Configuring a computer for a tech novice and don't want them accidentally poking around the internals? One way to help prevent them from trying to run software they weren't meant to execute is to disable the "Run" command from the Windows XP Start Menu.

1. Right-click the "Start" button, selecting "Properties".

2. When the "Taskbar and Start Menu Properties" multi-tabbed dialog box appears, click the "Start Menu" tab if it is not already selected.

3. Click the "Start Menu" radio button (if it is not already selected) and click "Customize".

4. When the "Customize Start Menu" dialog box appears, click the "Advanced" tab.

5. Underneath "Start menu items", scroll down to "Run command" and uncheck it.

6. Click "OK" on the dialog boxes to close them.

Note that this will not completely secure a system from those who know what they are doing. Making this change will not prevent users from going through the above steps and re-adding the "Run" command, nor will it prevent them from running software via the Windows Task Manager's "File" - "New Task (Run") option. However, this may prevent some computer neophytes from executing software that could damage their system.

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Return to the Windows XP Taskbar - Toolbar - Start Menu page.