how to prevent someone from using pc

[Charles Newton]

Here is my question? I have 3 pc's at home, 2 are running windows 98 and 1
running xp pro. My question is, is there anyway to keep someone from using
the pc's without permission, besides taking the power cords and stuff like
that, can a person use a password some how?????
I have seen some systems set up where you had to enter a password just for
the comptuer to work.?????
Please can someone help me.

Thanx

[Ken Blake]

In , Charles Newton wrote:

> Here is my question? I have 3 pc's at home, 2 are running
windows 98
> and 1 running xp pro. My question is, is there anyway to keep
> someone from using the pc's without permission, besides taking
the
> power cords and stuff like that, can a person use a password
some
> how?????
> I have seen some systems set up where you had to enter a
password
> just for the comptuer to work.?????


Those systems probably had a BIOS password set. You can do this,
but be aware that it's a very primitive form of security. It will
work against an unsophisticated or casual intruder, but it's
useless against almost anybody who really wants to get in; it's
too easy to get around.

So if your intent is to stop a guest in your house, or a kid
passing by from booting the computer, a BIOS password is probably
good enough. But if you're worried about someone breaking into
your home, stealing your computer, and then looking at your data,
a BIOS password is useless.

--
Ken Blake
Please reply to the newsgroup

[Dan DeStefano]

when you say you have to enter a password just to get the computer to work,
do you mean to get it to boot or to get it to display the desktop? the bios
password is fine if you want to prevent the machine from booting, however,
it is not very secure because all you have to do is reset the bios (either
by a motherboard jumper or by removing the cmos battery from the
motherboard) in order to remove the password. i think what you want is to be
able to enter a password to logon to windows. the good news is that this is
quite simple with xp, but the bad news is it is not so simple with 9x. in
xp, simply go to control panel>user accounts, select your user account and
click "create password", enter and confirm a password; then, next time you
logoff from the computer, you will see a screen with a password box and you
will not be able to logon to windows without entering a password (this
procedure is for both xp home and professional, but i assume you are using
home). the great thing about this is that you can also create other user
accounts on the computer for others to use and you can restrict their user
accounts to being able only to use the computer, but not to change
settings/do things that can damage it.
with windows 98, the situation is a bit more sticky. you can do this, but
you will really need the computers to be connected to a nt domain. and,
since most home users' machines do not, the best solution would be either
upgrade the machines to xp (preferred) or use third-party software (onguard
http://poweronsoftware.com/products/onGuard/, n-login
http://download.com.com/3000-2092-10151582.html?tag=lst-0-3, just search
www.download.com).

hope this helps you

Dan DeStefano


"Charles Newton" > wrote in message
...
> Here is my question? I have 3 pc's at home, 2 are running windows 98 and
1
> running xp pro. My question is, is there anyway to keep someone from
using
> the pc's without permission, besides taking the power cords and stuff like

> that, can a person use a password some how?????
> I have seen some systems set up where you had to enter a password just for
> the comptuer to work.?????
> Please can someone help me.
>
> Thanx
>
>

[Doug Knox MS-MVP]

For Windows XP, just set a password on your user account, and the built in
Administrator account. For 9x systems, see:

http://www.dougknox.com/security/validated.htm to require a username and
password to log on.

--
Doug Knox, MS-MVP Windows XP/ Windows Smart Display
Win 95/98/Me/XP Tweaks and Fixes
http://www.dougknox.com
--------------------------------
Associate Expert
ExpertZone - http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone
--------------------------------
Please reply only to the newsgroup so all may benefit.
Unsolicited e-mail is not answered.

"Charles Newton" > wrote in message
...
> Here is my question? I have 3 pc's at home, 2 are running windows 98 and
1
> running xp pro. My question is, is there anyway to keep someone from
using
> the pc's without permission, besides taking the power cords and stuff like
> that, can a person use a password some how?????
> I have seen some systems set up where you had to enter a password just for
> the comptuer to work.?????
> Please can someone help me.
>
> Thanx
>
>