Windows Vista came with tons of features. One of the features which got my attention is Parental Controls. Like its name, Parental Controls has function to help many parents to monitor and manage their children when their children are using computer. What kinds of games are they can play? What kinds of websites are they can visit? What time do they can use the computer? What do programs they can run? I think you could begin to see it; Parental Controls will give parents a great function.
OK, this tutorial will show to you, how to configure the Parental Controls. And remember, you can configure Parental Controls if you’re login with an Administrator account.
1. First, open Parental Controls by click Start – Control Panel menu.

Inside Control Panel, click Parental Controls icon.

2. In Parental Controls window, you’ll get an alert if your Administrator account has not password yet. You have to give your account a password first because Parental Controls require a password to make it safer.

And you can also see it on your account icon (it said No Password) and to create password for your account, just click the icon.

And you’ll get a confirmation message box, click Yes button to confirm making password for your Administrator account.

In Ensure Passwords, enter your password twice; make sure you enter the same passwords between them and then click OK button to save your password.

Then you’ll bring to Parental Controls back. And your account icon has said you have a password protected account now.
(You may bypass this step if your Administrator account has protected by password)

3. Next, set your games ratings system by click Select a games ratings system link below Task section.

Select the games ratings system in list and by default, Windows Vista has set to ESRB system. Then click OK.

4. Next. Set when system will remind you to read activity reports by click Family Safety Options link below Task section too.
In Family Safety Options, you can set it to remind you by Weekly, Every day or Never. Click OK if you already make a choice.

5. Now, the time to create standard account for your kids. And bypass this step if you’ve created it. But if you haven’t, click Create a new user account link.

Then type your account name, and you want your kids set their own password, check User must set password at next logon check box and if you don’t, you can set it at User Account later. Then click Create account button.

6. Then you’ll bring to Parental Controls center for your new account. Or if you’ve had your kids’ accounts, you can click on their account icon to configure Parental Controls configuration to each user account.
In Set up how (account_name) will use the computer form, select On, enforce current settings option to turn it on. And for Activity Reporting, choose On if you want computer collect your kids activities.
There are four configurations available to configure. They are Windows Vista Web Filter, Time Limits, Games and Allow and block specific programs. And we will discuss them one by one.

7. I start from Windows Vista Web Filter. To open it clicks its link Windows Settings section. To block or allow websites, choose Block some websites or contents options. Parental Controls gives you 4 block levels. High, Medium, None and Custom. It will block by category.

And if you want customize your level, choose Custom option and check which do categories to block.

Also, you can block per domain name, to do it, just click To control access to specific websites, add the website to the Allow and block list link And type the URL website and then click Allow button to allowing that website to access and Block button to block it. Click OK to save your settings.

8. Second Windows Settings is Time Limit, with this setting you can manage hours when you can run Windows and not.
OK, to begin to manage it, click Time Limit link below Windows Settings in Parental Controls Screen. In Time Limit screen, just click in start hours and release in end hours on day name. For example if you want set 8:00 am until 01:00pm on Sunday, click 8:00am cell on Sunday bar, drag your mouse, drives it to right and release on 01:00pm cell and you’ll get blue block that mark the hours. Blue cells mean, your kids don’t allow playing with their computer.

9. Third Windows Settings is Games. You can manage what kind of games that can play by your kids. Click Games below Windows Settings to begin to manage it. In Games settings, click Yes option if you allow your kids to play games.

Also, in this screen you can manage the rating and specific games that can play. You can begin to set Game ratings by click Set game ratings.

In games ratings screen, I suggest you choose Block games with no ratings option and the set your ranges of game ratings by click the option box and you can select multiple options.

In Games settings you also can block and allow specific game that can play by your kid. To configure it, click Block or Allow specific games link. And it will display all of your installed games; there are three options to choose. User Rating Setting, this option will follow its rating as in Game Settings value; Always Allow will allow your kid plays this game whatever your game rating configuration; Always Block will block this game to play.

You can scroll down of your screen to block games by the contents categories. Just check it to block.

10. Fourth Windows Settings is Allow and block specific programs. You can manage the installed programs, you allow it or not. To manage it clicks its link below Windows Settings title. In Allow and block specific programs screen, choose (Account name) can only use the programs I allow to set it to your rules. You can check the programs that allow running by your kids in displayed list. If you can find your program, click Browse to pointing you .exe program file.

11. Now, you’ve learn all of Windows Settings have. Don’t forget you can look your kids’ activities reports by click View activity reports link below your account screen.

I hope this tutorial can make you understand how to configure Parental Controls clearly.
(article no:0117)