How to Restrict Logon Hours in Windows XP

An anonymous reader’s son plays games on his computer all day, neglecting his studies. He wants to impose some restriction on his son’s PC usage, so that he could concentrate more in his studies.

Well, there are lots of paid software available, but I hardly know any freeware which can restrict access to your PC. Inorder to effectively restrict access to your PC for based on timings; you can make use of NET USER command with the following syntax

[code]net user username /times:{day[-day][,day[-day]] ,time[-time][,time[-time]] [;…] | all}[/code]

Some Examples:

  • net user thilak /time:M-F,08:00-17:00
  • net user thilak /time:M-F,8am-5pm
  • net user thilak /time:M,4am-5pm;T,1pm-3pm;W-F,8:00-17:00
  • net user thilak /time:all (this allows user to logon at any time, on any day)

How to?

  1. Go to command prompt from Start > Run and type “cmd” (without quotes)
  2. Type any one of the appropriate net user command to restrict the user
  3. Type “exit” (without quotes)

Note: The time is limited to one hour increment, which means you can only restrict the user by one-one hour (like 13:00, 16:00, not 13:30 or 16:45). You can use the abbreviation for the day (that is, M,T,W,Th,F,Sa,Su)

This post was published by on March 6, 2007

About the Author: Thilak Rao works as a Social Media Expert. He is one of the first professional bloggers from India, and he loves to write, travel and click photos. Follow him on Twitter @thilak

  • http://www.whoismadhur.com Madhur

    Will This work in network environment also .

  • http://abhishekbhatnagars.blogspot.com abhishekbhatnagar

    ya madhur

    this one works for network environment but the requirements are u need to be the administrator of domain and change the command accordingly…u can also run a script to do the same.

  • Hitesh AGarwal

    How to use Free HUTCH GRPS and wht are the settings for Nokia 6600

  • http://www.technogab.com/?p=129 Technogab | Technology News Podcast with a touch of Rock

    [...] Windows Tip of The Day: How to Restrict Logon Hours in Windows XP [...]

  • Stephen

    The thing is, that doesn’t log them off, it just makes it so they can’t log on. Type (in the command prompt and press enter afterwords) “NET ACCOUNTS /FORCELOGOFF:” and then the number of minutes after their logon hours expire it should take before they are logged off. If you want them to be logged off immediately you can type “NET ACCOUNTS /FORCELOGOFF:0″.
    To undo this do “NET ACCOUNTS /FORCELOGOFF:NO”.
    Hope this helps people like me.