When you want a computer to stay on 24/7 no matter who’s using it, take away the ability for other users to shut down the computer. This is an easy task. But before doing that, you must have administrative access.

Go to Start -> Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Local Security Settings and in the right hand window expand the Local Policies branch then click on the User Rights Assignment tab. On the right hand window now find the "Shut down the system policy" and double click on it that will open up a new window. Now simply add or remove the user groups that you want to have shut down power and you’re set!

If you don’t want others on the LAN to access your computer, passwords are the first step. But what about hiding the PC completely so that it’s not even visible on the network?

To hide a computer from the network neighborhood you first must load up a command prompt (Start -> Run then type CMD and press enter). From there type ‘net config server /hidden:yes’ and then press the enter key. After that’s done the PC you’re working on should disappear from the browser list (note it can take up to 30 minutes). If you want the computer to show up again, simply replace the ‘yes’ with a ‘no’.

Windows XP Pro has a limited variety of user privileges available to choose from, and at times the default choice of ‘Administrator’ or ‘Limited’ user privileges falls far short of the situation. But whether you know this or not, there are a few more privilege levels hidden away from view; such as ‘Power Users,’ ‘Backup Operators’ and ‘Network Configuration Operators’ to name just a few. To enable these privileges types is a bit trickier, but here’s the low down on how to access all the different accounts available to Windows XP.

First right click on the "My Computer" icon and go to "Manage". The "Computer Management" window will open and follow this path Local Users and Groups -> Users. In the right hand window, right click and select "New User…" Enter the user name and description to remind you of this account’s powers then press the "Create" button, then "Close". Right click on the new account and go to "Properties" then click the "Member Of" tab and the "Add…" button. From here click "Advanced…" and then the "Find Now" button and a list of all different user levels will appear. Select the one you want this account to have, then press the "Ok" button three times. Now that newly created account will have intermediate powers between a full Administrator and the base limited option.

This tip is useful for those times when you want to give someone more capabilities without requiring the administrator to baby-sit everything. For instance ‘Network Configuration Operators’ can adjust the networking properties like assigning IP addresses, configuring the DNS, etc., yet they do not have the ability to install programs (think Spyware). Power Users can install and run non-essential OS affecting programs, but cannot delete or modify someone else’s account or data without permission. Assigning Privileges are also a great way stopping kids from messing up the family computer too.

This tip is applicable for Windows 2000, 2003, Vista & 7.

Networking in Windows XP can be a very tedious task, and frustrating if the PC is denied access to a shared folder even if it’s open to the rest of the network. Luckily there’s a quick and easy registry tweak that will solve this issue once and for good.

Load up the Windows registry editor (Start -> Run then type “regedit” and press the OK button) and follow this path HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -> SYSTEM -> CurrentControlSet -> Control->Lsa. From there in the right hand window, modify or create the “restrictanonymous” DWORD and give it a value of “0“. After that’s done, save reboot and you’re set! No more “You might not have permission to use this network resource” errors when connecting to a public network folder.
The same is applicable for Windows Vista & Windows 7.

Microsoft Windows Vista/7 allows the system administrator to permanently enable or restrict the OS-level installation of specific hardware device families; everything from the videocard to hard drive, monitor or USB keys.

In a corporate environment a single 8GB USB flash drive can surreptitiously cart away significant amounts of confidential or sensitive information in a matter of seconds, without the pixel trail FTP or email leaves behind.

How to permanently disable a USB flash drive from being installed onto a PC running Windows Vista?

To access this feature in Windows Vista, type in ‘gpedit.msc’ in the Start Search box and press the enter key. Click Continue when the UAC prompt appears and the Group Policy editor will show up. Follow this path: Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> System -> Device Installation Restrictions. Enable the ‘Prevent installation of drivers matching these device setup classes’, click ‘Show’ then ‘Add’. From here you have to type the GUID key (a Globally Unique IDentifier for hardware devices) for the device class you want to prevent Vista from installing. For example, a disk drive would be ‘(4d36e967-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}’ and a flash drive ‘(4d36e970-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318)‘.

To get the whole list of GUID keys, surf on over to this Microsoft page (http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/devinst_d/hh/DevInst_d/setup-cls_f7544122-69a3-4b34-85f5-db3714408026.xml.asp).

Once all the GUID device keys you want Vista not to install are inserted, close the ‘Group Policy Editor’ and you’re all set. Windows Vista will no longer allow installation of those devices once it is up and running. To re-enable installation of the banned devices, simply follow the path through the Group Policy Editor, select the GUID string that you want to remove, for example ‘{4d36e967-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}’ for hard drives, and click the ‘Remove’ button.

This tip is applicable for Windows 7 also. But path is Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> System -> Device Installation -> Device Installation Restrictions.