See    
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Desktop-Enhancements/Clocks-Time-Management/DoNotDisturb.shtml

This might be something worth looking into and it is free. It is all I 
could find as a software application blocker.

I know there are ways to monitor what is going on on several computers 
in real time from a single location. I'll look into that and pass on 
anything I might find.

Tom

Frederick Navarro wrote:
> Hi Tom, thanks.  We cannot deactivate the usb ports since our students would
> still use flash drives for their exercises and projects.  The only concern I
> have are for the games.  Though I might have said before with what kind of
> games are played which were resource hungry, but some would bring in trial
> version of yahoo games (i.e. scrabble, textwist,etc) so my question here
> lies as to how we could avoid students from playing while classes are going
> on.  Thanks
>
> Frederick
>
> On Mon, Oct 13, 2008 at 10:07 AM, Thomas Mayer <[log in to unmask]>wrote:
>
>   
>> Just an initial thought. If you do not need active USB ports, you may be
>> able to deactivate them through the BIOS and then password protect the BIOS
>> (which you probably have already done).
>>
>> You could use Tweak UI to limit the hard drives being recognized by XP to
>> only the internal drives, but the students will likely not take long to
>> figure that one out.
>>
>> BTW  With only 256MB of  RAM, you are already limiting the games that can
>> be played.
>>
>> Tom
>>
>>
>>
>>     
>
>                 Curious about the people moderating your
>                    messages? Visit our staff web site:
>                     http://freepctech.com/staff.shtml
>
>   

        The NOSPIN Group has added a new feature on our website,
           web based bulletinboard for questions and answers:
              Visit our sister website at http://nospin.com