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up vote 13 down vote favorite

I have 4 kids so the battle for time on the living room computer never ceases, I am also implementing an attempt at some level of control over how much time the kids get based on their behavior etc during the week. Ideally I would like to be able to set each profile up to have only a certain allotment of time, say 2 hours that they can use and once that two hours is nearly up it warns them and once complete it automatically logs them out.

I know the family control stuff can limit the time frames during which they can login but it does not seem to allow this quantity based control I am looking for...

Any other options in the market that you know of?

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Seems like it would be something pretty neat if there were a windows service that could monitor login time, and then auto-logoff when the time was reached - I wonder how hard that might be to write -I've wanted something like this at one point of time or another. – Spig Sep 3 '10 at 15:47
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Doesn't sound so hard for one to implement: Write "time,duration" to a file in a hidden folder with the right permissions: C:\Times\[UserNameHere] and update that file each minute, when the duration goes over a limit then logout, when the time was from the previous day then reset. Now you could create a scheduled task for each child... Warn on limit-1, etc... – Tom Wijsman Sep 4 '10 at 17:37

8 Answers

up vote 5 down vote

I also created my own software to accomplish exactly what your requested. And the best part its that its free since its still in the beta stage. You can find my software at http://digiparent.weebly.com/ Hope you like it!

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up vote 3 down vote

What you are looking for is a Parental Control software that limits the time each user uses the PC. The problem is that there's tons of "programs" out there that supposedly offer this service. My suggestion is to do some research and see what will work best for your situation. I did find this: TimesUpKids. It appears to provide what you are looking for, but again, do your research, because most of these products are paid services and you don't want to buy a crap piece of software.

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appears to cost ... – rogerdpack Mar 16 at 22:04
up vote 3 down vote

K9 Web Protection is a child's (or children's) web filtering and blocking software that is extremely configurable. It offers: web-page filtering, word block, site block, category block, and the Internet time feature. You can set what hours of the day you want the Internet on the computer to be blocked, and can customize each day of the week. All settings are accessed via the web browser, and are protected by a password, which you could give to someone else and not know yourself if you wanted to completely block access. It works cross-browsers; one configuration covers Internet Explorer, Firefox, and others all one the same machine.

As for managing it for each child, I would recommend setting up separate user accounts, and then configure K9 Web Protection in each account to how you want that child to access the internet...

A big point is that you can turn off different aspects of the program, like turn off the webpage filtering, and just use the time feature, or whatever...

Have used the program myself with great success, highly recommend! absolutely no crapware or trialware or anything, just plain free! all you have to do is give them your email for a product key, and it works...they don't send any spam, or bug you about anything...

K9 Web Protection: http://www1.k9webprotection.com/

Did I mention that it is FREE?

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He's asking for a time limit, not hours of operation limit. – Loren Pechtel May 8 at 20:34
K9 is good but it records all web pages accessed by you and you family and sends it to their server later selling it to 3rd parties... – thedrs 3 hours ago
up vote 2 down vote

You can use the command prompt to limit the usage time for any Windows account, please check out this trick:

  • Go to Start menu.
  • Go to Run and Type cmd, press Enter to open a Command Prompt window.
  • Enter the appropriate net user command for the user(s) you wish to restrict access for.

Example 1: Limits the user john to logon Monday- Friday between 8am and 5pm:

net user john /time:M-F,08:00-17:00

Example 2: The same thing can also be expressed as above using the 12 hour clock :

net user john /time:M-F,8am-5pm

Example 3: This shows the easiest way of setting limits that differ on multiple days.

net user john /time:M,8am-5pm;T,1pm-3pm;W-F,8:00-17:00

Example 4: To remove time restrictions:

net user john /time:all
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1  
this doesn't let them actually limit "total time per day to 3 hours" though, right? – rogerdpack Mar 16 at 22:08
up vote 1 down vote

You might want to try a program called TimeBoss. It allows you to set not only blocks, but brakes and flexible limits, and it’s really helpful in managing one’s time.

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appears to cost... – rogerdpack Mar 16 at 22:07
up vote 0 down vote

Windows 7 has these features built-in. Try looking in Control Panel > User Accounts & Family Safety > Parental Controls.

From Windows Help & Support:

You can use Parental Controls to help manage how your children use the computer. For example, you can set limits on the hours that your children can use the computer, the types of games they can play, and the programs they can run.

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It does allow you to select time frames, but it doesn't allow one to assign a time quantity to an account as he asked. As in: "Each child is allowed to only play 1 hour on a school day. So that the time they all played together is a maximum of 4 hours... This way it does not interfere with school/dinner/sleep. On a weekend day that could be 2 hours per child, or something like that..." – Tom Wijsman Sep 4 '10 at 17:32
I tried using the Windows 7 Parental Controls and they were terrible. A pain to configure, all the internet features only work with IE, since the management is web based it takes a while to get the computer to sync with the changes. To top it off, uninstalling it does not disable it, and disabling it completely it really difficult. I would suggest not touching the built in features at all! – Jim McKeeth Jan 6 '11 at 6:16
up vote 0 down vote

Try these two (both are free):

Children Care

K9

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Could you please write something about these programs? People a generally wary of clicking blind links without knowing what to expect, and answers consisting mostly of links tend to look spammy. – oKtosiTe Mar 23 at 23:25
up vote 0 down vote

You can use the shutdown command, implement it as a script to be executed at logon, by admin.

The script content for a 2 h session is as follows.

%windir%\system32\shutdown.exe -s -t 7200 -f

You may try just logging out.

This solution is not bullet proof but simple and effective.

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