Navigate to Parental Controls
Navigate to Parental Controls
Windows 7 is the most parent-friendly operating system Microsoft has ever developed. It gives you a great amount of control over your children's computing habits, and can help protect you, and them, from harm. This is done from the "Parental Controls" screen.
To start, left-click on the Start button, then left-click "Control Panel" in the right-hand pane. From the Control Panel menu that pops up, choose "User Accounts and Family Safety".
From there, click on "Parental Controls", as outlined in red above.
Change the Default Setting
That will bring up a list of accounts on the computer, as shown here. The default Parental Control settings for all accounts is "off". With that selected, the control options are grayed out, indicating that you can't use them. Click the round "On, enforce current settings" button (also called a radio button) to enable the controls.
The Main Parental Control Interface
With Parental Controls enabled, you now have the option to control a number of aspects: Time control, Games and Allow and block specific programs. Click on the links to get to each of those sections.
Time Control
Left-clicking on "Time control" brings you here, which allows control over the hours your child is allowed to use the computer. For example, you may not want he or she to use the computer when you're asleep.
The grid is intially blank, with no hours blocked. To pick certain hours, you can click each block individually, which turns them blue. To select multiple hours, left-click in a block, hold down the mouse button, and drag in any direction.
In this example, I've blocked out the hours between 11 p.m. - 8 a.m. every day of the week. If your child attempts to log on to the computer during those hours, he or she will be blocked instead.
Games Control
The next item in the list is "Games." By default, as shown here, the child is allowed to play any games, without restriction (note the "Yes" radio button outlined in red). Clicking the "No" radio button will prohibit the child from playing any games at all.
The other two choices here allow games to be blocked by content or rating, or blocking specific games for whatever reason you choose. Click on the blue link -- "Set game ratings" or "Allow or Block specific games" -- to get to each section.
Blocking Games by Rating
PC games are rated by the Entertainment Software Rating Board, or ESRB, according to its content. If you click "Set game ratings" in the previous menu, you'll be presented with the ESRB's listing guide. Choose whatever rating level you think is safe for your child. The lower level, or safer ratings, are selected automatically. So if you choose the "Everyone 10+" rating, as shown in this example, the two lower levels are also selected.
(Note: at the top are two selections to "Allow games with no rating" and "Block games with no rating". These are for games with no ESRB rating. It's safer to set this to block games with no rating, if your children are very young.)
Blocking Games by Content
Games can also be blocked by the type of content they contain; for example, bad language, explicit material, or a host of other reasons. Following the ESRB ratings is a checklist of items that can be blocked. What's shown in the graphic above is a small slice of the available categories. You can check as few or as many items as you like.
Finally, games can be blocked by title. Left-clicking on the "Allow or Block specific games" will bring up a list of installed games.
Check specific titles to allow or keep your child from playing the game.
The last item in the Parental Controls screen lets you block specific programs, or even parts of programs. Left-click "Allow and block specific programs" to bring up this option.
The default setting is to allow a child to use all programs on the computer. If you choose the radio button underneath that, a very large list will be compiled (this will probably take some time) and presented to you, with checkboxes.
I don't like Microsoft's implementation of this function, since it's likely you won't even understand most of the options here; they are far too detailed for anyone but a computer expert to understand.
What you really need to know about this list is that to block a specific program, you need to block its ".exe" file. The ".exe" is the executable; it will launch the program. If, as in the example above, you want to block iTunes, you would need to check "iTunes.exe". Blocking the other two iTunes options would not block the entire program, but just those fuctions of the program.
After setting your controls, go back to the main Parental Controls screen. Make sure that next to your child's name, it says "Parental Controls On," as outlined in red here. If so, you've successfully set up your controls and helped make your child safer. Treat yourself to a Starbucks latte!
Windows 7 is the most parent-friendly operating system Microsoft has ever developed. It gives you a great amount of control over your children's computing habits, and can help protect you, and them, from harm. This is done from the "Parental Controls" screen.
To start, left-click on the Start button, then left-click "Control Panel" in the right-hand pane. From the Control Panel menu that pops up, choose "User Accounts and Family Safety".
From there, click on "Parental Controls", as outlined in red above.
Change the Default Setting
That will bring up a list of accounts on the computer, as shown here. The default Parental Control settings for all accounts is "off". With that selected, the control options are grayed out, indicating that you can't use them. Click the round "On, enforce current settings" button (also called a radio button) to enable the controls.
The Main Parental Control Interface
With Parental Controls enabled, you now have the option to control a number of aspects: Time control, Games and Allow and block specific programs. Click on the links to get to each of those sections.
Time Control
Left-clicking on "Time control" brings you here, which allows control over the hours your child is allowed to use the computer. For example, you may not want he or she to use the computer when you're asleep.
The grid is intially blank, with no hours blocked. To pick certain hours, you can click each block individually, which turns them blue. To select multiple hours, left-click in a block, hold down the mouse button, and drag in any direction.
In this example, I've blocked out the hours between 11 p.m. - 8 a.m. every day of the week. If your child attempts to log on to the computer during those hours, he or she will be blocked instead.
Games Control
The next item in the list is "Games." By default, as shown here, the child is allowed to play any games, without restriction (note the "Yes" radio button outlined in red). Clicking the "No" radio button will prohibit the child from playing any games at all.
The other two choices here allow games to be blocked by content or rating, or blocking specific games for whatever reason you choose. Click on the blue link -- "Set game ratings" or "Allow or Block specific games" -- to get to each section.
Blocking Games by Rating
PC games are rated by the Entertainment Software Rating Board, or ESRB, according to its content. If you click "Set game ratings" in the previous menu, you'll be presented with the ESRB's listing guide. Choose whatever rating level you think is safe for your child. The lower level, or safer ratings, are selected automatically. So if you choose the "Everyone 10+" rating, as shown in this example, the two lower levels are also selected.
(Note: at the top are two selections to "Allow games with no rating" and "Block games with no rating". These are for games with no ESRB rating. It's safer to set this to block games with no rating, if your children are very young.)
Blocking Games by Content
Games can also be blocked by the type of content they contain; for example, bad language, explicit material, or a host of other reasons. Following the ESRB ratings is a checklist of items that can be blocked. What's shown in the graphic above is a small slice of the available categories. You can check as few or as many items as you like.
Finally, games can be blocked by title. Left-clicking on the "Allow or Block specific games" will bring up a list of installed games.
Check specific titles to allow or keep your child from playing the game.
The last item in the Parental Controls screen lets you block specific programs, or even parts of programs. Left-click "Allow and block specific programs" to bring up this option.
The default setting is to allow a child to use all programs on the computer. If you choose the radio button underneath that, a very large list will be compiled (this will probably take some time) and presented to you, with checkboxes.
I don't like Microsoft's implementation of this function, since it's likely you won't even understand most of the options here; they are far too detailed for anyone but a computer expert to understand.
What you really need to know about this list is that to block a specific program, you need to block its ".exe" file. The ".exe" is the executable; it will launch the program. If, as in the example above, you want to block iTunes, you would need to check "iTunes.exe". Blocking the other two iTunes options would not block the entire program, but just those fuctions of the program.
After setting your controls, go back to the main Parental Controls screen. Make sure that next to your child's name, it says "Parental Controls On," as outlined in red here. If so, you've successfully set up your controls and helped make your child safer. Treat yourself to a Starbucks latte!