Controlling access to resources depending on who wants to access them is called "user-level security." This kind of security can be used to regulate access to networked or stand-alone systems

There is no definitive blueprint for designing a secure network; network security has to be custom tailored to fit the needs of your network, not anyone else's.

Maintaining control over what users can do to a public access computer's operating system is one of the primary goals of a library computer administrator. For instance, patrons must not be able to use certain desktop icons such as Network Neighborhood or My Computer. They should have only limited access to Start Menu items, including applets in the Control Panel and Taskbar features. They should have heavily restricted access to the C drive. One of the primary ways to secure these features and others is by modifying the registry.

Chris Peters describes and compares two tools for securing shared or public access computers running Microsoft Windows operating systems, the new Microsoft Shared Computer Toolkit and the old Public Access Computer Security Tool.