Uninstall InkBall.exe

[dkedinger]

We have a laptop tablet pc lab at our school and are running into an issue with the students playing with a piece of the software that comes with the Microsoft Experience Pack called InkBall. We want to keep some of the Experience Pack, but don't want them to have access to the InkBall game. I have tried manually deleting the file and it COMES BACK! Any suggestions?

[mossj]

leave it they'll get bored?

[OllieC]

You tried Add remove programs > windows components > games?

 

leave it they'll get bored?

It's a bit addictive!

[MrEprise]

You tried Add remove programs > windows components > games?

 

However, should this fail, there are 2 other ways I can think of;

 

1. Edit the local machine group policy using gpedit.msc

 

Goto Computer Configuration -> Windows Settings -> Security Settings, right-click on Software Restriction Policies and click New Software Restriction Policies. Expand this folder and right-click Additional Rules then New Path Rule. Under Path, type InkBall.exe and set the Security Level to Disallowed. Restart the PC then you will find that InkBall will no longer be able to work.

 

The only drawback is then if your students are smart enough to know to go back into gpedit to disable the policy, which can be prevented if you limit access to mmc.exe (see no.2 below)

 

Another issue with changing the local group policy is that anything you modify gets applied to every local user account on the PC, so use with caution.

 

2. Use the Security tab in the file's properties to limit access to certain user accounts.

 

First ensure that you have a very well password protected Administrator account that students do not have access to.

 

Using this account, right-click on InkBall.exe -> select Properties -> then select the Security tab. On this tab, remove all accounts listed under "Group or user names" then add the previously mentioned administrator account to this list. Ensure that the Allow tick box is checked for Full Control of the file for the administrator account and either add the account the students use and set everything to Deny (if the students use a particular account) or leave just the admin account on its own as this usually sets Deny permissions to all other accounts anyway.

 

This should also stop the kids from running InkBall (if that's what you really want!)

 

As I mentioned above, you could use no.2 to limit access to mmc.exe (which the Group Policy Editor uses) to just the administrator account, then use gpedit to limit access to the file but while that would work, is probably too long winded and a waste of time when no.2 would work just as well.

 

I hope this helps you.

 

EDIT: Probably should mention that if you are using these tablets on a Windows Domain, you can use the Group Policy configuration tools which are usually available on the Domain Controller in order to set the Software Restriction Policy for whichever account(s) that your students use. If you get stuck with this, there are plenty of websites available which can assist you, especially this one.

Edited September 17, 2009 by MrEprise

[tarquel]

How about just changing the permissions on the file to prevent access to it?

 

Or does that "return" again?

 

If its only one machine, then a GPO might be over the top

 

Nath.

[MrEprise]

I did notice on his school's website during a slideshow, a picture popped up showing what I assume is more than one, but that was after I wrote a complete novel* on how to do it on a local machine.

 

*I had been writing some documentation earlier in the day, which is the reason why I wrote so much and why it sounds like i'm assuming the OP doesn't know very much (which of course is likely not the case at all.)

Edited September 18, 2009 by MrEprise

[tarquel]

hehe no worries shielder....wasnt a dig or anything.

 

I was just thinking that if it was only one he had, it might be less time consuming is all

 

Nath.