Locking you computer

[Wizard]

I was hoping someone might be able to help me out. I want tolock my puter so I am the only one that can boot it up.
I'm running windows mel. and have gone to the log off menu and added a password and user name and after reboot several times I noticed all I have to do is hit cancel and the darn machine opens right up.

Man I love when school is out!!!! Now I have to keep them off my puter...

Many thanks if someone can walk me thru this.

 

[fgarvb1]

Damn! It was a long time ago.

I think going into the Bio's it gives you an option in fix a password for boot up.

do a search in you help files on your computer.

I think you will find it there.

 

[BobJones69]

Damn! It was a long time ago.

I think going into the Bio's it gives you an option in fix a password for boot up.

do a search in you help files on your computer.

I think you will find it there.

Yeah WinME can't really do anything about the login problem. Bios password is the way to go. Or use a different OS.

 

[Weird Harold]

I'm running windows mel. and have gone to the log off menu and added a password and user name and after reboot several times I noticed all I have to do is hit cancel and the darn machine opens right up.

What you get when you hit cancel is "Default User" which is a separate User ID as far as windows is concerned.

With TweakUI.cpl -- which is on you windows instllation disk somewhere if it isn't already installed -- you can remove most drives and folders from view in the Default User and set up other functions and fatures so they're difficult to access. It's not a perfect solution and requires some tinkering in the registry to accomplish, but you can make doing anything from the Default User profile extremely difficult -- unfortunately, Safe Mode also uses the Default User Profile so repairing things from Safe mode is difficult.

Your best bet is to enable the supervisory and boot passwords in the BIOS. I haven't yet encountered a BIOS that doesn't include a password function that will allow you to password protect the bios settings and/or require a password to boot the system -- but for it to be effective, you MUST shutdown completely when you're not using the computer.

You could also enable the password in your screensaver to require a password to cancel it for when you're away from the computer and do't want to go to the trouble of shutting the whole thing down. If you put a shortcut to a windows screensaver on your desktop you can initiate it with a hotkey -- some after-market screensavers won't work from a shortcut, but all of those supplied with windows will as far as I know.

I have the "Science" screensaver configured to start with CTRL-ALT-Z because my normal screenaver is an after-market program that won't start with a hotkeyed shortcut. I do not currently have the password set in either screensaver but I have used that feature in the past to frustrate casual intrusions into my system.

I would combine the BIOS bootup password with a screensave password to prevent access to your system when you're not at the computer. If the system is on, the screensaver password will stop most people from accessing the computer and the BIOS password will stop them from re-booting the system to get around the screensaver password. (I just checked and the screensaver password request can't be bypassed by the CTRL-Alt-Del menu or Escape.)

 

[Wizard]

Thanks guys I locked the screen saver for now and I'll see what happens....

 

[borisk]

your safest rout is creating a BIOS boot up password. All some one has to do to ger around the screen saver is ctrl-alt-del.

 

[Weird Harold]

Thanks guys I locked the screen saver for now and I'll see what happens....

A suggestion:

the Science screensaver file is named "Science.scr" -- SCR is the extension for screen savers and it's located in C:\windows\System (with all of theother screensavers.)

Create a shortcut to a screensaver file and put it in Windows/Profiles/All users/Startup/Start.

If you reboot you should get an immediate screensaver -- with password protection -- no matter which user you login as, including using escape to bypass the login dialogue.

It's going to be annoying to have to enter a second password when you boot, but a probably no more annoying than having the screensaver locked in the first place.

 

[turboguy]

Hi Wiz,


You know when I had my computer with MIl. on it.....I got a program called bootlocker........it was a program that as soon as windows booted....it would run and require a password to continue any further.


PM me......I might be able to send you a "copy" of it with the program serial numbers and stuff so you can use it. Might be worth a shot.

T