Locking Down Windows 7 for Edit Lab at DVinfo.net

Ammar Ijaz · October 1st, 2012, 06:43 PM

Hi there,

Dunno if this is the right place but thought I'd ask anyway:

I'm responsible for two Mac Pros that will run Windows 7 and Mountain Lion. We create local accounts for each member who wants one and wanted to know how to do these things:

1. Create a new account with certain defaults. For example, certain shortcuts available and Chrome or Firefox installed with certain extensions for safer surfing.
2. Shut down the computers at certain times on a per account basis. that is, when they're supposed to leave the lab at night.
3. Moving the user folder to a different harddrive than C and how to limit them to saving files only in that folder. Perhaps removing C drive access.
4. Size limits on their accounts.
5. whatever else you can think of to limit their ability to cause damage or hog all the resources, like preventing access to like command line and stuff.

thanks in advance!

Ammar Ijaz · October 2nd, 2012, 12:37 PM

In case anyone's curious I found the solution to most fo the problems. Guess I just needed to write them out clearly. Pretty much everything I was looking for is done through the Group Policy Editor: Local Group Policy Editor - Open - Windows 7 Forums

If you have lower than Home Premium versoin of Windows 7, you don't really have a group policy editor built in. You've to use this to enable it: Apps by hackSkillz on deviantART

1. This should work for creating a default profile: Windows 7 RC1 Default User Profile
2. Parental Controls in User Accounts should handle this.
3. How To Restrict Access To Drives In My Computer In Windows - How-To Geek - haven't checked this but I'm thinking if you limit the access to the harddrive the user folder is on, you only have access to the user folder but not to other folders in that drive. This is relevant for next item.
4. How To Limit Disk Space Usage By Users In Windows 7
5. I'll be creating an image once everything's setup so if someone's messing with the system, we'll just nuke it. Additionally, running a/v software and anti-spyware software should protect the system. Making the user accoutns non-admin should be enough to prevent most basic forms of (for lack of a better word) stupidity. Malice is almost not worth trying to protect against for us cause you need special access to teh room anyway.

October 1st, 2012, 06:43 PM	#1
Ammar Ijaz New Boot Join Date: Apr 2011 Location: Toronto, Canada Posts: 23	Locking Down Windows 7 for Edit Lab Hi there, Dunno if this is the right place but thought I'd ask anyway: I'm responsible for two Mac Pros that will run Windows 7 and Mountain Lion. We create local accounts for each member who wants one and wanted to know how to do these things: 1. Create a new account with certain defaults. For example, certain shortcuts available and Chrome or Firefox installed with certain extensions for safer surfing. 2. Shut down the computers at certain times on a per account basis. that is, when they're supposed to leave the lab at night. 3. Moving the user folder to a different harddrive than C and how to limit them to saving files only in that folder. Perhaps removing C drive access. 4. Size limits on their accounts. 5. whatever else you can think of to limit their ability to cause damage or hog all the resources, like preventing access to like command line and stuff. thanks in advance!

October 2nd, 2012, 12:37 PM	#2
Ammar Ijaz New Boot Join Date: Apr 2011 Location: Toronto, Canada Posts: 23	Re: Locking Down Windows 7 for Edit Lab In case anyone's curious I found the solution to most fo the problems. Guess I just needed to write them out clearly. Pretty much everything I was looking for is done through the Group Policy Editor: Local Group Policy Editor - Open - Windows 7 Forums If you have lower than Home Premium versoin of Windows 7, you don't really have a group policy editor built in. You've to use this to enable it: Apps by hackSkillz on deviantART 1. This should work for creating a default profile: Windows 7 RC1 Default User Profile 2. Parental Controls in User Accounts should handle this. 3. How To Restrict Access To Drives In My Computer In Windows - How-To Geek - haven't checked this but I'm thinking if you limit the access to the harddrive the user folder is on, you only have access to the user folder but not to other folders in that drive. This is relevant for next item. 4. How To Limit Disk Space Usage By Users In Windows 7 5. I'll be creating an image once everything's setup so if someone's messing with the system, we'll just nuke it. Additionally, running a/v software and anti-spyware software should protect the system. Making the user accoutns non-admin should be enough to prevent most basic forms of (for lack of a better word) stupidity. Malice is almost not worth trying to protect against for us cause you need special access to teh room anyway.