was proper. Like selling a managed business client a good commercial grade equipment instead of a walmart junko. There is no moral decision there, the walmart product simply won't work properly.

I wouldn't care HOW the problem was fixed, as long as the problem was fixed, I got paid, and the customer was happy with the fix.

There are too many missing facts for us to decide that granny needs to grow a pair and give her grandson a good switchen.
 
The problem is: the real problem is not being fixed. All that is happening is a fun game of "try to out smart the teen" You set a password, they remove it, you add special software, they google how to disable it. Its a never ending cycle because the PROBLEM is the TEEN. No matter what is done to these computers it can be undone by any teen with normal intelligence and access to google in less that a half hour.
 
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