Hi,
OK, I understand,
Lets just check a few things to make sure we are on the right lines.
1 You have already set up a new limited A/C for your teen (for convenience I will call him/her Robin) by going to Start> Control Panel>User Accounts>Create a new Account etc including making the A/C "limited" (from now on we will call this Robin's limited A/C)
2 You will find that from your computer's point of view this new Account does not have details of previous documents etc set up by Robin when she was operating with Adminisrative privilidges. (Any new documents she creates will be perfectly accessable but not old ones) The new Account also will not be able to install new programmes or make important system changes. This is a "good" thing as malicious code will only now have the priviliges of Robin's new limited account, and will not be able to write to certain areas of the Registry and therefore the scope for virus/worms/trojans to access certain parts of your machine are restricted. The downside of that are there may be occasions where it will be desirable to for example download perfectly valuable and useful code ( update and install anti-virus definitions is one example) and Robin will need an Administrators authority (thats you!) to do this. Some applications also were written by programmers who believed that all their applications would be run by someone using Administrative privilidges, that need to write to the Registry, but are prevented from doing so by the "limited A/C and therefore will not run or throw up errors. As always in life the pro's have to be balanced against the cons.
3 To make, for example some documents or music available to Robin on her new limited A/C from the previous accounts (that had Administrative privilidges) it is necessary to "Share" them via the medium of Shared Folders (they will then be accessible to Robin on her new Limited A/C)
4 To do this you will need to log on with your Admin A/C
right click on My Documents >Properties>click on Sharing Tab> Click on the highlighted link Sharing Documents>Click on What is a Shared Folder
the help file with instructions will appear and you can then set up things as you like.
Although using a limited account for using the Internet provides some safeguards it is by no means the complete answer, and whilst I am sure you have an effective anti- virus programme updated at least daily with the new virus definitions, together with appropriate anti-spyware protection (also updated regularly) and a 2 way software firewall with the "exceptions or permitted applications checked by you daily it is just as important (or even more so) that all users of the computer practise "Safe Internet Use" It goes without saying that your Windows operating system should always be up to date at all times with all patches and Critical Updates installed .
All the security that you install can be "blown" by someone with access to your machine indiscriminately opening emails using html code, (rather than plain text) someone being curious about an attachement to an email that has an interesting title and clicking on it and even just by visiting unsuitable sites. Peer 2 peer file sharing usually music, is another route, notorious for infecting computers as often the music that is downloaded comes with unwelcome and unseen code (carefully and deliberately hidden) and then passed on by file sharers unaware of the infections
There are some excellent suggestions on security to be found here:
http://forums.tomcoyote.org/Security_Relat…orials_f98.html
I hope you find these notes helpful.
It is easy sometimes for us to give the impression that it's all straight forward, and simple to protect the ones we love and wish to protect, but I'm afraid its not quite like that and sometimes we just have to do the best that we can.
Even the most expert of us get caught out occasionally, so tread carefully, and good luck!
Regards
paws
