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I have an AppLock program that locks certain apps with a PIN. In order for the app to have any effectiveness, I include Settings as an App to lock. Otherwise, I could go to Settings -> Applications and simply kill the task. The disadvantage to this is that if I lock Settings I cannot do simple tasks like Calling Settings and Display. I would like the ability to fine tune exactly what settings I lock. Is this possible?

I'm running Froyo on a Samsung Captivate.

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    You'd also want to protect the market so a user with access to your phone, doesn't download and install a task killer from the market app. And you'd also want some way to restrict access to the mounting of the SD card so a user can't install apps from the SD card to accomplish the same. And you'd also need to.......the list continues. Figure out what your most likely threat(s) will be and then try to have a policy that most effectively balances security with productivity.
    – Sparx
    Mar 18, 2011 at 17:43

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I believe the basic answer is no. Obviously it can't be done with AppLock since all the settings are accessed through the same app, but further than that you would have to somehow determine what the Settings app was doing and prevent it. This would be very difficult, and impossible without root.

I think the Settings app must be open-source, however, given that manufacturers can customize it. You could possibly modify it to lock out the application settings unless you enter a password, or something. That's beyond the scope of this site, however.

Another alternative is widgets that alter the settings directly. I'm sure you can get a widget that would allow you to edit the brightness and that sort of thing without going through the Settings app. I'm not exactly sure how widgets like this work, however; it's possible they might call into the Settings app, which would prevent this.

In that last case, it might also be possible to set up something like AppLocker that allows Settings to run if it is triggered by a "privileged" application. You could make the brightness widget privileged, so that the Settings app can make the brightness change when requested to, but everything else would still be protected. I assume AppLocker can't do this, but it might not be hard to develop (again, out of the scope of this site).

I know this is kind of vague, but hopefully it provides some sort of help.

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    Thanks. The widget is actually a pretty good idea, but no luck. I tried adding Shortcuts to the Desktop, but they are guarded by the AppLock as well when I access settings this way. I think the best answer is just to use a variety of apps. For instance, WiFinder will manage Wifi. Tone Picker will manage my ringtones. And I can access Wallpaper settings from a variety of avenues.
    – Chance
    Mar 18, 2011 at 20:57

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