Windows 7 Series: Parental Controls using Windows Live Essentials

            The purity and safety of our children while they are using the Internet is a great concern for all parents. Fortunately, there are tools available built into Windows 7. Utilizing the Windows 7 parental controls you can set access levels for Internet pages and games they can play. In an administrative account, you can audit the children’s activity online to see what they were accessing. In addition, you can control the hours that the child’s account can be logged in, helping with the dreaded “ log off” time.

            In order to utilize the parental controls, a standard permissions user account would have to be created for the child. If you are unsure how complete this, visit our Windows 7 Series: Creating a Standard User Account Guide. As well, to gain the advanced feature such as web content filtering, you must install the Microsoft Live Essentials application. You can download it directly from the Microsoft Live Essentials site by clicking here.

Click the Start Menu then select Control Panel.

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Select the Set up parental controls for any user option

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This action may bring a User Access Control window to appear. Select Yes. Once this has been completed, a Parental Control Window will appear. Select the desired account. In my case, I will select the Children account.

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If you have selected to download the Microsoft Live Essentials, this will the Windows Live Family Safety application. After you log in, place a check box next to the user account you wish to monitor, and select Next.

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Select the Select a Family Safety Member drop down box, and choose Add user_name then select Save.

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After a few minutes of processing, a window will appear which will advise you if the group has been created successfully. Close this window out, and return to the Parental Control Window that was left open. Select the appropriate user account. this will launch an Internet Explorer window to the Family Safety Configuration Homepage. 

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Depending upon your needs, you can edit towards your requirements. The following screen shots display the various settings that you can modify within the Parental Control Configuration.

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In this option, you select the hours the account can be utilized using the blue to fill the dates and times. For example in my account, it can be used seven days a week from 9 A.M.  - 6 P.M. Windows 7 only supports one hour time ranges.

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