Windows 2000 and Windows XP have profiles that each user can use to set their favorite screen background and play their special music for themes and each user can be setup with different permissions to install programs or just run them. In other words, one can be an Administrator, one can be a Power User and one can be a Restricted User. These are set in the Users icon in the Control Panel.
Where it keeps its information is in the "Documents and Settings" folder and under there is a folder for each user as well as a folder for "All Users". All Users is where programs that appear for each user are put. So if you modify or change something within this folder, it affects all the users on the machine.
Just like the individual folders for each user, the All User has a Desktop folder in which you can put shortcuts that show up for every user. Only administrators can erase them. It also has a Favorites folder in which you can share you favorite shortcuts for every user in the house.
Besides Favorites, it also has a Shared Documents which also hold music and pictures and stuff like that. So as you can see, if you only have one machine and several people use it, like a family, you can make Dad and Mom Administrators, Teenagers can be Power Users and the small children can be restricted users. Well maybe we should re-think the order I just suggested there!
Speaking of restrictions, many people are concerned about Porn on the Web and how to stop teenagers from getting to it. One very simple way is to use the Content Tab under the Internet Explorer built right in to your Microsoft Browser. You can enable it to be set through a Password and you can control the items set within the Browser.
For example, you can set Language to be: 0-Inoffensive slang, 1-Mild expletives, 2-Moderate expletives, 3-Obscene gestures, or 4-Explicit or crude language. Nudity can be set for: 0-None, 1-Revealing attire, 2-Partial nudity, 3-Frontal nudity, or 4-Provocative frontal nudity. Sex can be set at: 0-None, 1-Passionate kissing, 2-Clothed sexual touching, 3-Non-explicit sexual touching, or 4-Explicit sexual activity. And finally Violence can be set at: 0-No violence, 1-Fighting, 2-Killing, 3-Killing with blood and gore, or 4-Wanton and gratuitous violence.
Now the problem with all this is that most websites do not rate their own site. Because of this, we have to un-check the option that "User can see sites that have no ratings." Well, this creates yet another problem, because even the best sites don't have a rating. I like www.imdb.com because it shows me all the movie stars and movies that were ever made and is very informative.
However, this is a very clean site and is sponsored by many companies, but it does not have a rating. So do I allow users to see sites that don't have a rating? Then all the porn sites are open for viewing. The only way to do it is to subscribe to a Rating Bureau or some other kind of content manager.
I have one in my firewall. It's not cheap at a cost of over $500 a year. To disallow any users behind a firewall, this gets expensive. If I had a huge company, I could justify this and it would be worth it. But on a home front, you can do it a lot cheaper just by adding PICSRules to your browser. Or you can visit www.safesurf.com, www.icra.org, or www.esrb.net to get more information.
The other way of doing it is to educate your children and why it is not a good idea to view adult sites and what it could lead to. Because even if you block your browser from viewing porn, your children would just explore at a friend's house. Education is the best blocker and all we can do is hope that in the future, people will stop making these available to just anyone.
Maybe in the future we can force a rating on all websites that are created.
