about
Some time ago when my children started to use the computer, I hunted around for a replacement shell for Windows that could function as a simple launcher.
I failed to find a single one. So, as any geek would, I wrote one.
KidsMenu is designed to be a child friendly alternative/replacement Windows shell, and is also functional as a normal launcher/menu application.
KidsMenu avoids some of the complexity and danger introduced by the standard Windows shell (explorer) when put in front of young children. For example, as there's no start menu, hitting the Windows key accidently while playing a game won't show the start menu (note this functionality currently requires kidsmenu to be running as the replacement shell).
download
KidsMenu-Setup.exe (915.1k)
- Release 11 (12 July 2011)
- Internet Explorer 7 or higher required
- readme
faq
why is the start menu still visible?
KidsMenu is designed to work as a replacement shell. Features such as not showing a start menu will not work when run as a normal application.
isn't supervision of children better?
KidsMenu is designed to allow young children to use the computer unsupervised.
Young children should not have unsupervised/unrestricted access to browse the world wide web. There are browsers designed for children that can be launched from KidsMenu.
wouldn't children benifit better from using the full windows shell?
Yes, they would, depending on the age of the child, and how often you want to fix up their 'playing'.
can i use web shortcuts (shortcuts to urls)?
Technically there's nothing stopping you from do this, KidsMenu will launch your default web browser to view the web page.
However once the web browser has been started, KidsMenu can not restrict access to just the linked website. If you want to do this, make sure you have another facility to lock down the web browser, such as a whitelist browser extension.
how do i uninstall kidsmenu?
First log into every account that has KidsMenu configured as the default shell and press alt+ctrl+i. then use add/remove programs to uninstall the KidsMenu application.
screenshots
