Lock Down User Privileges

One thing that you always get tired of doing is repairing Desktops that users have virtually destroyed in their experiments of what they can do.  This is especially true of schools where students often have too much time on their hands with little supervision.  This article will help you lock down the desktop so that very little can be damaged by the user.

In the /usr/bin directory there are a lot of executables that run the configuration for the Desktop.  If you change those permissions you can easily lock those features down.  Under System in the menu the Administrative commands require a password so those you do not need to worry about.  The User Preferences is a different story.

Appearance                       chmod 744 gnome-appearance-properties
Mouse                                 chmod 744 gnome-mouse-properties
Display                                chmod 744 gnome-display-properties
Keyboard                            chmod 744 gnome-keyboard-properties
Net Tools                            chmod 744 gnome-nettool
Power Managment           chmod 744 gnome-power-manager
Screensaver                      chmod 744 gnome-screensaver-preferences
Windows                            chmod 744 gnome-window-properties
Menu                                  chmod 744 alacarte