Restricting a user from installing programs in their profile

[bmwwaterman]

Hello. I hope this is in the right forum. If it's not, let me know which one.

How do I keep a user from installing any program under their local profile? I looked in Gpedit. So unless I overlooked it, I'm not sure where I can do this. I know in an NT network the administrator can do it. But where in the local policy can this be done? I want to control what gets installed.

Windows XP Pro, fully patched.

Thanks for any help on this matter.

[LiOnHeArT]

win2003 yo!!!!!! just kidding... i clearly remember that u could do that in XP, just forget lah, hope some one could help u out:wow: :wow:

[logixrat]

I don't know how to restrict the profiles persay, but I know that on a friends computer we installed a program that would totally block access to different items so that her students would not be able to access mission critical files.

Hehe, when it was all said and done we ended up having 1 window with their PRE-SELECTED programs in it, and that was the only thing they could choose unless they knew the password to get out of the "lock down" proggie.

Unfortunately I don't recall the name of the proggie right off hand. It's been a few years back when we did this, and it was on Win98. But if you are interested in something like this I can find out the name and see if it is XP compatible.

Let me know.

Take care,
LogixRat
P-)

[asklepios]

man i hate it when i m not on a XP machine.
anyways u said that u looked in GPEDIT...but i feel that u didn't look in it properly.
first of all...u won't be able to change the property of just one user. u will have to create a new group and make that user the part of the new group. make sure to delete his/her rights from any other group...for example power users or administrators.
now once you have a new group...you can edit its settings from computer configuration --> software settings and from there you can do what you want.

another thing you can do is just make this user...just a USER and not an administrator. if i remember correctly they won't be able to install any program which can effect your windows files...but if you want to simply stop them from not installing any program then you can do it from the way i hinted you towards.
i m very sorry that i can't tell you an exact step-by-step way out but if you are a bit comfortable with gpedit...then you should now be able to achieve what you want.

[bmwwaterman]

Thanks for the input everyone. I figured out how to lock them out. It doesn't seem to cover everything at the moment, but it will eliminate most programs from installing. If anyone wants to know how to do this, let me know. If the moderator will allow it, it post it in this thread.

asklepios
I'll have to play around with creating a new group and editing it's policies.

Thanks

Nathan