I need help in disabling my cd rw to prevent abusive use from my kids and their friends 
Disabling CD RW
- Thread starter Alfie45702
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acidosmosis
Posts: 1,310 +0
Disable it under Control Panel, System, Device Manager. As long as your kids don't know how to enable it or aren't able to figure out what you did to disable it then that should work fine. Only problem is you have to enable it when you want to use it then re-disable it afterwards.
poertner_1274
Posts: 3,874 +3
There is always abuse, because the kids will just go out and get their own and hide them from their parents (I never would have done such a thing )
I think your best bet from the sounds of it is as acidosmosis has said to go through device manager and disable it that way.
Maybe they will ask you why it doesn't work and you can just tell them it must have broken. Do a little research with them around and show them it is broken still, and maybe they will just drop it all together.
(I never would have done such a thing )I think your best bet from the sounds of it is as acidosmosis has said to go through device manager and disable it that way.
Maybe they will ask you why it doesn't work and you can just tell them it must have broken. Do a little research with them around and show them it is broken still, and maybe they will just drop it all together.
Nic
Posts: 1,519 +1
If you are using WinXP Pro/Win2k, then you can give your kids a sepaparate account (non-admin) and disable the CDRW for that account as acid suggested. You can also disable other things (e.g. programs, ability to install software, access to folders on the hard drive, etc.) too if required.
Phantasm66
Posts: 4,909 +8
Originally posted by poertner_1274
There is always abuse, because the kids will just go out and get their own and hide them from their parents
Well, I certainly know that I hid all sort of things from my parents when I was young, and in about 95% of cases, I got away with it!
poertner_1274
Posts: 3,874 +3
Yep, same here, and to tell you the truth it has made me a better person for it. I mean now I understand and have an idea of what to look for in my own children, when they do finally come along.
If you didn't do anything wrong as a kid, then you didn't get a real chance to experience life. Isn't that what childhood is for? Disobeying your parents and such :haha:
If you didn't do anything wrong as a kid, then you didn't get a real chance to experience life. Isn't that what childhood is for? Disobeying your parents and such :haha:
poertner_1274
Posts: 3,874 +3
As far as burning illegal applications or movies, and other things. Nothing will happen to the physical drive, just the material being burned he doens't like.
Thanks for all the replies. I came across some info concerning the cd-rom driver or Mscdex.exe file being disabled or missing from Autoexec.bat or Config.sys file. Can editing the Mscdex.exe file be an option to block access to cd rom drive?
acidosmosis
Posts: 1,310 +0
No, Windows manages the CDROM on its own. When your in Windows it doesnt use MSCDEX. If I remember correctly, newer versions of Windows such as XP don't use autoexec.bat or config.sys whatsoever. Though even in earlier versions of Windows you wouldnt need either one. They could just be blank.
Autoexec.bat and config.sys was mainly used in DOS to load hardware, high memory settings, etc. I believe Windows 3.1 and 95 still used both frequently though.
Your best option is to disable the CD burner in Device Manager. Editing those files would be nothing but a hassle even in the case that it did work (which it wont). Plus loading MSCDEX isn't that simple. You have to know the right command parameters to load it correctly. Remembering those would be a headache to disable/enable frequently.
Although you could also just place a "REM" in front of the line in config.sys or autoexec.bat, which would do the same thing as disabling it because the computer wouldnt actually run that line in the file. You could really even place a bunch of crap in front of the line such as "jashjdhajsda" so that mscdex isnt ran but you would just confuse your PC (like it matters though). It would just say "bad command or file name".
If that was the route that I personally took I would place a line like this in the autoexec.bat
echo *** MSCDEX off *** c:\cdrom\mscdex command line paremeters
then you could just remove the "echo *** mscdex off***" when you want the cdrom to work.
Though, again, this option would only work in DOS, not Windows.
I still say the Device Manager option is the way to go, unless someone knows of a simpler way. I can't think of one at the moment.
Autoexec.bat and config.sys was mainly used in DOS to load hardware, high memory settings, etc. I believe Windows 3.1 and 95 still used both frequently though.
Your best option is to disable the CD burner in Device Manager. Editing those files would be nothing but a hassle even in the case that it did work (which it wont). Plus loading MSCDEX isn't that simple. You have to know the right command parameters to load it correctly. Remembering those would be a headache to disable/enable frequently.
Although you could also just place a "REM" in front of the line in config.sys or autoexec.bat, which would do the same thing as disabling it because the computer wouldnt actually run that line in the file. You could really even place a bunch of crap in front of the line such as "jashjdhajsda" so that mscdex isnt ran but you would just confuse your PC (like it matters though). It would just say "bad command or file name".
If that was the route that I personally took I would place a line like this in the autoexec.bat
echo *** MSCDEX off *** c:\cdrom\mscdex command line paremeters
then you could just remove the "echo *** mscdex off***" when you want the cdrom to work.
Though, again, this option would only work in DOS, not Windows.
I still say the Device Manager option is the way to go, unless someone knows of a simpler way. I can't think of one at the moment.
SNGX1275
Posts: 10,615 +467
Simplier way to prevent them from using it would be simply to break the drive, lol. But I'm going to assume he still wants to burn cds when he wants to. So yes device manager would work but I think the simpliest way overall is to create different accounts and limit the avaiability of certain programs to his kid's account like mentioned above.
I think the best thing to do is create 2 separate hardware profiles, and disable the drive in the default and use the other whenever you want to burn something.
Here's a link to creating a new hardware profile.
http://www.pcanswers.co.uk/tutorial...cleid=7862&subsectionid=607&subsubsectionid=0
Here's a link to creating a new hardware profile.
http://www.pcanswers.co.uk/tutorial...cleid=7862&subsectionid=607&subsubsectionid=0
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