My son keeps messing with my desktop and settings. Is there any way to limit his access to those things? Ideally, I would like to prevent him from being able to delete things, stop him from downloading stuff and in general make him leave everything alone. I can't afford any expensive software but is there anything else I can do?

Create another user for your son either standard or guest, just not Admin then he cannot install anything or view your user files.

Pass word your user and don't give it to him but you need to remember one more thing most forget. You need to look in Power Options and make sure there is a checkmark in "Require password when coming back from Standby"

Thanks, this seems to be working well so far. Are you sure my son won't be able to download anything?

I don't want him to be able to download anything from the internet or install anything whether it be from a disk or elsewhere.

Don't worry, he won't be able to do anything like that. This is the MS description of a standard users rights.

 

When you use a standard account, you can use most programs that are installed on the computer, but you can't install or uninstall software and hardware, delete files that are required for the computer to work, or change settings on the computer that affect other users. If you're using a standard account, some programs might require you to provide an administrator password before you can perform certain tasks.

Oh good. I don't want him to be able to uninstall anything either. Thank you!

You're welcome. Did you remember to place a checkmark next to, "Require password when coming back from Standby" under Power Options, as Rich suggested?

Yeah that is really important or he gets right around it.

I did remember but it took me awhile to find it under power options. They don't make it easy do they?

Yeah like we expect they will?

I'm loving the change with the accounts, my son, not so much.

He'll get used to it and you don't have to worry about him dumping your recycle bin anymore. :eek: :D

Now when I log onto my user, my desktop and all of my personal folders are always exactly the same. I wish I had done this a long time ago.

Great advice and fantastic resolution!