Introduction

A great new feature of Windows Vista is Parental Controls. Parental Controls gives you full control of your kids computer usage.

What does Parental Controls control?

• Activity Reporting: ^[1] Activity reporting collects very detailed information on everything that is done on the computer and gives you an easy to read report. This is great for monitoring what your children are doing on the computer.
• Web Filter: ^[2] Set the web filter to filter out various kinds of websites.
• Time Limits: ^[3] You are in charge of when your children can use the computer.
• Games: ^[4] Control what games are installed or played on the computer by content, rating, or title.
• Block Specific Programs: ^[5] Block specific software installed on the computer from being used by users with Parental Controls turned on.

Note: Parental Controls are applied to individual user accounts, not the entire computer. If you don’t have separate user accounts for the different users on your computer check out my Create a New User in Windows Vista ^[6] guide to learn how to create them.

Turn Parental Controls On

1. Open the Start Menu and click Control Panel.
2. Double-click Parental Controls.
3. Select the user you want to apply Parental Controls to.

   ^[7]

4. Set the Parental Controls option to On, enforce current settings.

   ^[8]

5. Click OK.