Windows Reg. Lockers

[linuxcomando]

I am in search of a free, or cheap windows registry locker.
Something that i can install that will stop people to install programs regardless of rights, unless you know the programs password.
any links would be greatly excepted. Thanks.

[xid]

To my knowledge, you can't lock the Windows registry. The registry is a dynamic collection of settings and configuration things that has to be write-accessable for windows to run. If you use windows nt or 2k, you can set up user-based permissions for files and restrict application installs. I'm unfamiliar with any software that password-protects existing software on your computer, but I know some does exist.

[Stephenmg]

A program I have seen called Advanced Registry Tracer may do some of what your require or at least offer a good substitute. It wont lock the registry to my knowlage but it will allow you to easyly undo unapproved changes.

Here are a few of the features that may intrest you:

Compare different copies of the Registry
Compare individual branches of different copies of the Registry
Undo and Redo Registry changes based on comparison results: directly from the program or by generating the REG-files
Export / import any key of the Registry into / from the old REG file format (regedit 4) and from the new one (regedit 5)

Their web site is at http://www.elcomsoft.com/art.html

[shadow_dancer]

if you want to lock your registry and you don't want anyone install something in your computer, you make an account as an administrator and let ppl use guess account ( xp, win nt, win2k ). or pehpas you can link
http://www.freedownloadscenter.com/P...nd_Components/ Application_Locker.html or
www.totalshareware.com/ASP/ detail_view.asp?application=1918.

[linuxcomando]

Thanks for the info everyone,however; the problem is that this is on a network of 50 or so computers with around 45 users, each with need to certain programs etc. I just want to be stop users from installing software, It would be great if i could setup a guest account but that would be impractical considering that different people need different access to network shares etc. Thanks for replying though

[xid]

Hmm. If all of the users are, say, elementary students in an elementary lab then I believe I have the perfect solution for you. There is a product called Deep Freeze (www.deepfreezeusa.com) that essentially the greatest product (IMHO) for standalone Windows desktop PCs whose contents shouldn't change. What it does is 'freeze' the contents of the hard drive. You can make changes and everything, but upon reboot ALL of the writes are gone. You can temporarily disable the freeze to do maintenance work, or uninstall it altogether if you wish. It's relatively cheap IIRC, and I've seen an entire lab recover from the ILOVEYOU virus (not-too-bright teachers checking their email, downloading and running any attachments...) with a simple reboot of each machine. Viruses gone, all installed programs after the freeze gone after a reboot, all trojans, etc, etc. You can even set up a sort of untouched partition of space that users can save documents, etc. to. The only downside is it takes a little time to set up and a little time to do any changes after the freeze because you have to enter in a password and reboot, then reboot for the new image to be taken. You can even have a 'maintenance time' set so all of the changes within, for example, 4:00pm and 4:30pm, are frozen into the image. I think it works by writing something into the mbr, but I'm not sure. It's probably the best tool I've used to administer large labs that have only office, visual studio, and encarta on them.

Hope this helps a little!

[linuxcomando]

Yah, ive used deep freeze and it was going to be what i was going to use if i couldn't find a free alternitive.Because the licenceing scheme is something like 30 bux a workstation and that adds up real fast. It does everything that i need it to do thanks for the info.

[xid]

No problem, sorry I couldn't be of more assistance... haven't seen any alternatives.
Thanks for the AP though!

[mohaughn]

What OS are you running? If you are running Win2k or XP in a AD domain environment, you can always use group policies to restrict what a user can do.

Even if it is not in a domain, you can set individual policies on every machine, just more time consuming. Short of disabling just about everything on the OS, except what is needed for that particular person, you are not going to find free software that does this for you. Atleast none that I know of. Even with group policies it can be very difficult to lock down the proper items and still allow the user to get their job done.

[shadow_dancer]

yup .. i agree with "mohaugn" .. if your computer in domain network .. it will be easier if you set the user from the server. by giving them "user" trustee. i forget about the detail. but the options is in your server already . it is like start/programs/administrative tools/active directory user or computers ( i forget about this ). but i think you can set everyone who insert your network by give them "user trustee".
there are so many trustee in there .. don't give them adminnistrator or domain admins, it will allow them to do anything to the computer or even they can changet the IP address or etc.
or you can saw their activity by wingate server ( you must installed it in your server ) and wingate client ( install it in each clients ) . you can see what their activities and you can choose the user may or may not do what you want .