Permissions dialog box of Folder Guard: disable Control Panel, disable Run command, disable Find command, etc.

Use this dialog box to control permissions to access various Windows resources. The dialog box contains the following pages:

Each page contains a list of permissions, one permission per line. (For the detailed descriptions of the permissions, please refer to the descriptions of the pages.) Each line in the list starts with an image showing whether the current user is permitted to access the resource or not:

To change a permission, click on its image with the mouse one or more times. As with the folder protection attributes, the permissions you set up for the Default user apply to all users of your computer. If you want a user to have different permissions, simply select that user's name in the User list, and then change the permissions, as needed, to apply for the selected user only. If a user "inherits" a permission from the Default user, the cross or check mark for such a permission is shown in gray color. You can override each such permission for any user, if you want to, by clicking on the image of the permission until the desired image appears on it.

When setting up the permissions, it's important to understand how and when they take effect. Unlike the protection of folders and files, which takes effect as soon as you enable the protection of Folder Guard, most permissions take effect only when the user logs on to the computer. That is, when you enable the protection, Folder Guard sends a command to Windows that specifies which resources must be restricted according to the permissions you have set up. However, Windows does not react to such a command immediately: instead, it takes note of the command, and processes it only when the user logs on to Windows next time. (This is because Windows had been designed by Microsoft that way, we have nothing to do with it, sorry.)

There are exceptions to this rule: some permissions (such as Allow to run the registry editing tools on the Common page) do take effect immediately. Some other restrictions take a partial effect when you enable the protection: for instance, if you revoke the Allow the Run command permission for your user account, you will be blocked from using the Start - Run command as soon as you enable the protection, however, the Run command will still appear on the Start menu, until you log off and then log back on. However, most other restrictions take effect only when the user logs on to the computer.

Turning off the restrictions imposed by the permissions is not immediate, either. For instance, if the Allow the Run command permission was revoked for you when you logged on to the computer, then if you disable the protection, you will no longer be stopped from running programs, but the Run command will not appear on the Start menu at the same time, until you log off and then log back on.

Considering these properties of the permissions, it's recommended that you use them only for the users who are not supposed to change the status of the restrictions dynamically, without logging on and off. For example, if you want to revoke the Allow the Run command permission from the Guest user account, because you probably don't want your guest to run arbitrary programs on your computer without your permission, then using the permissions for such purpose is appropriate. If, however, you want to restrict the Run command for your own user account, and expect to quickly turn it on and off at will, then using the permissions is not a good choice.

Note also, that in order for the permissions to take effect when the user logs on, the protection must be in effect when the user logs on, too. In other words, you must select the Enable protection at Windows startup option. If you have just checked this option, you need to restart your computer, to make the driver of Folder Guard to initialize properly. This is necessary only the first time after you have enabled the Enable protection at Windows startup option. If you have disabled this option and then enabled it back, then again, you need to restart the computer for the changes to take effect. You don't need to restart your computer after that, as long as you keep the Enable protection at Windows startup option checked.


Settings - Misc Permissions - Common Copyright © 2008, WinAbility® Software Corporation. All rights reserved.