The purpose of this guide is to help users secure WatchDog in their Windows environment. As with all security measures, some of these may increase security at the cost of convenience so it is up to the parent/administrator to decide on the balance.

Windows Authentication

With Windows Login Integration, WatchDog will automatically use the current Windows user to validate the login. With this setup, every user has his/her own Windows account. They never have to log in to WatchDog or see or know that WatchDog is installed on their computer. You can learn more about integrating WatchDog login with Windows login in our Windows Authentication Guide.

Disable access to Task Manager

By disabling the Task Manager, you can prevent users from tampering with WatchDog trying to stop the program from running. You can disable it in this screen.

Disable Registry Tools

All WatchDog’s settings are stored in the Windows Registry. By disabling access to it, you are securing it from any tampering. You can disable registry tools in this screen.

Disable access to Windows Services

By disabling access to Windows Services, you can prevent users from tampering with WatchDog’s Advanced Filtering Service which handles Internet filtering. You can disable access to Windows Services by blocking any setting WatchDog to close any Window that has the word “Services” in its title. You can block programs by keywords in their window titles in this screen. You might also want to disable using the command line (CMD.EXE). You can do so in this screen.

Change the Administrator password

Even though the windows account Administrator does not appear in the list of users in standard operation of a computer, it can be used to gain unauthorized access so we highly encourage you to create a password for this account. You can create/change this password in Control Panel under User Management.

Enable WatchDog Vet

WatchDog Vet is a Windows Service that ensures that WatchDog is relaunched if it unexpectedly terminates during a user session. You can enable it in this screen.

Do not allow users to change time/date

It is important that the computer’s time and date stay accurate so that WatchDog can properly enforce the time restrictions you have configured. You can change this setting in this screen.

Inactive - logout user

It is recommended that whenever you leave your computer unattended that you either log out or lock your screen. In case you forgot to do this, you can set WatchDog to do this for you when the computer is inactive for a period of time. You can change this setting in this screen.

Password-protecting WatchDog configuration screens

In case you leave your computer logged in and unattended, you can prevent users from changing WatchDog’s setting by password-protecting all of WatchDog’s configuration screens. You can do so in this screen.

Automatically Close Frozen Applications

This feature will ensure that frozen or hung applications will not prevent Windows from shutting down or WatchDog from logging out. You can enable it in this screen.

You can also enable the Forcefully close all open programs feature which will close all programs on logout so that if time alloted to a user expires, the user cannot use a program to prevent a full logout. You can enable this feature in this screen.

Program Whitelist

For high security, you can specify a list of programs that are allowed to run. All other programs will be blocked. You can enable and configure this feature in this screen.