Selective Desktop Lock

[melat0nin]

Hi all

We're having a party tomorrow and there'll be people I don't know going about our flat. I want to play music through my PC, but I don't want people I don't know being nosy and going through my stuff.

So I want a program that will allow my media player to run, and maybe firefox, but ideally nothing else.

I found a thing called Desktop Lock which does the job, but the interface looks slightly amateurish and it doesn't work properly with my dual monitors.

Anyone got any other suggestions? Been searching the net for a while but haven't come up with much.

Cheers

-m

[Shotokan101]

Which O/S are you running ?

...if XP Pro then you can probably create a non-priviledged user and then use Group Policies to control which appss the user can run - control to the music folder can be filtered using ACL's to only allow read/browse access but no write/delete etc.

....need to be carefull if not using NTFS as the file security on FAT is basically non-existent.

...also don't forget that having abrowser available will allow local files/folders to be opened from within it and possibly applications to be run if not locked down properly.

[melat0nin]

Yeah XP Pro.

I installed a thing called Deskman SE and it has royally f*cked up my machine. Even after uninstalling it and its service, some of the changes it has made have persisted (like no My Computer icon on desktop, no toolbars, no quick launch, no context menus on the start menu.. can't even access the System applet in Control Panel).

I've emailed their people but I don't expect any meaningful help. I've scoured the net for hours finding registry fixes etc, but without knowing exactly what changes that drats program made I've no way of getting things back to normal. I tried re-installing it in the hope I could 'undo' everything but it doesn't seem to matter what I do, some changes persist.

It's a good excuse to format.. but I could have done without this right now cos I've got my uni final year dissertation to hand in this week and the distraction really isn't welcome

[Shotokan101]

Yeah XP Pro.

I installed a thing called Deskman SE and it has royally f*cked up my machine. Even after uninstalling it and its service, some of the changes it has made have persisted (like no My Computer icon on desktop, no toolbars, no quick launch, no context menus on the start menu.. can't even access the System applet in Control Panel).

I've emailed their people but I don't expect any meaningful help. I've scoured the net for hours finding registry fixes etc, but without knowing exactly what changes that drats program made I've no way of getting things back to normal. I tried re-installing it in the hope I could 'undo' everything but it doesn't seem to matter what I do, some changes persist.

It's a good excuse to format.. but I could have done without this right now cos I've got my uni final year dissertation to hand in this week and the distraction really isn't welcome

Tsk Tsk Tsk......

...ALLWAYs use Xp SystemRestore to create a checkboint before installing any new s/w - then it's dead easy to roll back whtever it's changed - might be worth checking if the installation itself created a restore point.....

[melat0nin]

Yeah XP Pro.

I installed a thing called Deskman SE and it has royally f*cked up my machine. Even after uninstalling it and its service, some of the changes it has made have persisted (like no My Computer icon on desktop, no toolbars, no quick launch, no context menus on the start menu.. can't even access the System applet in Control Panel).

I've emailed their people but I don't expect any meaningful help. I've scoured the net for hours finding registry fixes etc, but without knowing exactly what changes that drats program made I've no way of getting things back to normal. I tried re-installing it in the hope I could 'undo' everything but it doesn't seem to matter what I do, some changes persist.

It's a good excuse to format.. but I could have done without this right now cos I've got my uni final year dissertation to hand in this week and the distraction really isn't welcome

Tsk Tsk Tsk......

...ALLWAYs use Xp SystemRestore to create a checkboint before installing any new s/w - then it's dead easy to roll back whtever it's changed - might be worth checking if the installation itself created a restore point.....

lol for some reason System Restore was screwed over the the program too.

Never mind, I've actually fixed it. With a bit of searching and joining the dots I found the relevant registry keys. Pretty simple really! I think I'll just trust people - i dont have the time to figure out group policies etc and i dont want to brick my machine!

[Shotokan101]

Don't know if you've used it before but Hijackthis from here :-

http://www.merijn.org/files/hijackthis.zip

Is pretty usefull for analysing your current Pc Registry/Config. for anomalies.

[Steve]

How about quickly installing a linux distro as a duel boot system and mounting the folder your music is in.

Running as a restircted users should give you a workable access to only your music and browser etc but not to all your other files?

[gazzer]

Yeah that could work... Maybe use a Live CD instead of faffing with a dual boot? Can you mount things on your HD when you use a Live CD?

[Shotokan101]

Yeah that could work... Maybe use a Live CD instead of faffing with a dual boot? Can you mount things on your HD when you use a Live CD?

....it's o.k. until someone takes the CD out to use as a beermat and reboots the PC....