Families need a system for sharing the PC

BY LARRY MAGID
Special to the Mercury News
August 23, 2001

In the best of all worlds, everyone in your family would have a computer so there would be no fighting over who gets to use it and no worries about one person messing up another person's files.

But we don't live in the best of all worlds. Even though PCs keep getting cheaper, they're still a major investment for most families. Besides, some people don't even have enough room for several computers in their home.

If you have kids and if you can possibly arrange it, it's a good idea to have at least two computers -- one for the kids and another for the adults. That way, the kids aren't as likely to wipe out that PowerPoint presentation you're working on or the Quicken files you use to keep track of the family's finances.

Also, if you choose to use a filter to keep the kids out of harm's way on the Internet, you can put one on the kids' computer and not on yours. If you have two kids and they both need to use the PC at the same time, you can let one of them use the ``adult'' computer as long as you're certain they won't do anything to mess it up.

But a lot of families only have one PC so it's necessary for kids and adults to learn to share. Fortunately, there are ways to make it safe and even convenient for multiple users.

Windows 95 and above, for example, allows you to set up your system for multiple users.

You can create a ``family log on'' that lets you assign a user name and optional password for every member of the family.

I tested it with Windows Me by creating an account for me and other one for ``Junior,'' a mythical kid (I have real kids but they don't share a PC with me).

Sure enough I was able to create a totally separate computing environment for Junior. He didn't have access to some of my programs, he had a different Internet Explorer home page, a different set of Web favorites and I was able to configure Microsoft Word so that he had his own place to store files and even his own special set of Word menus and icons that are more kid friendly than the ones I use.

The ability to customize Microsoft Word can be especially helpful if you have elementary school aged kids.

I figured this out a number of years ago when my daughter, who was in elementary school at the time, was enamored with a program she used at school called the Student Writing Center. The program, which, as far as I know, is no longer available, was incredibly kid friendly.

She wanted it on our home PC but I didn't want to install and support another word processing program so, instead, I customized Microsoft Word so that it looked and acted a lot like the other program.

I used Word's customization feature (select Customize from the Tools menu) to remove many of the icons and menu selections that she didn't need and created a special toolbar with icons for the commands that she needed.

I also set it up so that she had her own default data directory so that she couldn't accidentally write over one of my files or even open my files.

It's also very nice to be able to customize your Internet browser with a home page and set of favorites just for kids. You could use a very kid friendly home page such as Yahooligans.com, Ask Jeeves for Kids (www.aj.com), NickJr (www.nickjr.com) or PBS Kids (www.pbskids.org). For more kid friendly sites, visit www.netmom.com.

With Windows Me (the only version of Windows I tested it on) I was able to set different screen resolutions for different users. I had mine set for a relatively high resolution (1024 by 768) and Junior's set for lower resolution and larger type. In the real world, however, it should be better the other way. I never understood why children's books and software have large print considering that kids usually have better eyesight than adults.

Macintosh OS9 has a multiple user control panel that allows you to set users with four different types of accounts.

One is the owner account that has complete control over everything. You can also set up Normal accounts that have the same privileges except they can't make changes to the Owner account. For your kids, you might consider a Limited Account which gives you the ability to control what applications they can launch as well as what CDs or DVDs (if any) they can access.

For very young kids consider the Panel view that also hides the Mac user interface and allows kids to access files and programs from a simple panel of icons.

Mac OS X is based on Unix which means that it's born and bred as a multi-user environment but it shares a similar attribute of Windows 98 and Me.

You have to type in your user name which could make it harder for some kids. OS9 provides a user menu on boot up.

Microsoft Windows XP, which will be available on Oct. 25th, is designed as a multi-user environment with far more user friendly options than earlier versions.

Each person's files and software can be completely isolated from other people's and you'll be able to switch users without shutting down the programs you're using though I would always recommend saving files before switching users. Like Mac OS9, you get a menu of users when you start up the machine with the ability to assign a special icon (or even a photograph) to each user.

These multi-user operating systems are a step in the right direction but there's still one problem. Unless your child is sitting on your lap, it's awfully difficult for more than one person to use the same machine at the same time.