Public Pc - Limited Access

[george]

I am helping setting up a public PC workstation with internet access.

How do you create a user account on Windows XP Pro SP2 that allow you to block access to control panel and other settings the internet cafe user doesn't need.

What I want to do is same thing I have seen in internet cafes, they have some software that protect operating system, settings and installed programmes.

What more do I need to?

Are there software for internet cafes etc that helps me with this issue?

What do you recommend?

Thanks in advance for all hints!

[Explorer]

my 2 satang

control panel >> user account >> guest account >> turn on

guest account = limited access

Explorer

[croftrobin]

George

We run an internet cafe and we use software called My Cafe Cup. Have used it for 2 years now in Buriram province with IPStar Satellite.

The site is at:

http://www.mycafecup.com/

It is written in Thailand and is cheap. (about 7500 baht or so for 10pc's)

Support is good and they update the software regularly and in advance of service packs etc

Well worth a look as they offer a trial version that will run for 30 days

[Khun Jean]

I have an internet cafe too. All of these programs lock certain commands, even the ctrl+alt+del can be intercepted.

It is controlled by changing the policies in windows XP. Do a search how and what you can change with these policies.

Personally i tried them all including My Cafe Cup, and dumped them all. It has too many restrictions and sometimes i had to reformat and restore my OS. if you lock your computers down with user accounts and ploicies you can establish the same as these programs do. Of course you will not have the accounting that is provided with these programs.

My users can download, chat, do wordprocessing, picture manipulations , print, burn cdroms etc, etc. I can assure you they like it a lot. All those restrictions are a nuisance when you know what you are doing. For simple browsing and e-mail it is no problem.

I changed policies, made sure no user can access other network resources. When everything was setup correctly i made a diskdump. Now whenever something gets screwe up i just reset it to the last diskdump. Takes 10 minutes.

[Merlin]

yes, I get pissed off when I go to a net cafe and right-clicks are disabled, or I can't copy'n'paste from one page to another. I get out of there asap and never go back.

Another major annoyance at net cafes is all the ###### popups. Same deal - any place that can't get rid of them doesn't get my money a second time.

[TizMe]

I also hate ICs that dont have enough free software installed. A couple of weeks ago I needed to read a PDF file in an IC but they didn't have acrobat reader loaded...

The women says OK you can download and install it, but expects me to pay the 1 baht per minute to download and install the software....