Vista - Block a program

As a Mac OSX user I am trying to configure Vista Business and coming up against an apparent lack of functionality with regard to configuring user accounts.

I say 'apparent' cos frankly I'm new to Vista so I'm not sure. Basically I have an admin user account and a standard user account. I wish to block certain programs (such as IE) on the standard user account.

I've spent two hours reading help files, asking questions online and it does not appear as though this is possible.

Can somebody please prove me wrong?

Thanks
Sean

Hello Sean, and welcome to Vista Forums.

You could use Parental Controls to do this with. These tutorials can help show you how to.

Parental Controls - Setup and Use

and

Parental Controls - Specific Programs


Hope this helps,
Shawn

Shawn, thanks, I thought of this but if you refer to your own links you will see that Parental Controls are not included in Vista Business.

Any other ideas?

Sean

LOL, sorry about that. I overlooked that obvious part.

I suppose that you can change the permission level (Properties - Security tab) for the exe file to not allow Read & execute (uncheck) for that particular user account. Also uncheck anything else you do not want allowed for that user while your there. This tutorial can help guide you to this.

Folder Permissions

Hope this helps,
Shawn

Shawn thanks for this but it seems a little dangerous. There is a large warning at the start of the tutorial warning against doing this on the c:\ drive as the default permissions may not be recoverable. I decided to test this tutorial on one of IE's shortcuts and indeed the default permissions were not recoverable so I'm not happy doing this on the actual application itself.

Any other ideas?

Sean

Without Parental Controls, I do not know of another method that you can use to do this.

It is recoverable though. You make the changes from your administrator account for the standard user that you want to restrict. You add that specific user account, if it is not already there, and just check the Deny box for Read & execute. If you want to allow that user to run that file again (ex: IE7 exe file), then just check the Allow box for Read & execute instead of the Deny one.

I would just write down what changed you have made and for what user account to make it easier to remember them if you wanted to change them again at a later time.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

Hi phunkidude,

The only way that I can think of doing what you require is through 'Group Policy'. As I only have Vista Home Premium, this tool is not available to me, however here is the main Technet page for Group Policy. You should be able to find what you want there.

Windows Server Group Policy Home