How do you deny a particular user access to certain files or programs in XP? We here at "Call for Help" seem to get asked this question quite a bit, so we decided it was time to show you how it's done.

One of the biggest selling points of XP is that it's built on the Windows 2000 kernel, which supports the ability to format your hard drive as either FAT32 or NTFS. In order to take advantage of the increased security features XP offers, your hard drive must be formatted as NTFS. If it's formatted as FAT32 you won't be able to set user or group permissions on individual files, folders, programs, or hard drives.

Using XP on a hard drive that's formatted with NTFS lets you create different accounts for the kids in your family that allow them to access only certain programs or folders. Let's say you've decided that little Joey isn't keeping up with his homework because he's spending too much time on the Internet. Instead of having to delete IE from your system, just deny his user account the ability to launch IE.

I'll show you how to deny little Joey from his addiction to the Internet and how to keep individual users from accessing anything on your XP system.