Don't you Hate People Changing your Computer Settings??
 

I get a lot of company and guests; many from out of the country. I'm generous and let one and all use my computers.

Recently, my wife had a fat, lazy, girl friend from out of the country here for about 5 days. She used my laptop often. I didn't realize until after she left that she did this to my laptop: Set is up to automatically load Yahoo Messenger and Log her in anytime the computer was booted up.

Well, I know I was wrong, but this just really Pi$$ed me off and here's what I did: I deleted all her yahoo messenger contacts and then deleted her Yahoo address book!!........Yeah, I know, it was wrong, it was just the last straw of recent rude guests I've had. Flame away..........:D :D:

Ya might want to consider setting up a guest account. Password your user name. Problem solved, but one more step required to logon.

get out an old pc, slap some variant of linux on it...
There's your guest pc...

Just download webconverger and be done with it.... Every time you reboot, the system is new... You can burn a CD, put an image on a thumb drive or internal HD. Linux based as well.

yes I do.

I had one of my friends sons load this crap "windows messenger" onto my computer. Ties into my email somehow? I've never used it, but it pops up everyday and I can't get rid of it.

Dave, help?

Stupid people, now I have a guest computer and only a few sacred people ever touch my box.

Hi Rob!

Give this a try...

To turn on the Do not allow Windows Messenger to be run option, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, click Run, type gpedit.msc, and then click OK.
2. In Group Policy, expand Local Computer Policy, expand Computer Configuration, expand Administrative Templates, expand Windows Components, and then expand Windows Messenger.
3. Double-click Do not allow Windows Messenger to be run, and then click Enabled.
4. Click OK.
5. On the File menu, click Exit to quit the Group Policy snap-in.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/302089

Dave

P.S. BTW, both the options under my settings are "Not configured".

X2, Honestly, you shouldn't be complaining. You had the problem in the past and you failed to correct it. Just set up a guest account and be done with it. I only let guests use my laptop, which is much more convenient for me and the guest.

I'm trying to figure out the balls on these people. I can't imagine using someone's laptop and then messing with the specs or installing programs so that I can chat.

I think this may have come up, create a guest account. Everytime someone leaves, you can delete the account and create new one if you want. Their crap shouldn't touch yours.

Yes, it's irritating when someone installs some crap or changes settings on your PC.

It is worse when people use your PC and get it infected. A guest PC is ideal.

That's what I've done. I've also specified that the only programs a guest can use are Firefox, Word, and Excel. My guest account does not have administrator access and cannot install programs or change settings either.

My stock excuse for when people protest being forced to use the guest account? I have a ton of memory-instensive programs set to run at boot time on my account. It will boot up faster on the guest account. ;)

Oh, and back in a college before there was a such thing as "accounts" on a PC, I wrote a little VB program that would randomly pop up windows with fake error messages.

The problem was that my friends would do things like change the background on my PC to porn pictures (really bizarre stuff) and mess with settings. I also noticed that they would stop using my computer when they thought they broke something. So if I set up a fake error to appear after 45 minutes, it would usually stop them in their tracks from messing with stuff after they finished writing a paper...

I don't let other people use my computer.

Slodave - Great suggestion. Dunno why I didn't think of it. I also have an old desktop in the garage. Next time, she sits out there and "chats'.......thanks for all the input.....

+1

LOL, but I'm an A-hole ;)

I am very protective of my laptop. My parents and my g/f are the only ones allowed to use it. They know not to change crap and I trust that if anything blips they will notify me immediately so I can attempt to remedy the problem.

Me too.:D

That's my middle name when the wifey is calling me!

sloDave,
Thanks buddy,
I tried but it said windows cannot find?
Your the best bud ;)