Computer Restrictions and Sabotage Prevention

In every environment, be it corporate, educational or home, it is very important to prevent the operating systems and applications from being sabotaged. Databases stored on these computers are most often the heart and soul of the activity and without them management would be impossible. However, this is just one of the many possible scenarios.

WINSelect is a helpful tool in this regard, as its main role is to disable application and even operating system options and thus limit the risks. For starters, this piece of software allows you to disable Start menu items, Control Panel applets and menu options from applications such as Internet Explorer.

The restrictions that can be created with this app range from blocking commands such as maximizing and/or minimizing windows to limiting access to certain buttons and check boxes. More than that, WINSelect allows you to disable or limit printing and to control file and folder operations such as drag and drop, rename or delete. The latter features certainly make it adequate for system administrators who want to keep their data intact and in place.

This piece of software is available for download as a 30-day trial. Considering its great number of features, this period should suffice for deciding whether it is worth the money or not. At the end of this trial period you can purchase the application for $49.

Installing WINSelect does not require any special skills. At the end of the process you are required to restart the machine in order to make sure that the app works within normal parameters and all registry entries are in place and ready to take effect. After the reboot you have to set a password that is later used when launching the application. Its minimum accepted length is 5 characters.

WINSelect will certainly not amaze anyone with its GUI. The interface of the Administrative Console, which represents one of the two possible management modes, is split in two. On the left side there is a list of components that can be disabled or limited, while the right side changes according to the selection made on the left. Since the GUI is based on the Windows shell, it may be looking quite old to some users. System administrators will certainly be more interested in the functionality of this application rather than in its interface, but typical users might take a step back just because the looks are not as shiny as they might have expected.

The interface of WINSelect can be accessed in two different ways, either by pressing Alt+Ctrl+Shift+F8 or by double clicking the system tray icon of the application. Regardless of the method chosen, you have to enter the previously defined password in the box that is launched.

Depending on your administrative skills, you can choose one of the two configuration methods: Administrative Console and Wizard. First of all, you have at your disposal the Wizard mode, which helps you easily access the main functions of the app. Right after launching the Wizard you can enable or disable the Kiosk mode – with it enabled you can manage the applications that will be automatically launched at startup.

The next Wizard window includes Start button restrictions. By default, the Start button is enabled, but you can choose to disable it completely or just to turn certain menu items off. In addition, you can disable right click on Start menu items and enable the classic style Start menu.

The following Wizard window includes the Task Manager and Windows Explorer limitations. The Task Manager can be easily disabled from here, while the Windows Explorer options are more numerous. You can disable either the right click, the UNC (Universal Naming Convention) paths or drag and drop. Folder manipulation can also be turned off by ticking the appropriate check box.

The Control Panel applets can be easily disabled with WINSelect. In the Wizard mode you can decide whether the Control Panel applets are visible or hidden. As for the Start menu restrictions, you can choose to disable only certain applets by selecting the “Hide selected applets:” option and ticking the corresponding checkboxes. The Control Panel limitation window represents the final step of the Wizard mode.

A second mode, which is rightfully dubbed Administrative console, provides access to all the functions of WINSelect. It can be launched either after entering the password – provided that the Wizard mode checkbox is not ticked – or right after finishing the wizard. In addition to the options that are available in the Wizard mode, the Administrative console allows you to easily modify the way you interact with the desktop, lets you disable disk drives and file extensions, and provides network restrictions.

As mentioned before, the first noticeable difference between the Wizard mode and the Administrative console is the ability to modify the desktop and Windows taskbar. Thus, you can prevent right clicking on both desktop and desktop icons, and even choose to hide all or only certain desktop icons. The taskbar restrictions include the ability to disable right clicking on the taskbar and Start menu, as well as the option to hide the taskbar icons.

Drives and File Extensions, the next section in Administrative console, enables you to choose which disk drives will be seen by the other users and which file extensions will be available. Both the disk drives and the file extensions can be selected individually or all at once. System administrators are given the freedom to add more extensions, in case they are not found in the provided list.

A detail that is certainly worth mentioning is that not only the access to local drives but also to the removable ones can be restricted. Provided that this restriction is enabled, users who try to access the removable drives will find out via a pop-up window that they do not have the permission to browse the drive.

As for network limitations, you are able to define them in two ways: by entering either URLs that will become inaccessible or a certain IP range. First of all, you have to enable the network restrictions prior to proceeding with either process. When adding a website or an IP range, administrators have to mention whether these elements will be allowed or blocked by clicking on the radio buttons.

The last system-related set of restrictions refers to the hotkeys that are used by common users. Administrators can use the Hotkeys section of the Administrative console to easily disable the hotkeys, either individually or all at once. In case the hotkey that needs to be disabled is not found in the list, they have to add it and then deactivate it.

The Applications category of the Administrative console helps you disable the menus mainly in Microsoft Office and Internet Explorer. Furthermore, you are able to select any executable file from your computer and define which menu options will be disabled. It is important to know that both context menu and menu bar items can be deactivated.

The Printer category allows establishing a printing quota or disabling printing altogether. The quota is established for each session and assigning the value 0 means that common users have no printing restriction.

However, the graphical user interface of the app would mean nothing if it didn't have a certain degree of functionality guaranteed. All the features of WINSelect work as they are supposed to, but each time an option is changed the system administrator needs to log off of the Windows account so that the changes take effect.

While common users may become aware of some of the restrictions because of the pop-up windows (as in the case when the usage of the external drives is limited), in other cases the restricted items are grayed-out (the Internet Explorer menus, for example) or even invisible (the deactivated Control Panel applets).

WINSelect's management options represent the final item in the Administrative Console list. The Administrator category enables you to change the password that was established when installing the application, to import administrative templates and to set up the duration of each user session.

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