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My mother is a schoolteacher, and has an uncanny knack for inadvertently installing spyware/adware/malware whilst surfing the internet. She has a Win8 Laptop, and needs to have access to Office for work.

I have installed Bitdefender (doesn't find everything), Malwarebytes (seems to find everything, but didn't want to spend $), and done a complete wipe of the hard drive (twice).

Would it be possible/preferable to use Win8 rights management to prevent her from being allowed to install anything? If so, how? Is there a software that would solve this problem?

I'm not a sysadmin, less effort and less money are important.

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    Just create a normal user.
    – Ramhound
    Oct 26, 2014 at 22:11
  • It's not clear whether the problem is that she isn't careful and malware sneaks in unnoticed when she installs desired stuff, or she tends to find shady stuff that looks appealing and she is too naive to recognize a problem when she sees it. If it is the former problem, something like WinPatrol would alert her to surreptitious attempts to install unintended stuff. If it's the latter, maybe you need to install "parental controls".
    – fixer1234
    Oct 26, 2014 at 22:34
  • Create a guest account for her.
    – Tomin Jacob
    Oct 27, 2014 at 2:25

1 Answer 1

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Yes you can do it in windows itself rather relying on softwares.

Create new user for your mom in Win8 Laptop

Type gpedit.msc in start search and hit Enter to open the Group Policy Editor.

Navigate to Computer Configurations > Administrative templates > Windows Components > Windows Installer.

In RHS pane double-click on Disable windows installer. Configure the option as required.

This setting can prevent users from installing software on their systems or permit users to install only those programs offered by a system administrator. If you enable this setting, you can use the options in the Disable Windows Installer box to establish an installation setting.

Also you can educate her to disabling and enabling it. She can make use of it when she wants to install much needed software

Hope this helps!

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