Pretty much everyone knows how bad it feels if you mess up your computer. But it’s even worse if your PC gets damaged by someone else, like a family member or a friend. They can be careless enough to load it with infected software and mess around with system settings and it was next to impossible for you to prevent it.  Trust me, I know how that feels!

That’s why I was very happy to learn about a fantastic Windows 7 feature that will help you protect your PC -  Guest Mode (not to be confused with Guest Account).

Guest Mode Explained

Guest Mode works on individual user accounts (an existing one, or on a new account created for this purpose). Basically, Guest Mode makes a snapshot of your system before the  Guest Mode user logs in. It prevents him/her from making any significant changes to the system – when the user logs out or the PC reboots, all the changes are discarded and everything returns to the original configuration.

Windows 7 Guest Mode:

• Makes it impossible for the user to change any system settings
• Doesn’t allow the user to install and software or change existing software settings
• Doesn’t allow the user to write to the disk outside his/her profile. All changes are temporary.
• Deletes all data saved during the session after the user logs off or the PC reboots

In short, it keeps your computer safe.

How to Enable Guest Mode

Windows 7 Guest Mode is well hidden, but is easy enough to enable. Here’s how:

1. Click Start and then go to Control Panel
2. Open User Accounts and Family Safety, then click on User Accounts
3. Click Manage another account. Now either select and existing one (not the Administrator account though), or create a new one
4. Click Set up Guest Mode. Click the Turn on Guest Mode radio button
5. Also you can choose which drives you want to lock by clicking on Lock drives (advanced). All local drives are locked by default, but you can also lock a removable drive, so that the user won’t be able to mess up your files.

WARNING: Microsoft says that in Windows 7 Beta using Guest Mode and doing the following could kill the Guest Mode account:

• Changing any HomeGroup settings
• Using CardSpace to create a personal InfoCard
• Installing Adobe Flash Player

And DON’T run Windows Media Center from Guest Mode, because it will just stop responding.

You have been warned! Always remember that Windows 7 is still in Beta and let’s all hope that Microsoft will fix these issues before the final release.

NB. Some information for the post has been taken from Lifehacker. Of course, I have personally tried using Guest Mode and it works as described above.