Some computers, particularly manufactured one's like Dell Gateway, etc,
sometimes have a password protect feature at the BIOS level that will
prevent your PC from Posting with out a password. In order to defeat them ,
you would engage a jumper on the motherboard.

With ME you will not be able to do much, if anything, natively. With NT,
2000, or XP you could password protect windows, and run a NTFS file system,
which would not be accessible from a boot floppy. This would accomplish
want you wish to do, but if someone is determined, there are cracker
programs that are designed to break Administrative passwords on such
systems. This, of course, would take a certain level of sophistication that
I doubt your son has .... yet.

If you want to stay with your current setup, then you could purchase an
encryption program. These are designed for  computers with sensitive data,
and mobile Laptops. Such programs will password protect and encrypt your
entire hard drive. No one will be able to boot your system or access your
data without the password. Period. However,I know of no freeware program
that will do this.

Encryption will solve your problem, and meet your needs without installing
a new OS, but you will have to buy the program, and your computer will take
a performance hit, because files will be decrypted on the fly. But if you
have a modern computer then this shouldn't be a problem.

Rode
The NOSPIN Group
http://freepctech.com

>  What I want to do is stop all physical access to my Win ME machine by my
> teenager. When I leave the house,
>he starts my machine and visits porn sites. I can't trust him, so I want
>to deny him complete access.
>I don't want him to be able to get to Windows, and especially, not to a
>dos prompt.
>
>  Al Thompson
>
> >

      "Hold No Punches.." Rode brings you great shareware/freeware
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