set-up windows 7 netbook for use by kids

ablelocks

hi there,

does anyone have any advice or tips on setting up or configuring an ASUS EEEpc 1000HE with Windows 7 Ultimate for use by kids aged 8 and 5? Any recommended software applications?

It won't generally be used by anyone else, so i was going to set it up with 2 User accounts, 1 for the kids and one for myself (mainly for maintenance, etc)

cheers,
able

big man andy

ablelocks wrote: »

hi there,

does anyone have any advice or tips on setting up or configuring an ASUS EEEpc 1000HE with Windows 7 Ultimate for use by kids aged 8 and 5? Any recommended software applications?

It won't generally be used by anyone else, so i was going to set it up with 2 User accounts, 1 for the kids and one for myself (mainly for maintenance, etc)

cheers,
able

I presume you mean security for themselves aswell as the netbook?

phill106

well if you mean to ensure that naughty stuff keeps away from them, try open dns, its easy to setup as a proxy and lets you specify to block certain content.
Other then that, have yours as main acc with a password, theirs as guess with no password.

Lazarus2.0

As far as content is concerned , I installed kidzui browser for my kids (7 + 6 yr olds) and they love it . There are plenty of other children's browsers out there but I didnt need to look further .

I also removed other browsers shortcuts from desktop and unpinned them from Start Menu so theyre less likely to go onto the entire web unaccompanied - theyre more than capable of finding their way there though so their computer is in the living room . There's no substitute for a watchful eye tbh .

Their Windows account(s) should of course be set as Standard and from an admin account you can then set up Parental Control in Control Panel for their account(s) . Plenty of things in there you can apply if required . I havent found the need to look for 3rd party software for this aspect (theyre rarely alone in the room when at the computer) but seeing as a netbook is portable an extra layer might help . I cant advise on which one though .

Oh yeah , enable single-click to open files (in Folder Options) - believe me , double-clicking can lead to their opening multiple - and I mean multiple instances of the same application/file !


HTH

xsiborg

well, to be honest, i bought my six year old son a netbook to keep him off my computers, and in my opinion those v-tech toy laptops are nonsense, a complete rip off for what they do. i considered a netbook would provide much better value for money over its lifetime.

i set up an admin acocunt for myself and a standard account for my son, and he has unrestricted access to the internet. i understand that others might consider this irresponsible, but where im coming from is that if you put restrictions in place, he'll get curious about WHY something is restricted, and then there are the further consequences of that.

i didnt bother with any of the educational software either as my son really just youtubes mister maker, spends time on cbeebies website (literally tons and tons of activities!), and tinkers around with the settings and themes, i've recently set it up with a dual boot windows/linux mint install, just to introduce him to something besides windows, and soon i plan on introducing him to office apps like word and libreoffice on linux.

i should just say aswel, i cant recommend highly enough getting your kids a graphics tablet, my son uses mine, a rather expensive one, but they can be got cheaper for about €50, to encourage your children's handwriting skills and hand/eye co-ordination. microsoft paint is included with windows, gimp is included with linux, but it's a bit overkill for kids (think the equivalent of photoshop!).

you can also set it up in Windows Media Center or XBMC on linux so that if your kids want to watch a DVD, you can have it connect to the DVD drive in your laptop, and play the DVD from there. (you'll already have noticed the absence of a DVD drive on the netbook!)

also one more thing you should be aware of- REMOTE DESKTOP, set it up correctly and you can bring up your child's netbook screen on your own laptop and control it right from your own laptop (my son still hasnt discovered how i do that yet, which can be amusing at times!).

above all of course, the one thing i should say to you is that you should be in the same room at least with your child, but dont make it feel like you're supervising them, show them you're taking an interest in what they're doing, even if it is having to watch them play the same mister maker youtube clip for the twentieth time (thank christ he grew outta THAT phase!).

hope this helps.

Fluffy88

Now just get him into programming and he'll be a millionaire by the time he is 20 :P

xsiborg

Fluffy88 wrote: »

Now just get him into programming and he'll be a millionaire by the time he is 20 :P

lol, well in fairness i work in IT myself so the way i explain it to people is that if i was a footballer, he'd probably be good at football, if i was a golfer... well, you get the point...

Overheal

Got a tip on a very effective (allegedly!) And completely free net-nanny style system. K9 Web Protection. Apparently it got made by this computer programmer guy that got pissed off paying for the subscription services that were not as good as what they should have been. For free, it's probably worth attempting

http://www1.k9webprotection.com/