One of the biggest mistakes that most Windows XP users make is to always login as an administrator. (And by most, I mean 99%.) That basically means that you, and any other piece of software running, have unresticted access to the entire computer. It also means that your children are probably using the same account and can install whatever software they want and do whatever they want.
Windows Vista has a couple of features to help address these issues. First, Vista has User Account Control (UAC) which means that even when logged in as an administrator, Windows runs as a normal user and when it needs to do something limited to an Admin, it will prompt you for permission to continue. Vista also makes it easier to run as a standard user. Well, that may not be so much of Vista’s doing and more that software makers now must make it easier or else UAC dialogs will annoy the user.
For the typical home user with children one of the most compelling features will be the built in Parental Controls. You can setup a standard user account for your kids and enable the parental controls for that account. It can filter their internet content that they look at and block things you don’t want them to be able to access like mature content, pornography, drugs, hatespeech, and weapons. (That right there would have gotten this page blocked.) Its a similar concept to a V-chip in your TV, which you should give a try as well. Its pretty configurable too and lets you customize the categories that it filters for and lets you allow specific sites. I couldn’t resist giving it a test and I have to say that it works pretty well. Some pages it will block completely and other pages it will just block part of the content. Just like UAC, when something is blocked, you have the option to ask the administrator for permission and the Admin can enter their password and allow the content. The parental controls include activity reports of the websites the user accessed (including which ones were blocked). The activity reports are pretty comprehensive and will even show you account logins, failed logins, instant messaging activity, and more. You can also specify which programs they can use and you can limit games based on their rating. I think it really will enable parents to keep their kids safe, which is a concern for a lot of parents.
Well, as a concerned parent, I have to say that the boundaries are nice. Yet nothing can compare to sitting next to your children and just knowing what they are doing. I realize that my kids are pretty little yet, but they already know what is and is not appropriate. Even my 7 year old can determine which winks are not alright to download. We are logged in as a limited user and it has saved us some software instalations that we might have done, but didn’t need–as grown ups.
I am all for the controls, but in many homes, the children are the ones running the controls. Where we are a lot of homes might not even have internet, and many that do are still on very slow dial-up. For lots of parents, they know about computers only what their children teach them.
When you figure out how to control what the weird man behind me at the grocery store is telling my 2 year old, let me know. He learned quite a mouthfull the other day-no technology involved.
Is Vista available to replace Windows XP or is it still in the trial stage? And, if it’s available, how much does it cost? Do all of the current programs I have installed run on Vista? Any downside to switching?
I’m asking because you know how slow our computer runs now–I want to have “the Fenton” work on “cleaning it up” if I can get him to come out! If he “redoes” our machine, what other safeguards (other than the administrator rights) can we use with XP to make sure we keep things running smoothly from now on?
Vista is still in testing and is scheduled to release in early 2007. The overall goal of my review of Vista will hopefully answer all of these questions. As with most things, the answers aren’t clearly black or white. Depending on how old your existing PC is and its specifications, it may be more economical to invest in a new PC with Vista. Windows also has tools to evaluate your PC to tell you if your PC meets the minimum requirements and warn you about possible program incompatibilities.
As for Windows XP, it will still be widely used even after Vista is released. I’ve got all of my recommendations detailed in the Technology section.