Safeguarding Windows 7 – Parental Controls

re: Safeguarding Windows 7 – Parental Controls

vistisen — Tue, 26 May 2009 23:35:52 GMT

A feature I would like to see is that ability to set a maximum amount of time that a child can use the computer. I know that I can regulate when my children can log on. But the rules in our house are simple. For example "You can use the computer an hour each day". I have written a WSH script that can log them off after an hour. But this can easily be defeated (although they have not worked it out yet :-) by logging on and off every 59 minutes! It would be nice to be able to set a maximun number of minutes an account can be logged on during 24 hours (time sent with a screensaver og locked screen subtracted). Possibly with even more granulated control, for example games can be played for an hour but browsing the net for homework (not games sites, youtube and others) can be done for more than an hour and so on

re: Safeguarding Windows 7 – Parental Controls

Tihiy — Wed, 27 May 2009 01:00:49 GMT

Don't hurry up, don't release it! You can still make it better and you know how.

As for parental control, consider more sophisticated time control... for Win 8.

re: Safeguarding Windows 7 – Parental Controls

sevenflavor — Wed, 27 May 2009 07:14:11 GMT

What about domain-joined computers? Earlier Parental controls couldn't be used for domain joined PCs. Also, it would be so much an improvement if the web-based UI of Family Safety was replaced by a rich desktop-based one, that is, if Windows Live replaced/extended the in-box UI on Windows 7 instead of a web-based one.

re: Safeguarding Windows 7 – Parental Controls

anonymuos — Wed, 27 May 2009 07:22:41 GMT

Do "Application Restrictions" use AppLocker on Windows 7?

re: Safeguarding Windows 7 – Parental Controls

Unknown2 — Wed, 27 May 2009 08:57:54 GMT

I would be interested in being able to lock programs for certain times during the day.

Say I had a public access account that but only was willing to let people use a particular program at particular times (either kids can only play game X between 4-5pm or use programs that use significant bandwidth when they won't cause problems for servers/internet speed)

re: Safeguarding Windows 7 – Parental Controls

Jwolf — Wed, 27 May 2009 17:20:33 GMT

The only problem I have with the Windows live web filter is speed. It slows down web browsing considerably compared to the Vista filter. IE 8 seems to be very responsive in the 7 RC release. If only the speed of the filter could be increased. Keep up the good work, I'm loving 7 overall!

re: Safeguarding Windows 7 – Parental Controls

imranmd07 — Wed, 27 May 2009 21:42:35 GMT

This is not a specific comment on Parental Controls as I have not yet studied on this article. I will go through this and will make my comments. I just scrolled the page and got confused about the window. At first look, you cannot make out whether the pictures are from Vista or 7 based OS's. There should be something that would differentiate 7 from vista. Perhaps, you could have some text at the title bar saying Windows 7. Sorry for posting in this section.

re: Safeguarding Windows 7 – Parental Controls

orelzion — Thu, 28 May 2009 18:58:32 GMT

Hi!

Great work so far. As for parental control, it'll really be useful if you ask after any installation of a program if it's allow to be used by the child. Right now it's really annoying keeping up for me.

Thanks a lot.

re: Safeguarding Windows 7 – Parental Controls

Asesh — Fri, 29 May 2009 17:41:35 GMT

Great work guys. But why can't the icons in the superbar just like in Mac OS X, be aligned in the middle? As usual since Windows 95 it's always aligned to the left and is not customizable. Please make it customizable. Thanks

re: Safeguarding Windows 7 – Parental Controls

Moonsurfer_1 — Sun, 31 May 2009 13:37:42 GMT

Hi, great work! I'm a student computer sciences from Belgium and i've been using the beta and the rc since they came out, and i've been reading this blog also, and now with the rc, everything is running really smooth! Well done! Hopefully you could even get some more performance boosts before reaching rtm.

But I've got a question, and it might be a lot off-topic, but about it's about MUI in windows 7:

Will it - in the future- be possible to change the WHOLE interface to another language? Because I've changed to dutch, but there are still a few things in plain english... Not that I can't manage, but it just annoys me a little bit... The logon-screen for example still shows "Welcome" instead of "Welkom". Or in the system dialog it shows "Pen and Touch: No pen or touch is available for this display" instead of "Pen en Touch: Pen en touch is niet beschikbaar op dit scherm".

It's not really a big deal, but it would really refine the experience of the user. That way you wouldn't have to ship multiple different localised versions either.

I hope you would consider this, but for now I think you've all done a great job!

Keep up the good work!

Philippe

Student Computer Sciences

Belgium

Good but...

bobharvey — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 22:15:14 GMT

You cannot automate good parenting. It's better to browse together, like reading together, until you have taught a child to behave responsibly.

Parental controls are a bit like using the TV as an electronic babysitter.

re: Safeguarding Windows 7 – Parental Controls

fabler — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 08:15:47 GMT

I'm very disappointed when I saw that web filter is removed from parental control in windows 7 RC. I read that its replaced by family safety of windows live. I've also tried the family safety but it has disappointed me again. Because familey safety is not as good as the web filter of parental control. Its bit slower than web filter. So, why don't you keep web filtering in parental control as its useful for people who want to block some web access and also want some reporting of their children's activities..

I'm waiting for the reply.

Thanks

Fabler..

re: Safeguarding Windows 7 – Parental Controls

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re: Safeguarding Windows 7 – Parental Controls

Project Management degree — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 12:23:03 GMT

re: Safeguarding Windows 7 – Parental Controls

webtasarım — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 15:12:51 GMT

windows 7 operating system will be a good users as the best way we in the opinion, trying to use the article, thank you

re: Safeguarding Windows 7 – Parental Controls

vladimir_rovinsky — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 03:07:12 GMT

Fabler,

Thank you for giving a try to the product and taking time to share your experience and thoughts with us. There are several reasons for pulling web filtering and activity reporting from Windows and allowing third-party solutions, like Windows Live Family Safety to provide this functionality; among them: ability to update this functionality without waiting for the next Windows release; response to customers requests to enable configuration of web filtering settings and review of activity reporting from any web connected PC (for instance, parents can review and respond to children’s requests for viewing a specific website from their office computers); ability to aggregate in one place settings and reports for multiple home PCs. We feel that moving web filtering configuration and reporting functionality to the Windows Live Family Safety will benefit majority of our customers by enabling the desirable scenarios described above.

Web filter performance is one of the top priorities in our continued effort to improve Windows Live Family Safety. We have made several substantial improvements in its responsiveness since June and will continue to investigate ways to achieve better performance in this area.

Thank you,

--Vladimir

re: Safeguarding Windows 7 – Parental Controls

vladimir_rovinsky — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 03:09:42 GMT

Sevenflavor,

The Parental Controls UI can be made visible and may be used on non-domain-joined accounts on domain-jointed machines. There is a Group Policy setting that controls it:

1. Run gpedit.msc (Start->All Programs->Accessories->Run...)

2. In the left-side tree, drill down as follows: Local Computer Policy->Computer Configuration->Administrative Templates->Windows Components->Parental Controls

3. Set the “Make Parental Controls control panel visible on a Domain” policy to Enabled

4. Exit gpedit

5. Log out and back in

6. The Parental Controls UI will now be visible.

Hope this helps,

--Vladimir

re: Safeguarding Windows 7 – Parental Controls

cash gifting — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 23:38:45 GMT

i dont really have kids of any age that i would need to use these controls for but sure they will be useful in the future

re: Safeguarding Windows 7 – Parental Controls

web-tasarim — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 16:13:09 GMT

I congratulate the family of 7 products microsoft windows vista windows than to high-performing and visually richer ... Congratulations windows7.

re: Safeguarding Windows 7 – Parental Controls

web.tasarım — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 11:23:26 GMT

Thanks for the very informative and enlightening documents. Thanks to myself every day for more of you..