XPMCE Child Proofing MCE

asumner · **9th March 2006, 01:17 PM**

Has anyone come across a plugin or some other method that will child proof MCE?

I want them to be able to view tv, play music, etc BUT I don't want to let them delete anything, change settings or get into the operating system as I know sooner or later they are going to break something.

Andy

GlenR · **9th March 2006, 01:45 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by asumner

Has anyone come across a plugin or some other method that will child proof MCE?

Perhaps contraception?

Mike · **9th March 2006, 03:03 PM**

LOL - very helpful Glen - but a little late ya think

Andy - welcome to the site

I'm not aware of anything even resembling what you describe that would restrict access to only parts of MCE,

You may have a light at the end of the tunnel however once the xbox 360 lands, assuming you have it hooked up in another room, your kids will be able to play watch live tv, recorded tv, play music, etc. using the xbox without accessing the internals of your media center box.

Might be a solution?

bb193 · **11th March 2006, 12:09 AM**

I just want to stop them switching it off - I've missed more recordings that way!

ExtremePC · **11th March 2006, 12:55 AM**

Yeah there is a way of doing this but it involves a fair bit of customising windows to achieve.

1. Create a new user account for XP with a password.
2. Boot into the new user account
3. Open control panel
4. Click on Power Options
5. Go to the Advanced Tab
6. Change both the "When I press....." settings to "Do Nothing"
7. Download TweakUI for XP and remove the "Log Off" and "Turn Off Computer" icons from the Start Button
8. Set MCE to Load when Windows starts.
9. Use TweakUI to autologin with the new user account (including password)
10. Delete EVERYTHNG from the Start menu but first add a shortcut to MCE on the Desktop.
11. Reboot

After doing all this the PC should start and open MCE automatically, if the kids manage to get the start bar up there is nothing on it to let them run anything else or even turn off the machine.

bb193 · **11th March 2006, 01:03 AM**

Stunning - I'm going to give that Tweak UI a go - http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/d...powertoys.mspx.

Many thanks.

bb193 · **13th March 2006, 10:10 PM**

Sorry for being thick, but I don't get:-
7. Download TweakUI for XP and remove the "Log Off" and "Turn Off Computer" icons from the Start Button

I have TweakUI for XP and can't find how to remove log off and turn off computer. Where is it?

I have attached a picture of the layout of tweakui - where do I find the relevant switches?

Cheers

Eric

Pugwash · **8th April 2006, 09:06 AM**

The checkbox for "Allow Logoff on Start menu" is in "Explorer"

I can't find anything to prevent turning off. I imagine if you disable both, you'd be stuck for actually turning your computer off safely ever? Unless it leaves the options in the task manager...