When you've got your Windows XP or Vista setup running perfectly, you don't want to lose all your painstaking customizations to a reckless tot, an experiment-minded friend or spouse, or a rogue system-lousing program. Windows SteadyState, as we mentioned earlier this week, helps you to create a kind of virtual rubber room those types can play around in and not really harm anything. SteadyState can also restrict web site access for innocent eyes, set timer limits on user access, and get better control of those other folks who use your computer—in other words, SteadyState makes you the Grand Master Sysadmin of your single-unit empire. Let's take a look at setting up SteadyState and get familiar with a few of its key features. Windows SteadyState Creates a Wreck-Proof Space for Kids, Experiments Windows SteadyState Creates a Wreck-Proof Space for Kids, Experiments Windows SteadyState Creates a Wreck-Proof Space fo Windows XP/Vista only: SteadyState, a free Windows utility offered by Microsoft, is a handy tool to … Read more Read more If you missed anything in any of those menus, you can always head back to them by clicking on the user account in SteadyState's main menu. Before you close out, though, click on "Set Computer Restrictions" and peruse the options there. Most important among them are the settings that remove access from the Administrator account, just in case your fellow users are good guessers or slightly devious. You've now got some seriously locked-down accounts, and you can import and export them from the main menu if you need this kind of setup on multiple systems. But you can take your protection a step further by creating a crash-proof hard drive.
Tags: Screenshot Tour, Feature, Hard Drives, Kids, Parent Hacks, Privacy, Screenshots, Security, System Recovery, Top, Utilities, Windows, Windows Vista, Windows XP, Lifehacker
