How to restrict other users from installing software

Hi ,I am having a laptop with windows 7 operating system installed. I have lots of important document and files stored in it. My younger brother also uses my laptop for chat and mail. He has been downloading all types of software from the net and installing it. Due to this many often virus infects my laptop and I have to format it. Fortunately I had moved all my important files from C drive to D drive. I fear that by some way or the other it can affect my D drive also and I may lose all my files. I want to restrict other users from installing software’s. Can anybody knows or have an idea about it.

I can understand that unfortunately if the virus infects your D drive by any means then you might be losing all your important data. It is possible to restrict other users from installing new software’s in your computer. For this you need to change some settings. Change the settings in windows group policy. This setting helps you in disabling the use of windows installer or you can create a password in the UAC (user Account control).

To restrict from installing software in your laptop click on the start menu, select search and in the space provided type “gpedit.msc”then click the search button. This opens the group policy editor. then go to computer configurations and then click on administrative templates. Here select windows component and then browse to windows installer components. Double click on “disable windows installer”.from here you can make changes in the configuration and give rights to users.

You can set restriction for the other users from installing softwares without your permission. You can do this by making changes in the setting in “group policy editor”.in the”disable windows installer” you can change settings to give rights to other users. The “never”option in the disable windows settings allows other users to install the softwares. Change this option to “always “and this will disable the windows installer. This will definitely solve your problem.

You can create an administrative password for the laptop. This can be done by applying changes in the users account or set a power on password in the BIOS setup. This will prevent others to use your laptop in your absence. Or install “software block”a software that allow administrator to set password for installing new software.