Newly father here, so I’m starting to write about things that effect me, not just my customers. As I was writing my previous post I had my son on my lap and noticed he was just starting to reach out and grab things.

I couldn’t type and he kept pressing the keyboard and I thought to myself; wow, I’m soon going to have to child proof my computer.

I’m sure I am not the only one in this boat and a lot of new parents think the same. So I am going to dedicate this post to securing your computer from your kids and protecting the integrity of your data, software and operating system.

Password Protect Your Computer

I k now it sounds obvious, but you wouldn’t believe how many people still don’t password protect their computers, or are doing it wrong.

For starters with most computers, specifically Windows though, you can have three different types of accounts.

You being the owner and Administrator of the computer would create yourself an account and password with Administrative privileges. So you can make changes to the computer as you please.

For your children there are two options. Most people chose to create their children “User” Accounts, and then later realise their children can still do a lot of damage. This is why i recommend enabling and creating a guest account with the password of your choosing, you should enter when they want to use the computer.

Windows Parental Controls

There are a lot of Parental Control programs out there, some are free and some are paid for.

I have kind of stopped recommending them to people because they pay the money, they use it for a while and before you know it there are ways around it and they feel they have wasted their money.

Fortunately Windows have some very good parental control build into it, that you can enable as an Administrator that can limit the time your child spends on the computer, what they can access, filter web sites they can see and stop changes they try and make to the computer.

I highly recommend looking at Windows Parental Controls as an option for controlling the use of your computer or laptop.

Deep Freeze Your Computer

No, I am not talking about putting it into the freezer, or turning it off altogether. Sometimes when computers become inoperable people refer to them as freezing, but it not this either.

Deep Freeze is software which in a way basically takes a snapshot of your computers state at the time of your choosing, to be restored to at a later time.

Unlike Windows System Restore, which restores your system, Deep Freeze restores the entire state of your system including your file, operating system etc.

This is particularly good when you have people using your computer and make changes, delete important files and change your operating system.

Once they are finished, or everyday in face you can set your computer back in time to the exact place it was before they started using it, which makes it particularly useful when little kids are pressing and clicking on everything in site.