Tool updates Windows XP security settings

Windows XP's per-user security settings are usually set manually or handled through Group Policies. Group Policy Objects (GPOs) are most useful in environments where many users are being managed; on a single system, it's less useful since you can make the changes just as easily by hand. In addition, GPOs don't work as well outside of a domain environment, and XP Professional can't apply policies selectively to specific users on its own.

To get around these limitations, programmer Doug Knox wrote a tool called the Windows XP Security Console. With it, an administrator can assign restrictions to specific users without having to deal with GPOs or set up a domain. It can also perform these changes without the administrator having to log in as the user in question, and the admin can create default security settings that the program can re-use and apply to other users in the future.

The program displays security settings for common functions such as Desktop, display options, Control Panel, IE

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's settings, Outlook Express/Messenger, Start Menu and Taskbar, generic system security tasks (i.e., disabling REGEDIT) and Explorer. The only setting that isn't user-specific is the "Disallow Shutdown without Logon" option (in System Security), which is machine-wide. The program also has a setting for which application images to explicitly allow; if you use this "Disallowed Applications" feature, keep in mind that it can only block application images that match a specific file and pathname; it can't block a copy of the image made with a different name.

The program is not free, but at $10 for a single home installation and $50 for a corporate install, the cost is low enough that even a small company can justify its purchase.