Your guide Carrie Marshall says… “In Windows 10 you can set parental controls that work across all your connected devices”
At a glance
Skill level…
Anyone can do it Straightforward Tricky in parts
Suitable for…
Windows 10
Windows 8.1
Windows 7
Many of us share our devices with family members, and what’s suitable for us isn’t necessarily suitable for them. You probably don’t want younger children accessing the grown-up version of YouTube or being able to kill zombies on the family Xbox One. And in many cases it’s time, whether that’s spending too much time in front of screens or rushing to the Xbox when there’s still homework to be done.
Microsoft’s parental controls have always been really good, and they’re even better in Windows 10. You can use your Microsoft Account to set limits and controls not just for the PC you’re on, but for anything connected to your account. That means you can set time limits that apply to the Xbox One as well as the PC, or that limit games but not essential apps for schoolwork or studying.
Step-by-step Control everything the easy way
1 Find your family
Windows 10’s app controls and family features work across all your Microsoft-powered devices, not just your PC, so to set them up you need to use your Microsoft Account online. Go to account.microsoft.com and look for the Family section in the main window. Click on Manage Your Family. If you haven’t already set up accounts for your family members, you can do that here.
2 See who’s there
You’ll now see the Your Family section, which provides a dashboard so that you can see what you’ve set up for each family member as well as for yourself. There are two quick links below the details of each child: See Devices, where you can see what hardware they can access, and Add Money, to fund their app purchases. Select See Devices to access the device limits screen.
3 Pick a device
Windows enables you to set time limits in two ways: across all devices, so it doesn’t matter whether it’s the family PC or the Xbox One, or with different limits on different devices. We’ll go for the same across everything, so we’ll toggle the Use One Schedule For All Devices switch on. The Microsoft Account page will now update to show you the current settings for all your devices.
4 Set the time limit
You’ll see a calendar like the one in our picture. The grey bits are the times when the child isn’t allowed access to any of the devices, and the blue bits show the times when access is granted. You can adjust these settings by setting specific time ranges, such as after teatime until before bed, or you can set a daily maximum instead. That latter one is in the Time Limit column.
5 Choose the times
You’ll often find you want to limit specific times,
