Parental Controls in Windows Vista

The parental controls in Internet Explorer 7 gives you the opportunity to control when your child uses the computer, what time your child uses the computer and the type of content your child views when online. Gaming can even be blocked or controlled by using the Electronic Software Rating Boards review system. This article will explain how to enable the Parental Controls in Vista and Internet Explorer so you can feel better about allowing your child to experience the Internet without fear of being exploited or exposed to mature content.

Getting Started

To setup Parental Controls open Internet Explorer and go to Tools, Internet Options and then click the Content tab. Click the Parental Controls button. You will then see a screen which allows you to make settings for the various usernames you have setup on the computer. Once you select your child's username, you can then toggle on the Parental Controls option and begin configuring the settings.

Time Limits

You can set the hours of the day your child will be able to use the PC by blocking out restricted hours. You will see a grid with the days of the weeks and the hours. If you do not want your child to use the PC after 10 PM every night, setting the parental controls can prevent that activity. Click and drag your mouse pointer over the days and hours you want to restrict your child's usage and the blocks will become blue in color. When finished, click OK to exit this setting.

Game Restrictions

The ESRB rates games and labels them with rating tags. If you want to block violent or provocative games from your child, selecting the ESRB's game level of your child will prevent them from playing games with a mature rating. You can even check boxes that block specific games containg content such as Blood, nudity and bad language.

Viewing the Log

Probably the most important feature of Parental Controls is monitoring the types of content your children are viewing and playing. The activity log files can show you Emails, Instant Messages, top websites visited and other important facts about your childs activity on the computer. Use this information to tweak the Parental Controls so you can give your children the freedom to explore and learn in a safe, controlled environment.

Parental Controls in Windows Vista

The parental controls in Internet Explorer 7 gives you the opportunity to control when your child uses the computer, what time your child uses the computer and the type of content your child views when online. Gaming can even be blocked or controlled by using the Electronic Software Rating Boards review system. This article will explain how to enable the Parental Controls in Vista and Internet Explorer so you can feel better about allowing your child to experience the Internet without fear of being exploited or exposed to mature content.

Getting Started

To setup Parental Controls open Internet Explorer and go to Tools, Internet Options and then click the Content tab. Click the Parental Controls button. You will then see a screen which allows you to make settings for the various usernames you have setup on the computer. Once you select your child's username, you can then toggle on the Parental Controls option and begin configuring the settings.

Time Limits

You can set the hours of the day your child will be able to use the PC by blocking out restricted hours. You will see a grid with the days of the weeks and the hours. If you do not want your child to use the PC after 10 PM every night, setting the parental controls can prevent that activity. Click and drag your mouse pointer over the days and hours you want to restrict your child's usage and the blocks will become blue in color. When finished, click OK to exit this setting.

Game Restrictions

The ESRB rates games and labels them with rating tags. If you want to block violent or provocative games from your child, selecting the ESRB's game level of your child will prevent them from playing games with a mature rating. You can even check boxes that block specific games containg content such as Blood, nudity and bad language.

Viewing the Log

Probably the most important feature of Parental Controls is monitoring the types of content your children are viewing and playing. The activity log files can show you Emails, Instant Messages, top websites visited and other important facts about your childs activity on the computer. Use this information to tweak the Parental Controls so you can give your children the freedom to explore and learn in a safe, controlled environment.

Parental Controls in Windows Vista

The parental controls in Internet Explorer 7 gives you the opportunity to control when your child uses the computer, what time your child uses the computer and the type of content your child views when online. Gaming can even be blocked or controlled by using the Electronic Software Rating Boards review system. This article will explain how to enable the Parental Controls in Vista and Internet Explorer so you can feel better about allowing your child to experience the Internet without fear of being exploited or exposed to mature content.

Getting Started

To setup Parental Controls open Internet Explorer and go to Tools, Internet Options and then click the Content tab. Click the Parental Controls button. You will then see a screen which allows you to make settings for the various usernames you have setup on the computer. Once you select your child's username, you can then toggle on the Parental Controls option and begin configuring the settings.

Time Limits

You can set the hours of the day your child will be able to use the PC by blocking out restricted hours. You will see a grid with the days of the weeks and the hours. If you do not want your child to use the PC after 10 PM every night, setting the parental controls can prevent that activity. Click and drag your mouse pointer over the days and hours you want to restrict your child's usage and the blocks will become blue in color. When finished, click OK to exit this setting.

Game Restrictions

The ESRB rates games and labels them with rating tags. If you want to block violent or provocative games from your child, selecting the ESRB's game level of your child will prevent them from playing games with a mature rating. You can even check boxes that block specific games containg content such as Blood, nudity and bad language.

Viewing the Log

Probably the most important feature of Parental Controls is monitoring the types of content your children are viewing and playing. The activity log files can show you Emails, Instant Messages, top websites visited and other important facts about your childs activity on the computer. Use this information to tweak the Parental Controls so you can give your children the freedom to explore and learn in a safe, controlled environment.

Remove Microsoft Updates in Windows XP and Vista

While it’s not recommended to remove Microsoft Updates in Windows, it is possible to do so if you begin experiencing problems immediately following a patch from Microsoft. Normally, Microsoft will release scheduled updates every couple of weeks. So if you can attribute a problem immediately after an update, you may want to uninstall that patch.

Uninstall Microsoft Updates in XP
To uninstall a patch in XP, go to the Control Panel, and then click on Add / Remove Programs. You will find a checkbox here that allows you to view the installed updates. Click the update you want to remove.

Uninstall Microsoft Updates in Vista

To uninstall a patch in Vista , go to the Control Panel and click on the Programs and Features icon. Next, click View Installed Updates in the left pane. All of your program updates, as well as Microsoft updates will be listed in this location. You can click on the latest patch to remove it from your computer.

If your Windows installation is set to automatically install updates, your computer will eventually download these updates again. Also, removing updates may cause problems with your system, so be careful what you remove.

Vista Backup and Restore Center

The Vista Backup and Restore Center takes the confusion and fear out of System Restore. With Vista, you can now backup and restore your important system files with ease. In Windows XP, System Restore was a confusing system that most people ignored. Common questions were "Am I going to lose my pictures? Am I going to lose my data?" Microsoft took that uncertainty and created the Backup and Restore Center.

Backing Up Your Data

At the top of the Backup Center, you'll find a section for backing up your data. You can choose to backup individual files or the entire drive volume. The wizard will now allow you to even select the type of media you want to save the backups to, such as DVD, External Hard Drive, USB Drive and CDR. Backup existed in previous versions of Windows, but was hidden under numerous layers of confusing menus.

Using System Restore

Vista now automatically makes restore points whenever a there is a major change to your system. You no longer have to worry about going into restore to manually take a snapshot whenever you update drivers or install hardware. Vista does this for you.

You can restore your system files anytime, without fear of losing data, such as pictures and documents. The restore section is located just below the backup area in the Backup and Restore center.

Previous Versions

A related utility to the restore and backup features is Previous Versions. This is an on the fly system that allows to quickly revert a document to its previous state. For instance, if you were working on a document and accidentally deleted an entire page, you can go into the Previous Versions section and revert the document back to the time before the page was deleted. Being able to restore files in this matter is a huge innovation with Windows backup.

How to Uninstall Vista

If you upgrade to Vista from Windows XP, you may be finding it difficult to revert back to XP. There are several factors involved in uninstalling Vista and some of these make it difficult to successfully go back to XP. Whenever you do a new Operating System upgrade, you need to face the fact that reverting back to a previous version may not be an option and even if it were an option, the process of going backward is complicated and may not even work.

With that said, be sure you have made the necessary backups before upgrading to Vista or before attempting to downgrade your Windows Vista installation to XP. You can try to downgrade without losing data via the Microsoft Knowledge Base article at http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/933168.

But the best way is to use a fresh XP CD with a fresh license key. While you can try to use a previous license of XP from that computer, it may not work, as there have been issues with Vista rendering previous XP licenses useless after a Vista upgrade. This makes sense, as Microsoft does not want you to sell the upgraded XP after you are no longer using it. So be sure to get your hands on a boxed copy of XP before attempting an upgrade.

Boot to the fresh copy of XP. To do this, you may need to go into the system BIOS to change the first boot device to the CD ROM drive. When asked where you want to install XP, look for the current partition where Vista is installed and remove it. This will wipe out the Vista installation and all data will be lost. You can now install XP by choosing the free space on the hard drive.

You will also need to install drivers for all of your hardware. If you do not have a driver disk, be sure to go to the manufacturer of the hardware (motherboard manufacturer, video card manufacturer, sound card manufacturer, etc...) and have those disks ready. You should at the very least have the driver for the network card so you can get online and download the other drivers later.

If you have a major brand name computer and have purchased it with XP and then later installed Vista, call or Email their technical support to see if there is a way to successfully revert back using the recovery disks that came with your computer.

If you have any other questions about downgrading Vista, please be sure to join our free message boards today.