Prevent forbidden access to PC

[mizfiesta]

I have teenage children, who, when they misbehave, get barred from using my pc. I password protect my aol accounts so that stops them from going online, but how do I stop them from going on my pc at all and accessing the basic pc functions? Is there software I can buy or download for free? I see I have the option to 'log off' when I shut down the pc but I'm scared to log off just in case I can't log back on! I assigned a password to it when I got the pc years ago and I've forgotten it! I still have windows 98. Can anyone advise me?

[ACtheTROLL]

with XP the obvious answer is to create a seperate account for each kid ... password protected of course ..

and then as administrator you simply disable the account.
however ... any administrator can do this ... so the kids accounts need to be user or super user (you can also use this to keep them out of your private files.

unfortunately to win 98 security is something other people have;-)

the only way of keeping them out of 98 is to take the unit with you.

[fo3nix]

You could probably set a BIOS password.

When the computer is starting up, on the black screen with lots of white text, it'll say at the botttom "press DEL for options" or something like that. delete key, F2 key, escape key, something like that (it depends on your motherboard's BIOS).

In here, be very careful! These are the basic computer settings that happen before windows loads. One of the options here is often the choice of a password. This will be asked for before you even boot into windows.

Not government secure, but good enough to stop your children getting on.