What is a good kiosk program?

[davidamarkley]

Hello, mods if you feel this needs to be moved, feel free, I just figured this was the best place for this thread. Thanks.

OK. Here's the situation:

I have a little brother(actually, I have two) who does schoolwork on the computer. He uses Switched-On Schoolhouse and that seems to work pretty well.

Anyway, the problem is that he gets distracted VERY easily, and since this is his gaming computer as well, he starts playing games every chance he gets and ends up lying about doing his schoolwork and doesn't really get anything done.

So, I installed a program called WatchDog. It worked fine and was easy to set up a restrictive program list, but within a month he circumvented the program by using Ctrl-Alt-Del and killing the Process(the OS is Win XP BTW). I thought these type of programs should have since enough not to be able to Ctrl-Alt-Del... Anyway, I also disconnected the internet, and disabled the onboard LAN and uninstalled the drivers so that he couldn't have LAN access/Internet access. Well, he got into the BIOS and Enabled the onboard LAN, and then when he did that, windows automatically installed the default LAN drivers(even though he was only a User on windows).

So, I'm about to pull my hair out on this one. You can call me "Big Brother" if you want to, but this isn't a matter of privacy, it's a matter of telling the truth and getting work done.

Is there a better program out there(possibly free?) that can basically handle three user accounts on the same computer, one for the Admin(me), one for him to be able to play games on(that is password protected), and one for the schoolwork and that would only let the basic startup programs, his school program, and windows calculator startup?

And, is there something that can do all of this WITHOUT some stupid overlook of development that would let someone just kill the program and then proceed to do whatever they want?

The problem is that he knows about computers, not a geek, but is definitely computer-savvy. I mean, if it were my parents, I could just take all the shortcuts off of the Start Menu, and unplug the LAN cable and they'd be stopped at doing anything.

Thanks very much in advance!

Dave

[elroy]

It is a game to him, you install preventitive measures and he finds a way around them. He is LHAO

[davidamarkley]

Well, I remember when my parents put some content filtering program on their computer,(We only had 1 at the time). I remember how cool it was when I found out how to hack into the program to add a user to the user list and set this user to not log my activity and to not filter. Now, I didn't really go to 'those' kinds of sites, but it also blocked some sites that were cool, like game sites. Because it filtered stuff with weapons and drugs as well.

All this at the astounding age of 9...

Anyway, the more I learned the more I was able to bypass protection, and I knew more about computers than my parents even then. Now, I'm 19, working on an MCSE. My brother isn't that smart, and I don't think this is a game for him as much as it is a 'hurdle' that he jumps over so that he can play the real games like UT2004, BF:V, COD, MOHAA, I mean, I understand him wanting to play the games, and it's not even that he's playing the games and we want him to do more schoolwork, it's more of a building trust type of thing. If we can't trust him to do something as small as schoolwork, and to trust that he's telling us the truth about his progress, how are we going to be able to trust him in bigger things?

He's 13 right now, and it won't be long before he's driving, and doing other stuff. He will probably end up not being able to drive and do that other stuff if he doesn't build trust now. It's hard though to do it on your own, and that's why I'm wanting to help him. To put something in the way of making it easy to get distracted and make him just get done with his work before going to do other things.

Maybe it's the fact that I wish someone else would have done this for me, you know, make me be more accountable in schooling. Mom and Dad were good in keeping up, it's just that I wasn't being pushed harder and harder to do everything I could. I graduated top 2% in the nation, but looking back on it, it doesn't feel that great because I know I could've done more...

Anyway, I don't want this thread to be a community thread.

I'll stop with my life story before I put you to sleep.

So, back to topic... What is a good program that will give me control over the computer, and that will be more secure in keeping that control away from my younger sibling?

Thanks,

Dave