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The Egg
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Need To Password Protect All System Changes - Vista

Thu Apr 28, 2011 1:19 pm

Hey guys. I'm looking to password protect SYSTEM CHANGES ONLY in Vista. Basically anything that would be done through the Control Panel I want passworded, but nothing else. It's a work computer that occasionally has others accessing it, so I can't password the account completely. Any thoughts.
 
bthylafh
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Re: Need To Password Protect All System Changes - Vista

Thu Apr 28, 2011 1:22 pm

You're doing it wrong. Give the people who shouldn't be playing with settings their own user accounts, and don't give them administrative privileges.

If that won't work, create a new account with admin privs and revoke the privs from the existing account.
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Ryu Connor
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Re: Need To Password Protect All System Changes - Vista

Thu Apr 28, 2011 1:23 pm

Standard User Account with UAC enabled.

Apply some Group Policies to further lock it down from there. If it's a domain machine enabling Loopback Processing to really apply the iron fist.
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The Egg
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Re: Need To Password Protect All System Changes - Vista

Thu Apr 28, 2011 1:38 pm

I'm afraid it isn't quite that easy. I work in an office with mostly older employees who have zero computer skills. If there's any sort of password prompt when they need to access something on my machine (usually only about once per month), they're going to throw their arms up in the air and have a panic attack.

So ideally I'd like to somehow password protect any changes made from the control panel whilst maintaining an Admin account with no login password. Assuming that's possible.
 
Ryu Connor
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Re: Need To Password Protect All System Changes - Vista

Thu Apr 28, 2011 2:00 pm

All of my written content here on TR does not represent or reflect the views of my employer or any reasonable human being. All content and actions are my own.
 
The Egg
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Re: Need To Password Protect All System Changes - Vista

Thu Apr 28, 2011 2:12 pm

Ryu, that program looks spectacular for universities, libraries, or anywhere there's a public computer. Unfortunately I'm not looking to spend money out of pocket for this.
 
bthylafh
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Re: Need To Password Protect All System Changes - Vista

Thu Apr 28, 2011 2:20 pm

Don't let them on your computer, then. Put whatever data's needed onto a fileshare and connect people who need it.
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kvndoom
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Re: Need To Password Protect All System Changes - Vista

Thu Apr 28, 2011 2:34 pm

Egglick wrote:
Ryu, that program looks spectacular for universities, libraries, or anywhere there's a public computer. Unfortunately I'm not looking to spend money out of pocket for this.

Gotta pay to play, if you want it done right...
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Ryu Connor
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Re: Need To Password Protect All System Changes - Vista

Thu Apr 28, 2011 2:49 pm

You still always have the option of enabling various GPOs, but there are some odd 1500 of the things. It'll involve a bit of research to make sure you've found every possible option to disable.

Don't forget that as Admin your GPO changes could always be undone as well.

It is possible to have a Standard User run with UAC without being prompted for elevation (it's a GPO). Any such situation would result in an automatic failure to elevate. This too would prevent system level changes and the failure would be silent. That means things would work different than expected for your users though and you've already made them out to be somewhat frail.
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cphite
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Re: Need To Password Protect All System Changes - Vista

Thu Apr 28, 2011 3:53 pm

Egglick wrote:
I'm afraid it isn't quite that easy. I work in an office with mostly older employees who have zero computer skills. If there's any sort of password prompt when they need to access something on my machine (usually only about once per month), they're going to throw their arms up in the air and have a panic attack.

So ideally I'd like to somehow password protect any changes made from the control panel whilst maintaining an Admin account with no login password. Assuming that's possible.


If you have Vista Business or above, you can enable the Guest account:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/wind ... -on-or-off

Basically, it's a standard user account without access to do anything to the system. IIRC it doesn't allow you to create a password.

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