Locking down a PC to stop child messing it up

datunwalnut said:

I'd like to set up a kids account so that all the kids can see are some icons of the old 16 bit educational games....

You need to be aware that 16 bit programs can't run on a 64 bit Windows OS. If they are DOS games (which seems likely) then they can be run in DOSBox.

DOSBox, an x86 emulator with DOS

I would create a second installation of Windows in a virtual hard drive vhdx file with a native boot entry (this is not a virtual machine).

Then create child accounts. The main admin account would be password locked to you only of course.

The main installation should be password locked as well of course.

The children will only be able to login to second installation with limited privileges.

Once you have created a vhd set up with games etc, make a backup copy of it then if the ankle-biters (aka little darlings) do something to screw up their installation, you just delete vhdx and copy backup.