If you’re working with a home network, chances are that you have children who share your computer or who have their own computer. Either way, it’s smart to take precautions regarding the content and programs that they can access. Locally, this might take the form of blocking access to certain programs (such as your financial software), using ratings to control which games they can play, and setting time limits on when the computer is used. If the computer has Internet access, you might also want to allow (or block) specific sites, block certain types of content, and prevent file downloads.

All this sounds daunting, but Windows Vista’s Parental Controls make things a bit easier by offering an easy-to-use interface that lets you set all the aforementioned options and lots more.

Setting Up User Accounts for the Kids

Before you configure Parental Controls, you need to create a Standard User account for each child who uses the computer. Here are the steps to follow:

1. Select Start, Control Panel, Add or Remove User Accounts. The User Account Control dialog box appears.
2. Enter your UAC credentials to continue. Vista displays the Manage Accounts window.
3. Click Create a New Account. The Create New Account window appears.
4. Type the name for the account. The name can be up to 20 characters and must be unique on the system.
5. Make sure the Standard User option is activated
6. Click Create Account. Vista sets up the new account and returns you to the Manage Accounts window.
7. Click the account you just created to open the Change an Account window.
8. Click Create a Password to open the Create Password window.
9. Use the New Password and Confirm New Password text boxes to type a password for the account. (Make sure it’s a password that the child can remember. If you think your child is too young to remember a password, skip to step 12 to bypass this portion of the procedure.)
10. Use the Type a Password Hint text box to type a hint for remembering the password.
11. Click Create Password. Vista adds the password to the account and returns you to the Change an Account window.
12. Click Manage Another Account
13. Repeat steps 3–12 to add standard user accounts for all your kids.

Turning On Parental Controls and Activity Reporting
With the kids’ accounts in place, you get to Parental Controls using either of the following
methods:

■ If you still have the Manage Accounts window open, click Set Up Parental Controls.
■ Select Start, Control Panel, Set Up Parental Controls.

Enter your UAC credentials to get to the Parental Controls window, and then click the user you want to work with to get to the User Controls window. You should activate two options here.
Parental Controls Click On, Enforce Current Settings. This enables the Windows Vista Web Filter, and the Time Limits, Games, and Allow and Block Specific Programs links in the Settings area.
Activity Reporting Click On, Collect Information About Computer Usage.
This tells Vista to track system events such as blocked logon attempts and attempted changes to user accounts, the system date and time, and system settings. The Windows Settings section has four links that you use to set up the controls on the selected user. Two of these are security related—Windows Vista Web Filter and Allow and Block Specific Programs—so I discuss them in the next two sections.