MYPC

MYPC

Protect your PC from unauthorized usage, encrypt your confidential data, and log machine usage

Be it in the office or at
home, there are a number of people who can access your PC anytime. Anyone
can access or even steal important data, read your mail, or accidentally (or
otherwise) put a virus-infected floppy in your PC. You can put a screensaver
or BIOS password to protect your PC. But the screensaver password can be
overcome by rebooting your machine. And in the latter case, no one else
would be able to use your machine, even if required.

For such environments,
Signotron of Calcutta have come up with a software called MYPC, which lets
you control exactly what you want a user to access in your machine.

The software comes on a CD
along with a manual. The manual explains the installation process as well as
all the features of MYPC. MYPC creates two accounts on your machine–an
administrator and a user. The administrator has full control over the
machine and defines what the user account can access. Installation is very
simple. You have to provide an administrator name and a password . In case
you forget the password, you’d get locked out of your own machine.

There’s also an option to
enter an encryption password for your directories. These directories will
then not be visible to any of the users. The software uses a 448-bit
encryption algorithm called Blowfish.In the configuration step,
you have to specify the applications you want a user to access on your PC
such as Word, Excel, etc. You can also block access to the floppy drive and
serial ports on your machine.

Getting into the
administrator mode is slightly tedious. You have to press F8 when the
computer is booting. But pressing F8 takes you to the Windows Startup menu.
Choose "Normal" from this menu and press F8 again quickly to get
to MYPC administrator menu. After giving the admin name and password, the
computer starts in admin mode, giving access to everything. If you don’t
press F8, the computer automatically boots in the user mode.

In the user mode, the user
can only see a list of applications that can be run. Even the Start menu isn’t
visible. Double clicking on an application runs it. However, it lists all
the applications as the names of their executable files. So if you want to
allow a user to run PaintShop Pro, all that the user will see is PSP in the
applications list, which is the executable for it.

The software has good logging
capabilities. The administrator can view a log file containing the date,
time, and the program used by a user.

All these features are really
good, but is it possible for a user to override MYPC? You could get around
it if you’re a seasoned user, though it’ll take some time. Otherwise, it’s
a good option to monitor your machine usage. The software is also well
priced.