Advice Request How do I block myself from installing games without losing admin privileges?

[unknownFellow]

Hi,

I'm addicted to video games, more specifically Dota 2. It's just an endless source of frustration and time waste, but for some reason, I can't stop playing it. At first, I disabled my accounts but made new ones. Is there a way of irreversibly forbidding any Steam/Dota2 installation on my win10 PC (unless windows is reinstalled)? At first, I was considering creating a separate windows account that doesn't have admin privileges, block that account from installing any game, and then set the admin account password to something random I don't save anywhere. The obvious problem with this is that there will most likely be a situation in the future where I need to run something as an admin. Is there a way fo achieving something similar to this without losing admin privileges?

Thanks

 

[TedCruz]

Hi,

I'm addicted to video games, more specifically Dota 2. It's just an endless source of frustration and time waste, but for some reason, I can't stop playing it. At first, I disabled my accounts but made new ones. Is there a way of irreversibly forbidding any Steam/Dota2 installation on my win10 PC (unless windows is reinstalled)? At first, I was considering creating a separate windows account that doesn't have admin privileges, block that account from installing any game, and then set the admin account password to something random I don't save anywhere. The obvious problem with this is that there will most likely be a situation in the future where I need to run something as an admin. Is there a way fo achieving something similar to this without losing admin privileges?

Thanks

You can't, you have to talk to someone. Go to an alcoholic Anonymous meeting I know it's not booze but it's addiction. You can talk or listen to addicts and how they deal with things. Disabling gaming will not work for you since you have already tried it by locking your accounts and yet you still re-enabled them. So you will install games no matter what safeties you place on your system since you are fighting yourself. You took the first step, you have acknowledged that you have a problem. Now take the next steps and actually enlist people to help you. You can either go to addiction meetings, talk groups or go for talk therapy.

Best of luck!


edit: You can try Shadow Defender and always keep your system in Shadow mode. Enable shadow mode when all games are removed. That way each time you want to play the game you will have to install it from scratch and upon a reboot the game will be deleted. This will add another layer of difficulty for you.

My best advice for you is this: Step away from your computer. DO NOT USE IT FOR TWO WEEKS. The desire to play the game will fade and become an echo. I was also a gamer, I personally love strategy games and civilization. Anyone who ever played civilization knows that "ok just one more turn" will become "oh crap it's 3 am and I have work in 3 hours!". Once I got a kid, I had to spend all my time with the kid leaving me no time to play any game. Now even when I have free time I just don't feel like playing anything. I got myself a steamdeck with intention of being able to pick it up and play a game anytime I want. In reality I am using it more to tweak and code than play games.

 

[Jengo]

You can't, you have to talk to someone. Go to an alcoholic Anonymous meeting I know it's not booze but it's addiction. You can talk or listen to addicts and how they deal with things. Disabling gaming will not work for you since you have already tried it by locking your accounts and yet you still re-enabled them. So you will install games no matter what safeties you place on your system since you are fighting yourself. You took the first step, you have acknowledged that you have a problem. Now take the next steps and actually enlist people to help you. You can either go to addiction meetings, talk groups or go for talk therapy.

Best of luck!


edit: You can try Shadow Defender and always keep your system in Shadow mode. Enable shadow mode when all games are removed. That way each time you want to play the game you will have to install it from scratch and upon a reboot the game will be deleted. This will add another layer of difficulty for you.

My best advice for you is this: Step away from your computer. DO NOT USE IT FOR TWO WEEKS. The desire to play the game will fade and become an echo. I was also a gamer, I personally love strategy games and civilization. Anyone who ever played civilization knows that "ok just one more turn" will become "oh crap it's 3 am and I have work in 3 hours!". Once I got a kid, I had to spend all my time with the kid leaving me no time to play any game. Now even when I have free time I just don't feel like playing anything. I got myself a steamdeck with intention of being able to pick it up and play a game anytime I want. In reality I am using it more to tweak and code than play games.

Shadow Defender does not work with Windows 11. The moment you install it and reboot it generates a blue smiley screen, booting in recovery and uninstall Shadow Defender is the only way then to uninstall it.

 

[Ink]

It’s not a software problem.

Look up how to Overcome an Addiction, or resort to professional help.

Addiction is a neuropsychological disorder characterized by a persistent and intense urge to engage in certain behaviors

Credit: Addiction - Wikipedia

 

[TedCruz]

Shadow Defender does not work with Windows 11. The moment you install it and reboot it generates a blue smiley screen, booting in recovery and uninstall Shadow Defender is the only way then to uninstall it.

yeah thats my problem

 

[oldschool]

You can't, you have to talk to someone. Go to an alcoholic Anonymous meeting I know it's not booze but it's addiction. You can talk or listen to addicts and how they deal with things.

You will also need to humble yourself, admit that these attempts to control your "not gaming" wish lead only to more futility, work the 12 Steps and start living a spiritual life. After quite some time has passed, possibly years, you'll probably need to attend Adult Children of Alcoholics to deal with the even deeper issues underlying your addiction. Then most of your time will be spent working or going to meetings, so that you won't have time for gaming. Thankfully, that day is far off in the future, and your priority now should be living in the present. Pretty soon you'll be trudging the road of happy destiny.

One of my mottos: "Keep it simple, and stay sane!"

 

[struppigel]

I think you are able to uninstall and then permanently delete the game from your Steam library (if it is Steam that you are using).
While it will not entirely prevent you from playing, it does help to make playing Dota 2 a higher effort than other things you might want to do on the computer.
I do not see proper way to prevent you from playing while also retaining administrative rights unless you put someone else in charge of that administrator account.

Edit: On a last note I recommend to watch this channel, it is exactly for your target group: https://www.youtube.com/@HealthyGamerGG

 

[brambedkar59]

To make it more cumbersome to install the game next time use NextDNS and add the game page in the "DenyList", and setup ur browser/OS to use NextDNS. You can also block the game website with windows host file.

I do not see proper way to prevent you from playing while also retaining administrative rights unless you put someone else in charge of that administrator account.

Yup, exactly this.

 

[TedCruz]

Hi,

I'm addicted to video games, more specifically Dota 2. It's just an endless source of frustration and time waste, but for some reason, I can't stop playing it. At first, I disabled my accounts but made new ones. Is there a way of irreversibly forbidding any Steam/Dota2 installation on my win10 PC (unless windows is reinstalled)? At first, I was considering creating a separate windows account that doesn't have admin privileges, block that account from installing any game, and then set the admin account password to something random I don't save anywhere. The obvious problem with this is that there will most likely be a situation in the future where I need to run something as an admin. Is there a way fo achieving something similar to this without losing admin privileges?

Thanks

One thing I haven't considered. Are you depressed and are using gaming as means to combat depression and depressive thoughts? Try talking to a psychiatrist and take the depression test (all first psych visits include the test). Talk to him/her about your addiction. If it is depression then there are many pharmaceutical methods to combat it and also Cognitive Therapy which is drug free.

When you are feeling depressed, ask yourself the following questions, as if you were giving yourself a test or exam:

1) Am I dehydrated? Have I had enough water today?

2) Did I eat as I should today? Have a good breakfast?

3) Did I get enough sleep? Did I wake up refreshed and energized or lethargic?

4) Did I take care of my personal hygiene today?

5) Did I get out of bed today? Did I leave the house today?

6) Have I sunbathed?

These are questions that you often have to ask yourself, daily I would say, it is a kind of list, in which in order to feel good and in a good mood you will have to cross out or complete so to speak.

Greetings, I hope I have helped you, if you are going through a bad time it is always advisable to talk to a psychologist or therapist, it is the most effective way to take control of your life.

 

[unknownFellow]

hey guys, thanks for your feedback and support. It makes sense that it's technically impossible to do it without losing admin rights, however, making it harder and harder to access the platform will decrease the probability of me knowing what I did, and hopefully even forgetting about it. After getting all your feedback in this thread I'm going to have to delete the thread completely so no trace is left behind. Hope you understand

@brambedkar59 I've just done the trick with the hosts file. Is there a way to remove permission to that folder, or add a password to it so only the system can access it (not the admin)?
I'll also try Shadow Defender and NextDNS.

// edit: I also want to make a small piece of software that checks every newly downloaded file and if it's related to steam or dota, instantly remove it. the process should run in the background, auto-enable at startup but not show in task manager -> start up tab nor in apps and features. any idea where to start form with this?

 

[TedCruz]

hey guys, thanks for your feedback and support. It makes sense that it's technically impossible to do it without losing admin rights, however, making it harder and harder to access the platform will decrease the probability of me knowing what I did, and hopefully even forgetting about it. After getting all your feedback in this thread I'm going to have to delete the thread completely so no trace is left behind. Hope you understand

@brambedkar59 I've just done the trick with the hosts file. Is there a way to remove permission to that folder, or add a password to it so only the system can access it (not the admin)?
I'll also try Shadow Defender and NextDNS.

// edit: I also want to make a small piece of software that checks every newly downloaded file and if it's related to steam or dota, instantly remove it. the process should run in the background, auto-enable at startup but not show in task manager -> start up tab nor in apps and features. any idea where to start form with this?

You are looking for a technical solution without addressing the main issue. Tech is not your enemy, you are. You have to solve yourself in order for this to work. Everything you design and put in place to stop yourself can easily be undone by yourself. As the famous quote from the The War Games movie goes: "The only way to win is not to play"

 

[unknownFellow]

One thing I haven't considered. Are you depressed and are using gaming as means to combat depression and depressive thoughts? Try talking to a psychiatrist and take the depression test (all first psych visits include the test). Talk to him/her about your addiction. If it is depression then there are many pharmaceutical methods to combat it and also Cognitive Therapy which is drug free.

When you are feeling depressed, ask yourself the following questions, as if you were giving yourself a test or exam:

1) Am I dehydrated? Have I had enough water today?

2) Did I eat as I should today? Have a good breakfast?

3) Did I get enough sleep? Did I wake up refreshed and energized or lethargic?

4) Did I take care of my personal hygiene today?

5) Did I get out of bed today? Did I leave the house today?

6) Have I sunbathed?

These are questions that you often have to ask yourself, daily I would say, it is a kind of list, in which in order to feel good and in a good mood you will have to cross out or complete so to speak.

Greetings, I hope I have helped you, if you are going through a bad time it is always advisable to talk to a psychologist or therapist, it is the most effective way to take control of your life.

hey @TedCruz, thanks for the advice. I took the depression test and failed it. I am a bit anxious by nature, with quite a bit of self-doubt (still trying to figure that out). that's not all bad as it makes me check everything and makes me more open to criticism, which in turn helps me improve and learn new stuff (probably this thread is proof of that). Thankfully, apart from this annoying issue, everything is well as far as I know.

 

[unknownFellow]

You are looking for a technical solution without addressing the main issue. Tech is not your enemy, you are. You have to solve yourself in order for this to work. Everything you design and put in place to stop yourself can easily be undone by yourself. As the famous quote from the The War Games movie goes: "The only way to win is not to play"

I totally agree with that. Will probably look for some psychological help too. Tech can be the enemy sometimes, depending on how it's being used. I know for a fact that successfully managing to "block" myself would increase my confidence and make me more proud (sounds weird, but that's how I am ). Trying to undo that, would invoke a sense of shame in me, which also helps in building another psychological layer. Not to mention I would learn new stuff in the process and spend my time doing that as opposed to playing games.

 

[struppigel]

// edit: I also want to make a small piece of software that checks every newly downloaded file and if it's related to steam or dota, instantly remove it. the process should run in the background, auto-enable at startup but not show in task manager -> start up tab nor in apps and features. any idea where to start form with this?

What kind of programming language do you want to use for that?
A basic solution would be to check for certain filenames in certain locations.
E.g. Batch

del "C:\Users\<username>\Downloads\dota2.exe" /f /s /q

Then you create a scheduled task. Open the Task Scheduler by pressing Windows Key + R, then type "taskschd.msc" and press Enter.
Scheduled tasks will only run once per minute minimum, but you can, e.g., set up 2 tasks to check every 30 seconds, or 6 tasks to check every 10 seconds.

Edit: If you feel nasty you can also let it play a loud sound to make it more unpleasant.

start "c:\music\scream_at_me.mp3"

 

[unknownFellow]

What kind of programming language do you want to use for that?
A basic solution would be to check for certain filenames in certain locations.
E.g. Batch

del "C:\Users\<username>\Downloads\dota2.exe" /f /s /q

Then you create a scheduled task. Open the Task Scheduler by pressing Windows Key + R, then type "taskschd.msc" and press Enter.
Scheduled tasks will only run once per minute minimum, but you can, e.g., set up 2 tasks to check every 30 seconds, or 6 tasks to check every 10 seconds.

whatever language, it doesn't really matter. I'm exploring FileSystemWatcher Class to listen for events whenever a file is added to the drive. The Scheduled tasks might be helpful later, thanks for the tip.

 

[struppigel]

whatever language, it doesn't really matter. I'm exploring FileSystemWatcher Class to listen for events whenever a file is added to the drive. The Scheduled tasks might be helpful later, thanks for the tip.

A watcher is definitely better than a scheduled task because it will only run if there is actually something to do. I wasn't sure how much programming you already did.

 

[unknownFellow]

A watcher is definitely better than a scheduled task because it will only run if there is actually something to do. I wasn't sure how much programming you already did.

I'm a video games developer actually (kind of ironic, isn't it

 

[TedCruz]

hey @TedCruz, thanks for the advice. I took the depression test and failed it. I am a bit anxious by nature, with quite a bit of self-doubt (still trying to figure that out). that's not all bad as it makes me check everything and makes me more open to criticism, which in turn helps me improve and learn new stuff (probably this thread is proof of that). Thankfully, apart from this annoying issue, everything is well as far as I know.

You might be suffering form Generalized Anxiety Disorder and using gaming as coping mechanism. Honestly have a talk even with your primary care physian.

 

[TedCruz]

I'm a video games developer actually (kind of ironic, isn't it

Never get high on your own supply

But than again you are doing what you love so there is some sense of achievement in that. Many folks would kill to work in a field that is also their hobby.

 

[upnorth]

After getting all your feedback in this thread I'm going to have to delete the thread completely so no trace is left behind. Hope you understand

Simply use the report option and someone in staff will handle it.