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I am computer admin for a call center and i want to block all user accounts from changing the Display settings.

nothing i found online helped with xp home edition.

Kamil Kisiel
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4 Answers4

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Your best solution would be to upgrade the machines to Windows XP Pro so that you can add them to a Windows domain and control all the machines from within the AD Group Policies.

mrdenny
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  • Indeed. I'm fairly sure that using XP Home in a call center would be against the licensing policy as well, given that it's *meant* to only allow a restricted number of XP Home machine's on a network – Mark Henderson Aug 09 '09 at 21:23
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I'm not sure about XP Home, but did you take a look at this article:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080114045623AA3R8Jm

In Windows XP the file desk.cpl is responsible to change display properties. To restrict other users to use the display properties, do the following in sequence:-

1.Log on as an administrator.

2.From My computers, go to Tools -> Folder Option, and then choose View tab. The last option is "Use simple file sharing (recommended) ". Uncheck it, and press "OK".

  1. Find the file "desk.cpl" using windows search. The default path is C:\Windows\System32.

  2. Right click the file, choose Properties, and then you get a "Sharing & Security" tab.

5.On this tab the top side shows the name of the user and bottom side shows the permission. Click the user from top side, and then change the permissions of full control as "Deny" for that user and press "Ok".

  • Now that user is restricted for any change in desk.cpl.
KPWINC
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Rather than aim to control user settings through registry settings you might want something like Faronics Deep Freeze:

http://www.faronics.com/html/deepfreeze.asp

This resets the computer to a pre-set image every reboot, so any user changes get wiped. You can keep user files by redirecting My Documents to a separate disk partition.

David Hicks
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I'd have to double-check on an XP machine elsewhere, but Windows StedyState might be able to do that for you.

AnonJr
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