How to restrict apps for a user account?

I want to restrict one user account from accessing installed apps.

Basically, I want to give him access to using notepad only. How can we do this?

(Acer netbook with win xp home edition.)

Kaartz

Posted 2010-10-05T14:28:44.663

Reputation: 145

Answers

Well, this is the sort of thing that GPO is meant to take care of, but its not really available on home edition -

you can add the GPO addon for a home system

Copy the files gpedit.dll and fde.dll from \WINDOWS\System32 on the XP Pro machine to \WINDOWS\System32 on the XP Home machine.

From a command prompt issue the following commands on the XP Home machine: regsvr32 C:\WINDOWS\System32\gpedit.dll

regsvr32 C:\WINDOWS\System32\fde.dll Open the Microsoft Management Console (mmc.exe) and select File->Add/Remove Snap-in... Then click Add. Select the Group Policy snap-in from the list of installed snap ins.

instructions via metafilter

or edit the registry manually to do this

Once this is done you can restrict what applications can be run

start up gpedit.msc

User Configuration \ Administrative Templates \ System. Then under Setting scroll down and double click on Run only specified Windows applications set it to Enabled, then under the Options section click on the Show button next to List of allowed applications.A Show Contents dialog comes up where you can type in the apps you want to allow users to run. When finished with the list, click OK then close out of Local Group Policy Editor.

via howtogeek

its a little tricky, but apparently MS felt this wasn't a feature that needed to be in home edition. The metafilter thread suggests registry editing as an alternate, but I'm personally not a fan of messing with the registry

Journeyman Geek

Posted 2010-10-05T14:28:44.663

Reputation: 119 122

Hi, if we do not have a Windows Pro version, where can we download gpedit.dll and fde.dll? – Pacerier – 2015-06-05T05:31:07.577

Well, I donno if this would work with windows 7, but as the answer says, you probably want to get it from a copy of pro. Randomly downloading DLLs is a sure way to get into trouble. – Journeyman Geek – 2015-06-05T05:44:51.803

You could try this program "XP Home Permissions Manager".

You can download at http://www.xphometools.com/download.aspx?p=1

RSMoser

Posted 2010-10-05T14:28:44.663

Reputation: 537

Try out 1st Security Agent.

1st Security Agent is an excellent password-protected security utility to secure Windows-based computers. It works under any Windows platform and offers an administrative support for controlling which users are allowed to access your computer and the level of access each user may have.

The download is free, but the software itself is paid.

Anand

Posted 2010-10-05T14:28:44.663

Reputation: 301

Surely there's an inbuilt Windows way to do it..... – Pacerier – 2015-06-05T05:29:53.200