Child-Proofing Windows 10 (Discussion)

[Seth L]

Okay, aside from disabling the ability to clear internet browsing history, disabling in-private browsing so I can monitor what they're doing, and making the account a standard account, what else should I be doing?

Got cheap Win10 laptops for 3 kids for school, and I'm looking to pretty much lock them down for their own safety while still being able to allow them to run around with them for use without helicopter parenting them 24/7 while they're in use.

What all have you guys done to Win10 PC's for youth/co-workers(as IT) for security purposes, why, and how?

 

[koreanoverlord]

You could change the system's DNS servers so it will prevent them from accessing unwanted sites.

 

[USAFRet]

Full images of the C drive.
1 in the initial configuration, and then a rolling set of images.
When/if they corrupt it, fall back to a previous image.

Standard user accoounts that cannot install things.

Also, read this: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/242300-49-free-common-sense-internet-security-2011

 

[Seth L]

Is there a way to restrict downloading to only being able to download from very specific sites? Just completely disable downloads unless they're from the school's website or anything I deem safe?

 

[koreanoverlord]

Is there a way to restrict downloading to only being able to download from very specific sites? Just completely disable downloads unless they're from the school's website or anything I deem safe?

Yes, by using a firewall and only allowing white-listed sites through.

 

[captaincharisma]

you should look into scecurity programs like Norton and kaspersky and see what their parental controls are like

 

[Seth L]

I've never had to deal with child safety before now, so parental controls are a new area to me.
Thanks for the help, guys.

 

[USAFRet]

I've never had to deal with child safety before now, so parental controls are a new area to me.
Thanks for the help, guys.

PCs in a common room, with the monitor facing the room.

 

[qazzi]

why not create a child account windows, you can pretty much restrict any programs they can run, also you can limit the internet?

 

[Math Geek]

if the kids are savy enough, they will get around the blocks. depends on their ages but most kids will complain to their friends about the blocks and one of them will be able to show them ways around some of it.

you do have to be vigilant to ensure they are not working around your blocks. kids are very smart with pc's and at least one friend will know what to do even if your kids don't. i know this cause i was that kid in school and in college and at work and and and and. if someone put a block in front of me, i got around it and happily shared that with everyone else who was inconvenienced as well. you can subscribe to a tracking service if you are really concerned or they show they can't be fully trusted. something like covenent eye will install itself as the network driver and log everything done on the web to their servers. you can get emailed reports on a regular basis or you can create one whenever you feel like. its rating system is very flawed but you can judge for yourself the sites it says are being accessed and whether they are appropriate. it can filter if you wish or just leave it wide open and log where it goes.

i've used the service and found it useful other than the fact that it classes damn near everything as "mature" in the reports. it defines "mature" as porn basically but calls netflix, facebook and epsn as "mature" lol. despite this you can see where they go most and when and so on no matter how it rates the sites. plus it can't be uninstalled without a code you have to call them to get and will log when it is done as well.

throw this on top of the regular parental blocks and they won't get away with anything as the service logs the laptop wherever it is no matter how it is connected. so home, school, starbucks down the street and their friends houses will all be logged.

 

[Seth L]

if the kids are savy enough, they will get around the blocks. depends on their ages but most kids will complain to their friends about the blocks and one of them will be able to show them ways around some of it.

you do have to be vigilant to ensure they are not working around your blocks. kids are very smart with pc's and at least one friend will know what to do even if your kids don't. i know this cause i was that kid in school and in college and at work and and and and. if someone put a block in front of me, i got around it and happily shared that with everyone else who was inconvenienced as well. you can subscribe to a tracking service if you are really concerned or they show they can't be fully trusted. something like covenent eye will install itself as the network driver and log everything done on the web to their servers. you can get emailed reports on a regular basis or you can create one whenever you feel like. its rating system is very flawed but you can judge for yourself the sites it says are being accessed and whether they are appropriate. it can filter if you wish or just leave it wide open and log where it goes.

i've used the service and found it useful other than the fact that it classes damn near everything as "mature" in the reports. it defines "mature" as porn basically but calls netflix, facebook and epsn as "mature" lol. despite this you can see where they go most and when and so on no matter how it rates the sites. plus it can't be uninstalled without a code you have to call them to get and will log when it is done as well.

throw this on top of the regular parental blocks and they won't get away with anything as the service logs the laptop wherever it is no matter how it is connected. so home, school, starbucks down the street and their friends houses will all be logged.

Friend of mine's parent was a teacher back in school, and we practiced undoing their security systems on old, discarded PC's. Poor school, they never could afford to upgrade what security software they had. It's actually how I learned how to outright turn off task manager in the registry, but that's a story for another time. I haven't messed with this stuff in so long, lol.

I had totally forgot about keylogging them. Are there any keyloggers(I have no idea if I can ask about this on Tom's Hardware or not, my apologies if not, moderators) that don't require a subscription? I used to use this one called KBG or KGB? Something like that, years ago. Been long enough that I don't even remember its name...

I don't mind paying for one, but I won't if there's a free option.

 

[Math Geek]

not sure about a total keylogger. the service i suggested only monitors the sites visited and not what they may have typed into them. the reports do have actual links you can click on if you're curious. you will have to do some investigating on your own with the reports.

as i said the ratings are automated and not fully useful at times. i recall seeing a hit on hustler magazine that i KNOW i did not go to. clicked the link and turned out it was a graphic linked to from an article on a news site (local news if i recall right). was actually a pic on popular search terms from all the states during a certain window of time. but the service knew where the pic came from and logged it as such and flagged it for review since hustler magazine is clearly a "mature" site. so you will have to chase down some results like this to see where they truly come from and how the kids got to them. you can view a timeline so it is rather easy to see most of the time. if you are at cnn.com for 30 minutes but as each article loads you get hits to twitter, facebook, and the rest of those places, you can safely assume they are the trackers used by sites for ad purposes and revenue. but if you see specifically facebook over and over for 30 minutes with only a touch of ad links in the middle you can know they were actually at facebook.

i used the service for a while as i was working on my custom host file. i actually got every last one of those blocked since i don't use them nor want to be tracked by them. was nice after a month or 2 to never see facebook, twitter, instagram, doubleclick and the rest showing up in my results. all those trackers and ad networks are fully blocked now


but a total keylogger is something i never messed with as never had a need. i do remember a program we used in college on our network to prevent programs from being installed. was called norton go-back. it would lock the pc to the configuration it is at when you turn it on and every reboot it would restore to that same spot. was password protected so could not be turned off by anyone. something installed would be removed at next boot up every time. kept our pc lab nice and clean from crapware folks liked to install. i'd have to do some research to see if there is a newer program like this for more modern windows versions. windows will let you keep them from installing stuff and something like this would reset it if they managed to get something on there.