poledit

How to install Policy Editor (poledit.exe)

This program is available on your Windows 95 disk.

Use with caution. You could lock yourself out of your own system.

Please not that there may be variations to how Poledit works for the newer versions of Windows, such as, 98 ME or XP.

To install the program go to Add/Remove Programs in the Control Panel

Select the Windows Setup tab

Select Have Disk ... type in d:\admin\apptools\poledit ( or whatever the drive letter is for the CD)

Select OK

Select the System Policy Editor check box

Select Install

Poledit will be placed in your Windows directory

Cancel out of Add\Remove Programs

Using Explorer, go to your Windows folder and drag poledit.exe to the desktop. This will place a shortcut to Policy editor on the desktop

Right click on this Icon and select Properties and then the Shortcut Tab

Click the cursor into the Shortcut Keys box

Select the shortcut keys that you want to use to run the program. i.e. Ctrl + Alt + Shift + P They are selected by typing them. If they are not already assigned, they will show up in the Shortcut Keys box.

It is very important that you have these key strokes to run Poledit, so that you will be able to get back in to disable your system protection so that you can make changes.

Try the key strokes a few times to see that they do work and that the Policy Editor Program does come up.

You need a way to get to it considering that you have not put it on your Start Menu to be available to others.

Run Poledit

Select Open Registry from the File Menu

Double click Local User

Select Control Panel

Select Display

Check mark Restrict Display Control Panel

Select Shell

Select Restrictions

Check mark Remove run command

Check mark Remove folders from “settings” on Start Menu

Check mark Remove Taskbar from “settings” on Start Menu

Check mark Remove “Find” command

Check mark Hide all items on Desktop

Select System

Select Restrictions

Check mark disable MS-DOS prompt

It is important to select "No 'Entire Network' in Network Neighborhood and "No workgroup contents in Network Neighborhood" if you don't want users to be able to browse the drives.

Exit and Save Settings

You will have to reboot to have these restrictions take place. On Shutdown, select "Close all programs and log on as a different user", as this will get you back the fastest.

Please note that this selection of restrictions prevents users from making changes to the desktop and from browsing the network (that explorer and network neighborhood are not available). This is assuming that the only programs that you want others to use are in the Start menu. Other programs have been removed from the Start Menu. Consider putting folders right on the Start menu, one for each age group. i.e. Primary Programs, Junior Programs, Intermediate Programs and CD-ROM's Required Programs.

Note that this is just one scenario. You may choose to protect the system differently.

To make changes to your system, you must run Policy Editor and unselect the items that were checked (or just some of them. You will need to save and reboot.

The F3 Key Problem

The F3 key has been a major flaw in Windows 95 security. There are programs out there that can assign the F keys, but the simplest solution is to place a shortcut to a harmless program (like Works or Notepad) on the desktop. Right click on the shortcut, select properties, and then the shortcut tab. Click the cursor into the box for the shortcut key and then press F3. What will happen now is that when the user hits the F3 key, they will get Works (or what you have selected) instead of Find.

But you're not done yet. Users can get to run any program from the "Open" or "Save as" dialogue boxes in Windows 95 programs, like Notepad. They need only browse to the directory the program is in, view all files, then right click on the program. The right click will allow them to open the program rather than select it. They will be able to run any program, including Explorer or Winfile and any program on the A: drive, or whatever they have downloaded from the internet. The only way to stop them from running programs this way is to disable the right click. The only way I have found is to install Logitech MouseWare 7.5 as a mouse driver. It is the mouse driver that comes with their scrolling mouse (it may come with some of their other mice). It also works with the standard Microsoft mouse. With this driver installed, the right click can be changed from "context/menu" to "click/select". This effectively makes the right button do the same as the left button. Users can no longer run programs. But they can still delete files (using the delete key) or move them by drag and drop.