Skip to main content

google chrome os - ChromeOS - Apps for supervised users?


My niece recently got a chromebook, and her parents added parental controls (supervised user) to her account. Unfortunately, they claim they only had the option of completely denying access to the app store or giving complete access.


There's some apps and games she would like to install, which I could clear with her parents, but they won't open access to the entire store. Is there any other options? It would be great if we could install single apps directly, have some sort of whitelist, or they could go in with full privileges and access the store to install the apps.



Answer



Unfortunately not. Apps are tied to an email address, and for Chrome OS this would be the user that logs in. Supervised users work differently. They're not tied to an email address and so they cannot install apps. Basically, the two features (supervised users and chrome apps) are built on foundations that don't coincide very well.


The Chrome OS developers are aware of this problem and that many people are interested in this feature, as noted within this Chromium Bug Report


My children also have Chromebooks with supervised user accounts. We maintain a whitelist of sites that they can visit at any time without parental supervision. The problem with this approach, in addition to not being able to install apps, is that the "discovery" factor is destroyed - they don't have the ability to find new sites of interest.


What we've recently done as a workaround is to have monitored time where they are signed in as non-supervised users. On those accounts, we've installed AdBlock Plus, which removes a lot of bad content. Additionally, our router now assigns DNS using the free OpenDNS Family Shield. This blocks access to many many websites that we would not want our children to stumble on.


While AdBlock and Family Shield work well, it's not a fool-proof system. There is still much objectionable content on the web, and even that is subjective. This is why we still choose to monitor their usage during these times.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

keyboard - Is there any utility/method to change Windows key bindings to type rare chars to currently empty bindings?

I'm currently typing this post with my windows XP machine and (Spanish) keyboard, and I'd like to add some extra symbols to my text. I could open the "char map" windows utility, look for the desired symbols, and paste them. But I'd like something quickier. For example, when I'm using my OSX Mac at work, I can easily add a ©, ™, ® or similar symbols, just pressing some weird ALT-GR + G / H / J, key combinations. In my (Spanish) keyboard mapping, these combinations are empty, as they don't produce any char at all, which, on the other hand, is perfectly normal and desirable. So, I thought: Why couldn't I add some extra key mappings on top of my currently empty ALT-GR + G/J/H Keys in my Spanish keyboard, and thus, being able to quickly type these special symbols? So that's my question: Is there any utility/method to achieve that effect under windows? (My version is XP). I've even googled this for some time but no luck. I've been a long term Hot...
Post a Comment
Read more

virtualization - How to select paravirtualization interface in VirtualBox?

Given a windows 8 host system (Intel Core i5) and a Linux Fedora host, I would like to determine the optimal setting for the paravirtual interface. Options are none Default Legacy minimal Hyper-V KVM This page suggest the selection is only based on the guest system: The biggest change in VirtualBox 5.0 is the introduction of paravirtualization support, bringing higher performance and time-keeping accuracy to supported guest operating systems (Hyper-V on Windows and KVM on Linux). Is that correct? Answer The VirtualBox Manual , in the section titled Paravirtualization providers explains very clearly when each should be used (emphasis added): Minimal: Announces the presence of a virtualized environment. Additionally, reports the TSC and APIC frequency to the guest operating system. This provider is mandatory for running any Mac OS X guests. KVM: Presents a Linux KVM hypervisor interface which is recognized by Linux kernels starting with version 2.6.25. VirtualBox's implementati...
Post a Comment
Read more

Desktop reboots itself on sleep or hibernate

I have been using an ASUS M2NPV-VM motherboard for main home desktop workstation, operating Windows Vista x64. This computer has right from day one not been able to enter hibernate or standby; after Windows performs its final actions and brings the machine down, it would automatically revive itself for a reboot. Updating to the second latest BIOS (1201)has not helped (the latest BIOS revision would induce video refresh problems rendering it unusable). I have been reading related discussions on incidents similar to mine to no avail of a true workable solution. They appear to be more speculative guesses rather than actual knowledge on the inner workings of motherboard hardware. Does anybody have any electronic engineering experience on PC energy-saving standards to provide a more informed opinion how to go about getting this to work? More stories: this motherboard could not even reboot properly the first thing i used it. It was due to refresh rate of the onboard GPU, which had no influe...
Post a Comment
Read more

Excel 2010: if( , , "") not treated the same as blank for pivot table group by date

I'm trying to group by date in an Excel 2010 pivot table. The column with dates (i.e., the one want to group by), should be the latest date of 2 other columns if neither is null, or blank. i.e., with a formula like: =IF(AND(A4 "", B4 ""), MAX(A4,B4), "") Normally, this "" in the IF() formula acts the same as an empty cell. In this case, it is preventing me from grouping by date in the Pivot Table. If I filter the date column by (Blanks) , then clear the contents of all those cells, then the pivot table does group by date ok. i.e., "" is not being treated the same as an empty cell.
Post a Comment
Read more