How to 'lock' desktop on a virtual machine

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Argus

Forerunner
I'd appreciate some help on this issue :)

I have a rather snoopy friend coming around to stay with me for a few days and he likes to click on just about anything on my pc. How do I give him a net enabled pc yet keep my personal stuff away.

I have VMware workstation installed on my pc. Is there some kind of lock option (in vmware or any other virtual machine software) where user can not exit the virtual desktop.

Any other solution is welcome, my basic requirement is to provide the friend a basic net enabled desktop environment and no access to most of the files on my HDDs.
 
Assuming you're on Windows what if you enable the guest login and "take ownership" of the files/folders you don't want your friend to see? I believe that needs NTFS though. You can test it out after taking ownership of the files and logging into guest account it should not have access...
 
afaik there is no way to secure the VM......i have a all together different suggestion though........

1) if u have more than 1 hdd installed on the comp.....

- load windows onto the other hdd (keeping the existing one on which the existing os resides).....load windows - drivers - needed apps , go to bios , change boot priority...let it boot by default using the other hdd.

if u have NTFS then using user permissions u can allow access only to u and no other user on the pc.

2) alternate / combined method with the above step......How to lock drives with Folder Lock , u might need the *cough**cough* release
 
Sorry i should have mentioned it, i'm on Vista ultimate 32 bit.

Some more details :

I have 2 hdd's 750 and 320 gb. All my partitions are ntfs. My OS is on c drive of 320 gb disk. All my data is on the 750 gb hdd and some data is on a separate partition of 320 gb disk.

currently I log in with a passworded admin a/c.

After a few days when my friend would have left, how can I remove the ownership thingy :P

i mean if have to connect the hdd to any other pc, how can I be able to view my files.
 
These are some of the ways that came to my mind.

1. Add a separate user account for your friend. Right click the folder that you don't want your friend to access, choose Properties ->Securities and disable all permissions for the account you created. In addition to this, you can use Windows Parental Controls to only allow whitelisted applications to be run, certain sites to be blocked etc. Your friend will be able to see the folder, but won't be able to open it.

2. Right click on Computer -> Manage -> Disk Management. Select the partition you don't want your friend to access. Right click and choose 'Change Drive Letter and Paths'. Choose Remove. The partition won't be listed any more in Explorer. You can come back here again to enable it.

3. Use TrueCrypt to encrypt your data.
 
Or you can use this wonderful App Trucrypt.

What you can do is create a encrypted volume using truecrypt and pop all your private files in there. The Volume is mountable as a drive and best of all is open source and pretty much uncrackable.

There are a few more options that you can read in the Manual.
 
One has Many options when you have vista and VMware.

A. Vista
Create a new account, and activate parental control on that account.
Go to Control Panel and in search type Parental.

For more help either Google or use the built-in Help & support of vista.

B. VMware
You can switch VMware in exclusive mode and change the hotkeys for switching the same with a combination which you know no one will press that at the same time.
 
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saumilsingh said:
Since you already have a seperate drive for all your data, why not just disconnect that drive for the timebeing?
Click to expand...

I have some data on a separate partition on the OS hdd as well. There will still be plenty of stuff on the OS partition like the installed sw that the fellow would like to give a try, my documents folder, firefox bookmarks ... blah blah.

andrew327 said:
B. VMware

You can switch VMware in exclusive mode and change the hotkeys for switching the same with a combination which you know no one will press that at the same time.
Click to expand...

Sounds perfect to me. I don't need to change anything in my existing environment, hell even torrents can be left running in background while the friend gets to work on a full screen virtual desktop. And the usual key cobmbination won't take him back to the host machine. :hap2:

Thanks :)
 
^^ And I was so happy .... :@

pressing ctrl+alt+del on a virtual machine running Win XP brought back the vista login screen. When I selected the option 'start task manager' i got full access to vista desktop :(
 
Argus said:
^^ And I was so happy .... :@

pressing ctrl+alt+del on a virtual machine running Win XP brought back the vista login screen. When I selected the option 'start task manager' i got full access to vista desktop :(
Click to expand...

Looks like you VMware is not configured properly, never done that to me, have like 30-40 machines running multiple VM's on each of them......
 
Yeah, i'm on default settings more or less.

I just tried to look through the user preferences and settings but couldn't stumble upon anything that blocks ctrl+Alt+Del.

Tried to google and found that C+A+D is handled by msgina.dll

Everybody was complaining of how stubborn Gina is :no:
 
andrew327 said:
Looks like you VMware is not configured properly, never done that to me, have like 30-40 machines running multiple VM's on each of them......
Click to expand...

Hey mate, it'd be really useful if you can share any pointers as to how you managed to achieve this functionality.
 
Argus said:
Hey mate, it'd be really useful if you can share any pointers as to how you managed to achieve this functionality.
Click to expand...
As right now i do not have any vista machine around with VMWare loaded on it, can only check tomorrow when i go to office
this is just guessing the file location path but the steps are right :bleh: ....

  1. navigate to C:\Users\All Users\VMware\VMware Workstation\
  2. Locate and Open the file Config.ini
  3. add the line mks.ctlAltDel.ignore = "TRUE"
  4. Or if present make the value "TRUE"
 
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