To protect your personal files from your children's prying eyes or curious fingers, you can configure folders with restrictive Permissions. This can give you full access to your folders and files when you're logged into your account, while restricting access or editing privileges for them from other accounts. Simply right-click the folder and select Properties, choose the Permissions tab (see Figure 4), and make your desired changes.

As Figure 4 shows, you'll probably want to leave the Owner setting as is, so you can still have full access to your files. You can assign a permission setting to a particular Group, for example in the figure, full access is also given to the other parent. You can create Groups from where you edit user accounts, the User and Groups dialog box. Then from a user's properties settings you can assign them to a group. Finally, for the Others setting, you can choose None, for example to completely restrict access to the folder from the youngster accounts. You can refer to a for more detailed steps on setting up Groups and Permissions.

Our Last Words

We've found out how to restrict computer usage and rights, block inappropriate content, and protect against unauthorized communication and access of files. Remember, nothing can provide guaranteed protection of your computer and/or child. It's always a good idea to couple software and hardware solutions with good old supervision. Keep in mind, this is much easier if the computers your children use are in public areas of the home. We hope all of you have a fun and safe computing experience!

Eric Geier is an author of many computing and networking books, including Home Networking All-in-One Desk Reference For Dummies (Wiley 2008) and 100 Things You Need to Know about Microsoft® Windows Vista (Que 2007).

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