Safe Mode Blues

[Jeff Papier]

Greetings,

I've got our public Win 95/98 PC's well-secured with a number of built-in
features (e.g. CMOS password), and with third-party software.

However, nothing I do at the software level prevents users from turning
the PC's off and on until the Menu Choice offering Safe Mode comes up.
When they get into Safe Mode, some amount of havoc can be wrought.

Yes, I have set msdos.sys settings so that you shouldn't get this Menu.
This really has never worked properly (just as setting AutoScan doesn't
prevent diskscan upon bootup on our PC's.)  Yes, I have disabled the
Function keys such as F5 and F8 so that they do nothing during bootup.
No, these PC's unfortunately do not have passwords for boot-up itself,
just for CMOS access.

I also know I can use the System Policy Editor to prevent certain apps
from running, but I want to prevent kids from getting into Safe Mode in
the first place.

Any ideas, short of constructing steel-reinforced padlocked boxes around
the PC's, or at least around the on/off and reset buttons?

Thanks as always,
J Papier
jpapier at lmxac.org