Stopping family members using my computer

dashcamdanny

I have a 13 year old son who is some how able to use my computer when i'm away.

I have a strong windows password yet the little ****** can get past it. I have no idea how.

Its windows 7.

is there a way other than the windows pass word , to lock it down so only I can use the laptop.

The J Stands for Jay

Chain the lid shut and padlock it? If the kid can get through the password etc, maybe physically securing it is the way to go. A locked cupboard or safe perhaps.

Atlantic Dawn

Have you tried actually changing your password? Does he have a seperate account setup on it, you would see an additional username at login?

dashcamdanny

Tried changing it. I dont know how hes doing it.

There is no guest account, only mine. As soon I leave, he sneaking around it.

There must be a program.

elfy4eva

Windows will give u a hint if u enter it incorrectly a few times. If the hint is obvious he might have got it that way.

200motels

dashcamdanny wrote: »

I have a 13 year old son who is some how able to use my computer when i'm away.

I have a strong windows password yet the little ****** can get past it. I have no idea how.

Its windows 7.

is there a way other than the windows pass word , to lock it down so only I can use the laptop.

Do you have Windows 7 Pro? If so use bitlocker to lock down the hard drive.

dashcamdanny

I dont think so Its full of symbols and numbers as I knew he was at it.

How does he do it.. Safe mode?

dunworth1

Have a look at true crypt and encrypt the drive. Or enable a power on password in the bios

If he does not know the password I assume he's probably using something like konboot which let's you bypass the windows login

Agent Smith

Heres how....

endacl

Have you tried telling him no, and following through on the consequences and repercussions end?

shanec1928

200motels wrote: »

Do you have Windows 7 Pro? If so use bitlocker to lock down the hard drive.

Bitlocker is only available on Windows 7 for either enterprise or ultimate. From 8 it's pro onwards.

Back to the op set a boot password as well as changing your Windows user password

ED E

dashcamdanny wrote: »

I dont think so Its full of symbols and numbers as I knew he was at it.

How does he do it.. Safe mode?

All you have to do is boot from a CD or a USB, extract the passowrd in 30s.

1. Lock the BIOS/UEFI with a new password
2. Change your Windows password

This works, until he resets the BIOS by popping the case open and moving the jumper.

Padlocked cupboard or a bit of stronger parenting required.

dashcamdanny

endacl wrote: »

Have you tried telling him no, and following through on the consequences and repercussions end?

Yes. But teenagers are never that straightforward as many parents will tell you.

endacl

dashcamdanny wrote: »

Yes. But teenagers are never that straightforward as many parents will tell you.

He's only been a teenager for less than a year. Your're the boss.

punisher5112

Take laptop with you?

endacl

If it's a laptop, you could always take the battery and charging cable away with you?

dashcamdanny

endacl wrote: »

He's only been a teenager for less than a year. Your're the boss.

thanks. But with respect, I need advice on locking down my computer , not parenting.
There is issues you don't know about.

St. Leibowitz

dashcamdanny wrote: »

Yes. But teenagers are never that straightforward as many parents will tell you.

I'm not being smart. Really, I'm not. You should post this in the parenting forum rather than the tech forum. I'm not having a go at you, but there really needs to be rules and boundaries set. Trying to thwart his efforts rather than teach him to respect the wishes of others and their privacy is not doing him any favours. I don't have the answer, but there are answers which don't involve physically chaining your equipment closed in order to force him to do as you say.

Seriously, try the parenting forum. For both your sakes.

davej

dashcamdanny wrote: »

thanks. But with respect, I need advice on locking down my computer , not parenting.
There is issues you don't know about.

Sounds like you are worried he has found out what you have been up to on your laptop :pac::pac:

davej

St. Leibowitz

St. Leibowitz wrote: »

I'm not being smart. Really, I'm not. You should post this in the parenting forum rather than the tech forum. I'm not having a go at you, but there really needs to be rules and boundaries set. Trying to thwart his efforts rather than teach him to respect the wishes of others and their privacy is not doing him any favours. I don't have the answer, but there are answers which don't involve physically chaining your equipment closed in order to force him to do as you say.

Seriously, try the parenting forum. For both your sakes.

Sorry, just saw your post above mine. Was posted when I was typing.

Sorry again.

ted1

Is there fingerprint unlocking? Perhaps he added his

Wonzy

Nothing much you can do. Even setting a Bios password is simple to get around. f you encrypt the laptop and require a password on bootup he can still use a linux or windows live cd to use the internet but won't be able to get into your own account.

Leave charger and battery in boot of car would be the best bet.

Tazium

Change the BIOS settings to boot only from the hard-drive, password protect the BIOS to prevent any other changes and require a start-up password.

Encrypt the disk with your favourite full disk encryption software, again password required at boot.

When you turn on the computer, you'll need a password to move past the BIOS and a further password to boot from the hard drive.

Just changing your windows password won't do it, it's easy to gain access as has already been discussed.

He is perhaps displaying a talent for being able to work out how to gain access and put that into practice. This could turn into a career for him and he might be treating the changing password as a challenge, Coder-Dojo might offer a good challenge to this fledgling talent.

Other things you might do instead of locking him out, is to encrypt your personal stuff and then monitor what he does when he accesses the computer. I'd prefer to know what he's up to than to stop him doing it, but that's me and this is not that kind of thread.

Good luck

dashcamdanny

Tazium wrote: »

Change the BIOS settings to boot only from the hard-drive, password protect the BIOS to prevent any other changes and require a start-up password.

Encrypt the disk with your favourite full disk encryption software, again password required at boot.

When you turn on the computer, you'll need a password to move past the BIOS and a further password to boot from the hard drive.

Just changing your windows password won't do it, it's easy to gain access as has already been discussed.

He is perhaps displaying a talent for being able to work out how to gain access and put that into practice. This could turn into a career for him and he might be treating the changing password as a challenge, Coder-Dojo might offer a good challenge to this fledgling talent.

Other things you might do instead of locking him out, is to encrypt your personal stuff and then monitor what he does when he accesses the computer. I'd prefer to know what he's up to than to stop him doing it, but that's me and this is not that kind of thread.

Good luck

Thanks. he was at coder dojo for a while but he got fed up with scratch.
He has ocd problems which forced us to pull him away from computers with advice from his therapist.
I will try the bios thing .. Cheers.

mordeith

You could always try changing the WiFi password before you go as well. The laptop might not be as fun with not internet access (of course that assumes he just down't connect directly to the router with an ethernet cable).

dashcamdanny

mordeith wrote: »

You could always try changing the WiFi password before you go as well. The laptop might not be as fun with not internet access (of course that assumes he just down't connect directly to the router with an ethernet cable).

i tried that. but he got access to the laptop again and checked show password in the wifi settings. My heart is broke .. does windows 10 have bitlocker?

Senna

Put the keyboard and mouse in a locked drawer.

heroics

Follow Taziums steps.

If that fails use physical security laptop is easier than a PC just put it in something like this
http://www.argos.ie/static/Product/partNumber/7017883/Trail/searchtext%3ELAPTOP+SAFE.htm when you are not using it.

punisher5112

You need to take laptop away. Use it and put it away.

Lock it in a room kid can not access or a garage if you have one.

You need to take the temptation away

200motels

shanec1928 wrote: »

Bitlocker is only available on Windows 7 for either enterprise or ultimate. From 8 it's pro onwards.

Back to the op set a boot password as well as changing your Windows user password

Yeah your right I forgot it wasn't on 7 Pro.

200motels

dashcamdanny wrote: »

i tried that. but he got access to the laptop again and checked show password in the wifi settings. My heart is broke .. does windows 10 have bitlocker?

Windows 10 Pro has it.

RustyNut

To answer your question, I would lock up my laptop when I wasn't using it.

However if I had a 13 year old with the talent to hack passwords etc they would have their own computer and I would encourage them to carry on with doing whatever it is that gave them the skills to hack your laptop.

jimmycrackcorm

dashcamdanny wrote:

I have a 13 year old son who is some how able to use my computer when i'm away.

How can you tell?

dashcamdanny

RustyNut wrote: »

To answer your question, I would lock up my laptop when I wasn't using it.

However if I had a 13 year old with the talent to hack passwords etc they would have their own computer and I would encourage them to carry on with doing whatever it is that gave them the skills to hack your laptop.

Thanks. I know exactly where your coming from.

And it has been tried. He is just not mature enough to be let loss on the web or even games. His condition takes over and it leads to trouble.

He has managed to hack through microsoft family safety as well. So I cant even monitor his activity.

He will have his chance to shine, just not yet.

Im about to buy this http://filehippo.com/download_folder_lock/

Fysh

I think part of the issue is that, beyond a certain point, attempting to use technical means to thwart him will just put you into a sort of arms race that he's better equipped for (partly because he's motivated to do it for whatever reason and partly because it sounds like he already has a fair amount of experience and knowledge).

The only approach I can imagine being likely to work would be one using multiple staggered steps, with the idea being to hopefully make it tiresome enough to use the computer that he gives up. Which, in itself, is not all that likely. So, repeating some of what has already been suggested, here are some steps you could take:

• Check your BIOS, limit it to booting from your hard drive, then set a (complex) password - this makes it harder to use things like login screen bypass or password reset tools.
• If available, enable the "intrusion detection logging" in BIOS. This lets you know if he has tried to reset the BIOS by removing the battery or using the hardware jumper reset method (not usually an option in most laptops from the last 5-6 years or so, but still worth being aware of).
• Disable your network adapters in BIOS so that internet access is only available if you manually enable them.
• Encrypt your disk and require a password for startup - you can use TrueCrypt or something similar for this if you don't want to have to upgrade Windows to use Bitlocker.
• Split your user accounts: Create a new administrator account, then drop your account to standard user permissions. Create an account for your son as well if he doesn't already have one (if he does, disable it and create a new one). Re-enforce the Family Safety limitations on the account. Personally, I'd also be setting User Account Control to the highest level and spending some time going through the Group-Policy-only options for UAC, to make it harder for him to bypass things.
• Go through the list of installed programs and remove anything you don't recognize. Check that you have hidden files as visible and "show file extensions" enabled, and check your user profile (and any other regularly-used folders, eg the Desktop) for executables or script files you don't recognise. Delete anything you find if you can't make sense of it.
• Secure your wireless router and reset the password for for your wireless network, and do not set your browser to remember the password.
• Often overlooked - if your laptop has a lockslot, buy a Kensington lock and lock it somewhere inconvenient/inaccessible when you aren't using it!

If you want to go even further down the rabbit hole, you could look at things like Microsoft's Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit. But at that point I think evaluating non-technical alternatives would be more likely to succeed...

Jack Killian

RustyNut wrote: »

To answer your question, I would lock up my laptop when I wasn't using it.

However if I had a 13 year old with the talent to hack passwords etc they would have their own computer and I would encourage them to carry on with doing whatever it is that gave them the skills to hack your laptop.

I wouldn't - hacking passwords / anything is a fairly lowlife activity and should be nipped in the bud ASAP.

Encourage him to do proper / decent things.

OP - the best lesson he can learn here is that actions have consequences; if there is a games console in the house then that goes under physical lock and key for a day each time he defies you.

If that's not an option then do an equivalent for mom's/dad's taxi service or something else he cherishes.

But be sure to emphasise cause and effect and how the solution is in his own hands.

DopeTech

He's probably reading all this.

If I were you I would install sophos home security (it's free) on ypur account, then when not using it log in from any device to https://home.sophos.com/ and disable all internet activity. He'll get fairly bored quickly.

Obviously there is things he could do to avoid this also but its worth a try.

stefanovich

I don't get why you are denying your obviously smart kid access to a computer.

dioni

If HDD is not encrypted Windows is open to login without knowing or changing the current password (Koon-Boot or other tools). Switch off USB boot option (BIOS), or encrypt HDD (Bitlocker, or TrueCrypt).

dioni

If HDD is not encrypted Windows is open to login without knowing or changing the current password (Koon-Boot or other tools). Switch off USB boot option (BIOS), or encrypt HDD (Bitlocker, or TrueCrypt).
BTW - check machine for keyloggers and... your room for cameras ;-)

dioni

If HDD is not encrypted Windows is open to login without knowing or changing the current password (Koon-Boot or other tools). Switch off USB boot option (BIOS), or encrypt HDD (Bitlocker, or TrueCrypt).
BTW - check your machine for keyloggers and... your room for cameras ;-)

stefanovich

He's obviously going to lose the arms race with the kid. Stop looking at porn if that's what you're worried about. Hell just stop using the computer and give it to him. He'll make better use of it.

ItHurtsWhenIP

Folks - don't forget TrueCrypt is no longer supported - it was great when it was, but sadly tis no longer.

I've been using VeraCrypt, which evolved from TrueCrypt v7.1a and it is supported.

dashcamdanny

stefanovich wrote: »

He's obviously going to lose the arms race with the kid. Stop looking at porn if that's what you're worried about. Hell just stop using the computer and give it to him. He'll make better use of it.

LOL. Really.. I could not be bothered with those sort of things at my age.


He is a great kid, love him to bits. Buts its not easy.. Have the gray hair to prove it.

I will have to get him to help me all the things listed above! :pac:

Digital Solitude

Jack Killian wrote: »

I wouldn't - hacking passwords / anything is a fairly lowlife activity and should be nipped in the bud ASAP.

Encourage him to do proper / decent things.

All the advice I can offer is to completely ignore this, hacking is a very viable career with money to be made and openings always available. A white hat hacker basically does his best to hack into a company's system, with their permission, to try and expose security flaws and loopholes, saving them a lot of money and making a bit for the hacker. Completely legal and above board.

Charles Babbage

For a laptop the simplest solution is to physically lock it away, either in a locked cabinet or in a locked steel box.

Jack Killian

Digital Solitude wrote: »

All the advice I can offer is to completely ignore this, hacking is a very viable career with money to be made and openings always available. A white hat hacker basically does his best to hack into a company's system, with their permission, to try and expose security flaws and loopholes, saving them a lot of money and making a bit for the hacker. Completely legal and above board.

Something that he does not have at present, and therefore needs to learn the distinction.

stefanovich

dashcamdanny wrote: »

LOL. Really.. I could not be bothered with those sort of things at my age.


He is a great kid, love him to bits. Buts its not easy.. Have the gray hair to prove it.

I will have to get him to help me all the things listed above! :pac:

So why are you denying him access? Are you worried that he's looking at porn? Or are you worried that he's trying to hack into the NSAs servers and you'll have the party van over at your house?

Digital Solitude

Jack Killian wrote: »

Something that he does not have at present, and therefore needs to learn the distinction.

Well he's not being paid to do it so doesn't need the permission yet.

If he's good enough and interested enough to make a genuine career from it now is the time for him to learn and gain experience.

Regardless, it's the OPs call, I was just trying to alert him to the fact that his son may have a calling.

I'm sure it's been tried but is controlling his access a possibility? Giving him an hour or so a day for good behaviour or whatever and completely locking everything up with lock and key otherwise. He might be more inclined to be sound and respect the time he has with in instead of going behind your back.

DopeTech

I'm curious to know what exactly is he doing that is so bad to deny any access?

Jack Killian

Digital Solitude wrote: »

Well he's not being paid to do it so doesn't need the permission yet.

If he's good enough and interested enough to make a genuine career from it now is the time for him to learn and gain experience.

Regardless, it's the OPs call, I was just trying to alert him to the fact that his son may have a calling.

I'm sure it's been tried but is controlling his access a possibility? Giving him an hour or so a day for good behaviour or whatever and completely locking everything up with lock and key otherwise. He might be more inclined to be sound and respect the time he has with in instead of going behind your back.

Sorry but that statement is ridiculous. He's obviously ignoring instructions from the owner, or else the OP wouldn't be posting here.

By your logic someone going where they shouldn't be shouldn't be arrested for trespassing because they haven't been paid.

If there's a password there then anyone trying to use it needs permission, and if the op's son doesn't learn this they'd be in court in no time.

Tech advice is only solving the headache, whereas the brain tumour is a lack of respect.

That said, this is in the tech forum and not the parenting forum, so I'll leave it at that.