Are you running gconf-editor as root?  I imagine to change some of the global, manditory keys you would need write access to /usr/share where the skeleton gnome settings are stored and for that you would need to be root <div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Jun 26, 2008 at 11:06 AM, Barb A. Tabor <<a href="mailto:btabor@btownccs.k12.in.us">btabor@btownccs.k12.in.us</a>> wrote: <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"> Hello. I am attemping to lockdown certain things on my thin clients. I was going by these directions from the Edubuntu FAQ page... <h3>How do I lock down user desktops and other aspects of the system?</h3> GConf is a good place to start. Here are some useful GConf keys to set as mandatory: <ul><li> /apps/panel/global: locked_down </li><li> /desktop/gnome/background: picture_filename /home/share/backgrounds/picture.jpg </li><li> /desktop/gnome/lockdown: disable_lock_screen </li><li> /apps/metacity/global_keybindings: Go here to disable/set keybindings (such as removing the default ALT+F2 = run dialogue so students cannot arbitrarily run any program on the system) </li><li> /apps/gnome_settings_daemon/screensaver: start_screensaver </li><li> /desktop/gnome/lockdown: disable_user_switching </li><li> /apps/panel/global/disabled_applets: A list of applets you can disable. This was relevant when removing fast-user-switch and deskbar applets, as Gnome would complain upon login of every user that it couldn't load the applet (they are defaulted to load even when the packages are removed) </li><li> /apps/panel/toplevels/*/background: Will be good for setting panel translucency/color for administrator accounts </li></ul>But, when I attempt to do any of these things, I get the message "The application "gconf-editor" attempted to change an aspect of your configuration that your system administrator or operating system vendor does not allow you to change. Some of the settings you have selected may not take effect, or may not be restored next time you use the application." What am I doing wrong??? Thanks.  Barb -- edubuntu-users mailing list <a href="mailto:edubuntu-users@lists.ubuntu.com">edubuntu-users@lists.ubuntu.com</a> Modify settings or unsubscribe at: <a href="https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/edubuntu-users" target="_blank">https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/edubuntu-users</a> </blockquote></div>