|Montana Bengal| Posted August 15, 2013 Report Share Posted August 15, 2013 So I have two computers that I've got Win 7 on. They are for student to use for registration only.....which means I need to lock them down a bit. Basically they need a browser and access to our university website(s). I'm trying lock it down a bit....any thoughts? I'm also trying to create a basic user 'student' with no password. Win 7 won't let me do that..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
|Elflocko| Posted August 15, 2013 Report Share Posted August 15, 2013 What version of Windows 7? Pro, Home... ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
|Montana Bengal| Posted August 16, 2013 Author Report Share Posted August 16, 2013 Pro - I've tried creating a local user 'student' that has 'normal' user permissions. In the past I've used steadystate for some of this...but it doesn't seem to be out there anymore. EDIT: The machines had XP, but since there will no longer be support for it I thought we'd take advantage of the 'free' upgrade we had. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
|Elflocko| Posted August 16, 2013 Report Share Posted August 16, 2013 OK, then your two options are: Group Policy (gpedit.msc) or A bunch of Reg Hacks If you've never edited GPO's before, there's a really steep learning curve, and I really can't walk you through that on a message board. The reg hacks are easier to follow and comprehend, but aren't as flexible in how they're applied. Just make sure I'm guessing you want a free solution, but if not there are a couple of applications out there that make things a bit easier that run around $20... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
|Montana Bengal| Posted August 16, 2013 Author Report Share Posted August 16, 2013 Free is always ideal, but I'm sure I could talk my boss into 20-50 bucks. The crappy thing is our IT department has instructions to "not support" restricting access on campus. It goes against students interests apparently. BUT the machines I have set up are so we can help students register for classes and print their schedules. Not sitting on Facebook or printing their papers (they are tons of labs on campus for that just not in my building). I'm wondering if I could setup the student user as a 'guest' and then run something like netnanny or opendns. In the past, I think the only browser I had install we IE..and maybe I used 'content advisor'....but I hate IE. I'm guessing editing the registry is my best bet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
|Elflocko| Posted August 16, 2013 Report Share Posted August 16, 2013 I forgot to finish my thought on the last post. I meant to say "Just make sure you back up the registry before you mess with it". That said, another option would be to pull the hard drive on the computers and boot it off a Browser Linux live CD. As the name implies, it just boots the kernel with a browser. No fuss, no muss. Just a thought... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
|Montana Bengal| Posted August 17, 2013 Author Report Share Posted August 17, 2013 Getting much closer. 1) The machine kicks on and automatically logins in to the 'student' account. 2) I Installed a program that runs on the start up for the student user. It effectively 'hides' the taskbar and start menu (this keeps me from blocking access to programs). 3) Start up also automatically runs chrome (and the home page is set). 4) I have a 'white list' extension that allows any website with .edu. 5) I'm planning on disabling right click. Not sure if I can do this for individual users or not, but we'll see. 6) The only thing I haven't figured out is how to remove or block access to turning off extensions in chrome. I was going to do this with IE, but the add-ons suck. Any thoughts on how I might do this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
|Montana Bengal| Posted August 17, 2013 Author Report Share Posted August 17, 2013 Of course there is a firefox add-on that works to lock settings (public fox) but the whitelist add-on doesn't allow wildcards. Suckola Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
|Elflocko| Posted August 17, 2013 Report Share Posted August 17, 2013 This flag: --disable-extensions This page explains how to use flags. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
|Elflocko| Posted August 17, 2013 Report Share Posted August 17, 2013 --bwsi This one will put it into guest mode; should disable extensions, bookmarks, and synch. That's another option... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
|Montana Bengal| Posted August 17, 2013 Author Report Share Posted August 17, 2013 Thanks! I'll check them out. I actually want to enable the one extension and just prevent it from being disabled. The whitelist plugin for chrome is nice. I can use a wildcard (*.edu) and it pretty much opens up all campus stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
|Montana Bengal| Posted August 17, 2013 Author Report Share Posted August 17, 2013 Looks like it is going to be Firefox. There is a 'block site' addon that allows me to whitelist all .edu domains. Then I apply a second addon 'public fox' that allows me to passoword protect changes to the add ons. Students can access anything at the university and are still allowed to print their transcripts or schedules. Thanks for all the help! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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