- all users created locally on this computer.
- all users from a domain controller which have a profile on this computer (this means they did login at least once in the past on this computer)
You can see the status of each user (if the user is logged on, locked the workstation, etc.). When the user status is changed the list is automatically updated. This is useful when you watch user activity from a remote computer. Select just the users which you what to be restricted. Usually these users are those created or modified by you. You have to keep in mind that "All users" list really contains all the users, including users which belong to Administrator group or Power Users group. Such kind of privileged users are able to bypass the time restrictions. This is the reason you have to make sure that your selected users are restricted users. If the user has administrator privileges then the "Admin" word is present in "Is admin" column.
The "NT AUTHORITY\System" is a built in account. You can select it to see its activity but you cannot set a schedule for it. You cannot send an instant message or force a logoff to this account. The same for other users under NT AUTHORITY domain: LOCAL SERVICE and NETWORK SERVICE. It is still useful to monitor activity for these accounts to discover who is doing what on your computer. You can have some applications which can start automatically and connect to Internet and you may want to discover them.
The __Default__ user is a place where the events are routed when they are coming from an unknown user. This may happen if you create a new user and you do not re-boot computer. When you re-boot computer DM Net Time & Watch is refresing its internal user list.
In order to select the user, click with the mouse on the check-box on the left of user name. A check box mark will be displayed. In order to deselect the user, click on the check-box to clear the check mark. For users which are not logged off you can right click and choose from the context menu one of the following:
- send an instant message. A dialog will be displayed. You can enter the message in this dialog. When you press "Send" button, the message will be delivered to the user. If for some reason the user does not receive the message (example: network issues), you will receive an error message with the error description.
- force an instant logoff. A confirmation message will be displayed. If you confirm, the logoff for the specified user will be enforced immediately without any warning.
- generate a one time screen capture . The screen capture will be displayed immediate in a separate window. The image is not saved in a file. You can manually save it using a context (right click) menu in the window which displays the image. If you want the screenshot to be recorded, then you have to go in Audit page and select the Save screenshot every ... option.
- generate screenshots periodically. The minimum period is 10 seconds. Again, these images are not recorded anywhere.
An user which was deleted from Control Panel is marked with the word "Deleted". You can see past activity for this user. Such users may be removed from list by using the brush icon button (top right corner). When such user is deleted, all recorded information about that user is deleted as well.
The user name contains two parts separated by backslash: the computer name where the user was created and the user login name.
After you select the users, go in "Schedules" panel. On top of this panel is a large combo-box which contains the users which you selected at step 3. You can click on the small arrow on the right side of combo box to see the list of selected users. If the selected user is logged on in this moment, you will see "[Logged on]" near the user name. The user status is "live" (is updated according to user actions).
Select the user from combo-box. Then if you want to set time restrictions for this user, check the box "Enable restrictions" (for "NT AUTHORITY\System" this box is disabled).
In the "Allowed time and interval" area you choose if the restrictions will be the same every day (click on "Daily" radio button) or will be specific for each day of the week (click on the button "Specific days").
The column "Time (hh:mm)" in the list specify the amount of the time the user is allowed to use the computer. For each week day there is a check-box to enable computer access. If this check box is not checked, the restricted user cannot use the computer. When you check the box, you can set the allowed "Time" in hours and minutes. A blue pearl icon is displayed near the name of the day. An additional check-box is displayed on the right side. If you check it, you can specify a time interval. In this case the pearl icon goes purple.
In order to change the time, just click with the mouse on the table cell. An edit box will be created for you to change the time.
Example: for Thursday you can allow user to use computer for one hour and 35 minutes. Enter 1:35 in "Time" column. But also you restrict the user to use this time only after 6:30PM and no later that 9:00PM. In "From" column enter 6:30PM and in "To" column enter 9:00PM.
If the user logins at 7:00PM, he will be allowed to work until 8:35PM. But if the user logins at 8:30PM, he will be allowed to work only 30 minutes until 9:00PM due to time interval restrictions.
If the user:
- locks the workstation or
- does logoff and logon again or
- another user switches then
this time is not counted, unless there is a time interval restriction.
For above example: when user logins at 7:00PM and at 7:35PM locks the workstation and comes back at 7:50PM and un-locks the workstation, he still has one hour available. This is because does not reach the end of the time interval (9:00 PM).
But if the user logins at 8:00PM, at 8:35 PM locks the workstation and is coming back at 8:50PM, then he is allowed to work only 10 minutes since the end of the time interval was set at 9:00PM.
In the "Interval" column (the right most column) you can see a graphical representation of the time interval . The cell is divided in 24 parts (one for each hour - note the markers on top) and there is a a hatched rectangle which is stretched or shrunk according with the time interval you set.
In "Deny time after" group, you can choose what will happen if the user attempts to login again after the time was expired. You can deny login for the rest of the day or you can specify a waiting period or you can just do not deny at all future logins.
The "Ignore previous logons (just once)" check box has a special meaning. Let's suppose the user already used the time for that day. But you want to make an exception. As a reward, you want to allow him just one more time, using the same amount time. In this case you check this box. When the user logins in the same day, he will be allowed again one period of time.