Disabling download-function on Windows 8

[.mikEL]

My father who isn't that computer knowledgable usually surfes on stream websites that gets pop-ups and he clicks on them and downloads a chrome add-on or other harmful programs that slows down his pc. So i was wondering if there is a way to disable downloads in windows 8 or just in the chrome browser. Basically not allowing him to download anything should he like or not.

[TAHIRMIA]

Go to 

chrome://flags

scroll down and enable "Supervised Users"

[GoodBytes]

4 hours ago, .mikEL said:

My father who isn't that computer knowledgable usually surfes on stream websites that gets pop-ups and he clicks on them and downloads a chrome add-on or other harmful programs that slows down his pc. So i was wondering if there is a way to disable downloads in windows 8 or just in the chrome browser. Basically not allowing him to download anything should he like or not.

Well under Windows 10, you can lock the entire OS down from any executable that doesn't come from the Windows Store of any kind from that point on, besides the ones already executed. Meaning, you can install all his favorite programs, including Chrome. Then you can lock down the OS with a simple option in the Settings panel of Windows 10, and now Chrome, Notepad, Office, etc.. will all run just fine as they were installed and executed before, but anything else will be blocked, unless it is from the Windows 10 Store. This should give a very good protection against downloading/installing crap, virus, malware, ransomware, etc.

 

But, sadly, you'll need to acquire Windows 10 and upgrade the system.

[TAHIRMIA]

16 hours ago, GoodBytes said:

But, sadly, you'll need to acquire Windows 10 and upgrade the system.

 

Shouldn't W8 have this feature as well or something similar with group policies?

[GoodBytes]

2 hours ago, TAHIRMIA said:

Shouldn't W8 have this feature as well or something similar with group policies?

Not that I know off. Not to this level/behavior I mean. But you can account restrict from installing program by not being admin. Wont' stop ransomware (but then again you should be doing backups) but yes it is an alternative solution. No Group Policy needed, just create a standard user privilege account (unless you have an Admin account already, in which you can change his account permissions instead).

[Mira Yurizaki]

2 hours ago, TAHIRMIA said:

Shouldn't W8 have this feature as well or something similar with group policies?

Windows NT was built with a permissions system, similar to POSIX file permissions. If you are worried about other users installing apps or whatnot that may do awful things to your computer, you need to have them run as a standard account. Anything that wants to install or modify a system location or another user's files would need administrative permission (which means entering a password). Even if the application does not trigger UAC or some other admin elevation prompt, the most the application can wreck havoc on is anything the user account has permission to write to, which normally is their own Users folder. Then, in theory, all you'd have to do is delete the account and that would be the end of that.

 

I know that Chrome and apps using Electron install locally (i.e., only for the user account installing the app) by default. This gives them their own little instance of the app that they can screw with.

 

Anyway, the takeaway: Any user you do not trust on your computer should run on a separate, Standard User level account. This limits the damage they can do to your system. If you want to take it a step further, you can also setup permissions such that the user has no access to folders you don't want that account to access.