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How do I turn on Parental Controls in Windows Vista?

I am running Windows Vista on the family computer, which means that there are several different users. Is there a way for me to prevent other family members from accessing my school and work files or limiting access to the computer? I’ve heard Windows Vista provides some sort of feature to do this?

Dave's Answer:

Windows Vista offers a new feature called Parental Controls that allow the Windows administrator designate access rights for a number of components for each user set up on your computer. Assuming that you are the administrator, you should create a separate user account for each family member using the computer.

In addition to security and Parental Controls reasons, keeping separate accounts also make sure that each user can keep his or her documents separate, thereby reducing the risk of accidental deletion, etc.

To set up Parental Controls:

1. Go to the Control Panel from the Windows Start menu.
2. Click User Accounts and Family Safety.
3. Click Parental Controls.
4. Click Continue in the User Account Control window.
5. Select the User Account from the Parental Controls window.
6. Select Parental Controls: On from the User Controls window.

Microsoft Windows Vista Parental Controls: Setup

Once you complete step 6, the above screen appears. Your current settings or restrictions for the account appear on the right-side of the screen. Under the Windows Settings area, you can set the following:

Windows Vista Web Filter: Block some or allow all Web sites, forbid downloads, or choose blocked content sensibility for a user account.
Time Limits: Determine when a user account can access the computer by selecting blocks of time for each day of the week.
Games: Allow or forbid a user account to play games; you can block/allow a specific game or apply game ratings. Game ratings are similar to movie ratings; you can tell Vista not to let a user account access any game above a certain rating.
Allow and Block Specific Programs: Allow or block access to specific applications on your computer for a given user account.

Once you modify any of these settings, the updated settings appear with their updated settings on the right-side of the screen.

Microsoft Windows Vista Parental Controls: Configuration

To disable settings, simply click Off in the Parental Controls section in the above screen.

This tip was contributed by Derek Torres, co-author of the splendid new book The Unofficial Guide to Windows Vista. Thanks, Derek!

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Comments

I am administrator on my new Vista PC. My teenage daughter has a user account. I only want to impose time limits using the parental controls, which is the only restriction I set up. However, she is unable to download anything without administrator password. Is there anyway I can allow downloads without administrator permission? Hope you can help me. It will solve a rather large dilemma in my otherwise happy household. BTW...Merry Christmas!!

Posted by: Elaine at December 26, 2007 1:03 PM

I set parental controls in windows vista for guest and now it is blocking me out of everything that so I have to type in a password on every site I go to as none are rated... and I can't turn it off as I am the admin of the computer so when i click on my icon it says i cant add parental control because I am the admin yet parental controls are on mine. How to I disable this/ or turn it off or do I have to restore the system to a prior day? Will restoring it even take this parental control off ?

Posted by: LInda Hull at May 19, 2008 1:55 AM

need help ex girlfriend made my account basic and hers admina and set my time limit to 3 hours i cant do anything and need to know how to reverse it without reinstalling anything is there a backdoor account to vista i can access and change what she did...i really need help badly as i use this computer for work
add my msn and help because the parental controlls block all my websites to
so please help! :(

Posted by: conbon at August 11, 2008 3:15 PM

I have set up Vista Parental Controls and have NOT checked the Unrateable Content button under custom web settings. Yet, both my kid' accounts get blocked from anything with unratable content. Sounds like a Vista error. Comments? Solutions?

Ken

Posted by: Ken at June 20, 2009 11:30 AM

I have new laptop with Vista setup partenal controls NOW all sites require password. I have tried to turn off cant seem to do. I also deleted user account all together still have to have password for all sites under administrator. Please help

Posted by: Kim at August 31, 2009 9:05 AM

yes,i turned off the parental control from my admin user,but it still says to put the dmin password. why ?

Posted by: geordy at December 5, 2009 6:57 PM

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I do have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but first I'd like to say thank you for all your efforts on this Web site by buying you a cup of coffee!

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!