Trial and error is one option obviously, but a very time consuming one associated with risks. A tool like Check Shell Restrictions on the other hand displays all restrictions in place on a Windows PC after execution.

It takes about a second to compile the list of restritions and determine if they are enabled on the PC.

check shell restrictions

A green icon in front of a restriction indicates that it is not active in Windows, a red icon the opposite.

While it is great to see all enabled and disabled restrictions in a list, it becomes obvious on first glance that the program aims for a “hardcore” audience. Settings like Rest_ARP_NOARP, Rest_Nonethood or Rest_Noclose do not reveal immediately what they refer to, and the program unfortunately does not offer any explanation either.

A search on the Internet however reveals the information needed to interpret the settings. A MSDN Library lists all Restrictions (that’s what the Rest stands for) with their description:

These flags are used with the SHRestricted function. SHRestricted is used to determine whether a specified administrator policy is in effect. In many cases, applications need to modify certain behaviors in order to comply with the policies enacted by system administrators.

Check Shell Restrictions is a portable software for Windows, that can reveal the restrictions of a PC upon execution. The developer should consider adding descriptions to each restriction, or links pointing to web resources that offer the explanations. [download, via Instant Fundas)

This is great if you have some friends, family members or other guys who tend to break things or do stuff on your computer that you do not want. With Steady State you do not care at all anymore because all they do is gone after rebooting the computer. After adding a user, which can be imported if you are using Steady State on another computer, you can select either one of the pre defined security profiles such as High, Medium, Low, No Restrictions or Custom ones.

Custom ones are probably the most important ones because you get to control what the selected user can do in detail. These restrictions can be defined in the four tabs General, Windows Restrictions, Feature Restrictions and Block Programs.

The General Tab lets you specify a time limit for this account and select if you want to automatically reboot the computer once the limit has been reached. This one is actually pretty nice to prevent that your kids for instance access the computer longer than they are allowed to.

The Windows Restriction tab lets you hide drives and restrict Windows functions. This includes to block access to the task manager, command prompt and removing the run icon in Windows. This removes options for the user to make serious changes to the system, most of the time many of those options will have to be enabled if you want to secure your computer.

Feature Restrictions removes features from Internet Explorer, Toolbar and Microsoft Office. It is possible to prevent printing, remove tabs in Internet Options, and disable the macro menu in Microsoft Office.

The Blocked Programs tabs lets you block softwares that are installed on the system from being executed by the user. Many softwares are already in that list but you can also browse your system and add executables to that list.

The big question however is if Solid State is really securing the system to prevent clever users from accessing it. The answer is of course no it does not. It does help to protect your children and users who do not work regularly with computers. Everyone who knows how to work with Linux Live CDs knows how to break into a Windows XP system or use Linux to do whatever you would like.

The software checks if your Windows installation is genuine during installation.

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Microsoft Windows Steady State