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This week we highlight a special feature of Windows Vista Parental Controls—time restrictions.
If you're a parent, you know there’s more to guiding your children’s computer use than shielding them from inappropriate content or contact with strangers.
You also want to ensure that they aren't on the computer for too long a time or when they’re supposed to be doing something else.
With Windows Vista, after you and your family have agreed on a set of rules governing computer use, Parental Controls can help enforce those limits.
Windows Vista Parental Controls are included in the non-business versions of Windows Vista, which are Windows Vista Ultimate, Windows Vista Home Premium, and Windows Vista Home Basic.
Before you can start customizing Parental Controls for your children, you need to create user accounts for each of them. To adjust settings, open Control Panel and then double-click User Accounts and Family Safety. After you select the child you want to apply restrictions to, click Time Limits.
You'll see a grid that shows the days of the week and the hours of the day.
In this example, the white boxes represent the times of day that you allow your child to use the computer. The blue boxes represent the times of day that your child is not allowed to use the computer.
Before you start changing settings, the grid is all white, because the default setting allows your children to use the computer at any time.
Click the specific times and days that you don’t want your child to use the computer.
As your child nears the end of an approved time period, he or she receives warnings that the time period is about to expire.
If your child’s time ends before he or she logs off the computer, Windows Vista suspends your child’s session and displays the logon screen so someone else can use the computer.
Your child's session stays active in the background, so the next time your child logs on, he or she can pick up where they left off without losing their work.
To learn more about other features of Windows Vista Parental Controls, see Features Explained: Parental Controls.
Cookies are small files that Web sites put on your computer hard disk drive when you first visit.
Think of a cookie as an identification card that's uniquely yours. Its job is to notify the site when you've returned. Cookies should not be confused with viruses. While it is possible to misuse a cookie in cases where there is personal data in it, cookies by themselves are not malicious.
Many Web sites, including Microsoft's, use cookies. Cookies tell us how often you visit pages, which helps us find out what information interests you. In this way, we can give you more of the content you like and less of the content you don't.
Cookies can help you be more efficient. Have you ever put something in a virtual shopping cart in an online store and then returned a few days later to find that the item is still there? That's an example of cookies at work.
Cookies let you store preferences and user names, register products and services, and personalize pages.
But if you never register or leave personal information at a site, then the server only knows that someone with your cookie has returned to the Web site. It doesn't know anything else.
You're in charge of deciding whether we know anything about you.
For a more detailed explanation, see Microsoft Help and Support: Description of Cookies.
Windows Vista is officially available, so we thought it was time for you to get to know this new operating system.
Here are five security features in Windows Vista that might just surprise you:
1. Check your spyware protection through the Windows Security Center. If you've used Windows XP, then you already know about Windows Security Center, the all-in-one monitoring tool that helps you keep track of your firewall, automatic updates, and antivirus software.
Windows Security Center for Windows Vista has more security categories. It now warns you if your antispyware software is not up and running like it should be.
For more information on the new features of the Windows Security Center, see the Windows Vista Security blog.
2. Help prevent identity theft with Phishing Filter. Windows Vista comes with Phishing Filter, which is built in to Internet Explorer 7. You just need to turn it on.
The filter checks Web pages before you connect to them and warns you about sites that have typical characteristics of fraudulent Web sites designed to steal your identity, sometimes called phishing scams.
The filter is updated several times an hour using the latest security information from Microsoft and several industry partners. This can help you avoid identity theft from phony sites that might look, for example, like your bank's site.
For more information, see Phishing Filter: Help protect yourself from online scams.
3. New junk mail filter for Windows Mail. Windows Mail, the new e-mail program that comes with Windows Vista, helps reduce the risks of junk mail and scams.
In fact, Windows Mail comes with a junk e-mail filter that until now has been available only in Microsoft Office Outlook.
For more information, see Windows Vista: Windows Mail.
4. Track what your children are doing online. If you’re a parent, you already know how important it is to have open communication with your children about their computer use.
You might also want to review what your child is doing online. With Windows Vista, you can create activity reports that provide details of how your children have spent their time on the computer, including the Web pages they've visited, programs they've used, and games they've played.
For more information, see Windows Vista Parental Controls.
5. Find security tools faster. When you want to change settings on the security tools in Windows Vista, there’s no need to dig through the Start menu or the control panel.
Simply type "Windows Security Center," "Phishing Filter," "Parental Controls," or any other program or file into the Instant Search box on the Start menu and then select it from the programs list.
For more information, see Windows Vista: Improved productivity.