Workshop: Use Steadystate to protect your settings

If you share a family PC, you’ll know how infuriating it can be to take to the keyboard only to find that someone has messed about with some option or other.

No matter how harmless their intent, children in particular are prone to fiddling about with settings, installing unwanted programs and performing other undesirable activities.

Windows XP users can protect their computer using Windows Steadystate, a free program from Microsoft that makes it possible to place various restrictions on individual user accounts and wipe out unwanted changes.