blocking a user accessing my computer in the same network

Question

My colleague starting playing around with my computer today using that shutdown -i command and then copied a few files on my desktop. I would like to know how can I block this user from accessing my computer and performing such kinds of pranks?

I will see if I can disable remote connection, but I would like to block this user from accessing my computer.

Any help will be much appreciated.

Edit: I am using Windows XP.

Answer 1

1. Add a password (or change it) to your computer and set up sharing to be password protected.
2. Set up a personal firewall and forcibly block access from your roommate's IP address.

Answer 2

Assuming that you are just using Windows, and that you have permissions to Local Security Policy, you can perform the following:

Local Policies -> User Rights Assignment -> Disable, "Shutdown: Allow system to be shut down without having to log on".

Disabling this will remove the ability for users to remotely execute shutdown -i commands.

Note: If you have a competent IT section, I would highly advise that you speak to them about this before going ahead and doing it! If they are lazy, or don't have access to enterprise software like BigFix, they may be using some kind of .bat file to perform remote restarts to: complete application installs, software updates, etc. Disabling this functionality would mean that they would not be able to perform these actions normally and may lead to investigations and lots of other headaches that both you and them don't want to deal with.

I'm not entirely sure how to disable the users ability to access your computer remotely and put files onto your desktop. There is a lot of factors that could come into play where you might need to have certain share or remote access functions enabled due to the way that your network might be configured. Again, the best advice that I can give to you on that is to contact your IT department for advice on this.

Here's some additional reading that I glanced at that might help you if you don't have access to Local Security Policy, or if the user has Administrative privileges on your network:

1. Link
2. Link
3. Link
4. Link