Using the Parental Control Features in Windows Vista

With online predators being exposed on prime time television, technology becoming more immersive, and computer games attracting more and more violent themes, the job of monitoring your children's computer usage has become a major priority in many homes. The Windows Vista Parental Control features set out to reassure parents their children will not be playing games directly after school, and to reinforce what ever ground rules you set for them when it comes to computer usage. Windows Vista incorporates many heady accomplishments in terms of time control, gaming limitations, and Internet usage. In this guide, we show you how to turn on these controls, and how to use them to keep the perils of the Internet and procrastination away from your children.

The Parental Control panel serves as the central location for all tools related to these features. This panel can be opened by first visiting the User Accounts and Family Safety Control Panel. The Parental Control panel allows parents to block certain programs, to setup time tables for computer use, to review usage reports, and to setup Block and Allow website lists.

Setting up Parental Controls

Whoever sets up the Parental Controls must be the Administrator of the computer. A word of advice: do not underestimate your children by making the Administrative password easy to guess. Make it something they would not stumble upon by thinking about a birthday or other such personal fact. For each child, we recommend setting up individual standard accounts. However, if each child in the house will be constricted by the same rules, then one account should suffice. Once the accounts have been created, you can begin establishing the rules for each child’s account. In the example screenshots, I have created an account for a child named Jeffrey. On this account I establish the rules, showing how simple it is to begin configuring the Parental Controls.