I'd like to allow my kids to look through our digital archive of home photos and videos without the possibility of them deleting or changing anything.
Any suggestions for either software that does this (preferred) or a way to set up a folder so that bad things can't happen? The solution should be robust under severe mashing of the keyboard and random mouse clicks.
Maybe you could set up a limited user account for the kids, and give them read only access to your documents? If you prefer not to set up another account, you could simply make the specified folder read only for the current account, then turn off the permission again when you need to edit or delete the files yourself.
I don't know which version of Windows XP you have, but if it's XP professional, in an explorer window navigate to Tools -> Folder Options ->View tab and turn off simple file sharing if it isn't off already. You can then proceed to edit permissions on the desired folder.
Right-click the folder, and go to the security tab. Here you can add or modify user permissions:
You'll want to leave them with Read, Read & Execute and List Folder Contents.
If you'd like permissions to be applied recursively, click Advanced and tick the box to replace permissions for child objects:
how about zipping or raring them up and using a cbz viewer like CdisplayEX
The easiest way to do it would be to put the pictures onto a photo hosting site like flickr. This will allow them to go through the pictures without having any ability to delete the originals (which you keep). You can protect your photos on flickr so that only you can view them (hide from public search).
Alternatively if you are somewhat technologically inclined you could set up an account with read-only access like John T suggested.
The main advantage about using flickr is that you can allow grandparents or other family members to view the pictures while still hiding them from the general public.
