Among the many new features that Microsoft added to the latest version of Windows, Windows Vista, is a parental control system. This is great news, as it means that Vista users can protect their kids and their computer without forking out for extra software.

You'll find the settings in the 'User Accounts and Family Safety', which is found by clicking the Start button and selecting Control Panel. The parental controls require each user to have their own user account, so before going any further make sure you have created an account, and password, for every user as described earlier. Once you've set up the user accounts, you can turn on Parental Controls for each user, and also ask Windows to create reports of what the users have been doing with the PC.

There are four main areas to the controls built into Vista - web, games, time and programs. The web controls let you restrict which websites can be accessed by a user. It's possible to choose from broad categories, or by specifically listing allowed sites, so there's a plenty of scope for altering the settings to suit individual children. It's also possible to block downloads.



The games controls allow adults to block games by name or by PEGI rating, and the program controls can be used to restrict children so they can only run certain applications - Word, perhaps, but not the Sage accounting software. Finally, Vista allows you to restrict the times at which children can use the computer, so it's easy to prevent all-night gaming sessions.