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)