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How to stop new programs being installed under child account family safety

Anonymous
Dec 17, 2024, 10:56 PM

I have family safety set up for my 13 year old. He has ADHD and lacks self control and discipline. It's up to me currently to manage his screentime otherwise he spends (and this actually happened) 9 hours a day playing Fortnite.

I blocked Chrome and Firefox and have put time restrictions on lots of things (e.g. Edge) but he installed Opera GT or some other browser without needing my permission so for several weeks I didn't realise he was being dishonest and was watching youtube for several hours a day. I can block this but he'll just find another browser. I want him to ask permission to install apps, otherwise, what's the point? He's already a standard user and I'm an admin on his laptop.

This currently means he is able to go on any website with a new browser that I can't control and most parents of neuro-diverse children would know this is a slippery slope, especially when he uses a laptop for school during the day - I see he uses youtube during the school day and we have a chat about how appropriate that is.

Please advise how to restrict new app downloads/installs, for the love of sanity. I find nothing about it on the FS app or by logging into to FS on my PC. I don't want this game of cat and mouse with me blocking stuff he's already installed. That's not good enough.

FYI Apple screentime restrictions has an option to allow or not installing of apps.

Windows for home | Windows 11 | Settings

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  1. Anonymous
    Dec 25, 2024, 6:48 PM

    Dear Sascha Cartwright

    Thank you for posting in the Microsoft community.

    You can define your installation of new programs for Windows through the registry.

    This way your child can't install new programs at will, after all you can't individually define what browser program it installs.

    Press WIN+R and type REGEDIT.

    Locate:

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Installer

    If there is no Installer key, you will need to create it manually:

    Right-click on the Windows folder, select New > Item and name it Installer.

    Create and modify the key:

    In the right window, right-click and select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value, name it DisableMSI and set the rule:

    A value of 2: Completely disables the installation of all applications.

    A value of 1: Only installations allowed by the administrator.

    A value of 0: Enables installation (default value, no restrictions).

    (Recommended setting is value 1)

    Close the Registry Editor and restart the computer for the changes to take effect.

    Disclaimer: Modifying the registry or workgroups is usually geared towards advanced users, administrators, and IT professionals, and it can help fix some problems, however, improper registry modifications can cause serious problems. Therefore, please make sure to strictly follow the steps below. For further protection, make a backup of the registry before modifying it. For more information on how to backup and restore the registry ref:

    How to back up and restore the registry in Windows - Microsoft Support

    Best Wish

    Shawn.Z-MSFT | Microsoft Community Support Specialist

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  2. Anonymous
    Dec 18, 2024, 1:15 AM

    I am already managing his account under Family Safety as specified in my post. I want to stop him installing new apps without permission. He currently just installs a new browser when I block one. I need to stop this process and it doesn’t seem obvious that it can be done under Family Safety settings. I can block apps but I can’t stop him installing them and this is not good enough!

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  3. Airbus A350 7,315 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    Dec 17, 2024, 11:01 PM

    Hello,

    Does your child by chance have a Microsoft Account? If not, and you do have one, you can create one for him and then manage his account under Family Settings (https://family.microsoft.com). From there, you can enable restrictions on what he can do with his account, and manage what he can access on browsers and the Microsoft Store.

    Hope to hear back from you.

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