Looking for help with Task Scheduler on windows 7?

Question

Up till now I have used task scheduler on my stepsons laptop to shut it down at bedtime, but recently had to grant him administrator rights due to some software he uses not running on limited accounts (Steam). Since then he has removed the shutdown command repeatedly. I believe in windows 7 there is a way to schedule a task to run between 2200 hours and 0700 hours repeating every 4 or so mins to run an external file (ie a .bat file that will contain the shutdown command but will be named something innocuous like "steam update" as he wont touch that!) and stop running after 0700 but start again at 2200 I know I could put the shutdown command in the task entry, but thats just too easy for him to see and remove so thats why it will be in the .bat file and run in user 0 so it doesn't show up when executing but will still shutdown the laptop. He is switching the laptop on at ridiculous hours of the night and has school the next day.

I know there will be some of you out there that sympathies with my son and want to howl abuse at me for curtailing his computer time (mainly teenagers) but this is his exam year and if he wants to get his dream job of programming he has to study and even maybe learn how to circumvent my blocks. So look at it as a challenge to him to learn more about his own system.

Answer 1

Quote :- I know there will be some of you out there that sympathies with my son.

Reply :- Here is one that sympathies with YOU!

Answer:- It's time you learned that Microsoft and Apple are not the only computer operating systems in the world. They are the worlds most insecure operating system. The worlds fastest most secure operating systems (Linux) is Free to download and Use. with over 70.800 plus Professional application software packages available,



Quote :- recently had to grant him administrator rights due to some software he uses not running on limited accounts (Steam).

Reply : - Steam is Linux OS Developed by Valve Games developers. After they told M$ to get Stuffed, when M$ brought out W8, demanded that all Software had to be sold through M$ website. and M$ would deduct 30% of the sales price.



Linux is easy to learn it's no more difficult to use than windows is. But the adimistrator has the powers to control the users 100% You can lock it down to boot up/shut down at a givern time. You can give users admin rights but they can NOT over ride your admin control.



People don't know that Android is developed from Free Linux OS. Like Mac Users don't know that iOS/x is developed from FreeBSD OS.



Quote :- if he wants to get his dream job of programming

Reply :- Then you and he needs to Learn Linux. It controls everything in our daily lives and I really do mean EVERYTHING. Everything in your house runs on Linux OS.

Just to prove what I'm saying visit this website, these are the worlds top 200 plus Hardware/Software manufactures that develop the Free open source Linux operating system,

http://linuxfoundation.org/about/members/

if you want to know more about Linux then do a websearch of Linux,

For the latest September Linux Releases visit these websites

http://zorin-os.com

http://distrowatch.com

for your sons Gaming get him to check out this website

Gaming On Linux

http://gamingonlinux.com

Valve Steam website

http://store.steampowered.com/

Answer 2

I would go about it a different way. Instead of trying to control the PC ( this is unlikely to succeed ), you can instead control when the network is available.



I am guessing he is using WiFi.

Check your router admin pages for the possibility to schedule when the wifi radio turns on and off.

Some routers, like Asus RT-N66U also lets you define multiple networks with different passwords and schedules.



My suggestion would be to get such a router if you do not have one, and give him his own, scheduled WiFi network, keeping the credentials for the "Adult" network to yourself.



You may want to restrict physical access to the router ;)

Answer 3

It's actually quite easy to set Steam up as a kiosk mode although it will quite possibly require an extra partition and redownloading the Steam library.



Create a separate partition and format it (allowing enough space for SteamApps folder.

Create new user account with admin privileges.

Create symlink of new account to fresh partition (%systemroot%\users\Symlinkthisfolder).

Create data limit quota in primary %systemroot%\Users\NewAccount to 0 so all data is saved to symbolic linked location.

Remove Steam and reinstall from new account to new partition/account crating SteamApps library in a non permission crucial folder such as partition\SteamApps.

Make sure all games are downloaded from that user account.

Update and backup library like normal.

Set all games to disallow automatic updates. (DL updates on weekend).

Encrypt all files in the user account (so your kid can't get shifty).

Using Superuser account, revert new account to standard user.