Installing FamilyProtect on a Windows PC

To protect a Windows PC, download the installer from your dashboard, run it once on that PC with an administrator account, and the device appears in your dashboard within a few minutes. From then on, every protection you switch on reaches that PC automatically. Here’s the full walkthrough.

What do I need before I start?

• An active FamilyProtect account (see Getting started if you haven’t set one up yet).
• The Windows PC you want to protect, connected to the internet.
• An administrator account on that PC. Installing system-level protection needs admin rights, once, at install time.

How do I get the installer?

Sign in to your dashboard and choose Add a device. That opens a guided setup that walks you through the whole thing, and it offers two ways to get the installer onto the PC you want to protect.

Download it here. Click Download installer (.msi) and move the file to the child’s PC on a USB stick or a shared drive.

Get it on the other PC. Click Create a 24-hour link and you get a short web address made of three ordinary words, like app.getfamilyprotect.com/get/rabbit-basket-window. Type that into a browser on the child’s PC and the installer downloads straight there. No USB stick, and no signing in on their machine. The link works for 24 hours, and you can make a fresh one any time.

The installer itself is unique to your family account: it already knows which family it belongs to, so there is nothing to type into it and no sign-in on the child’s PC. The short link above is only a way to fetch the file on that PC, not something the installer asks for.

Because the installer is tied to your account, don’t share the file outside your family. If you need another parent or a teen to install it on their own PC, invite them from the Family members screen instead, and they can download it themselves after signing in.

How do I run it?

1. Copy the downloaded .msi file to the PC you want to protect (a USB stick, a shared drive, or downloading it directly on that PC all work).
2. Double-click it while signed in to an administrator account, and approve the Windows prompt.
3. That’s it. There are no options to choose. The installer finishes in under a minute.

The PC enrolls in the background. If you’re following the guided setup, step 3 watches for it and moves on by itself when the PC appears, usually within a few minutes. You don’t need to keep the page open: the new PC shows up in Your devices on your dashboard either way.

What happens after it’s installed?

Any protection cards you already have switched on roll out to the new PC automatically, usually within a few minutes of it appearing in your dashboard. Nothing extra to configure per device: one switch covers every enrolled PC, current and future.

Do I need to change my child’s account type?

FamilyProtect’s tamper resistance only fully holds when your child’s everyday account is a Standard Windows user, not an Administrator. A standard account can’t switch the filtering off, change its settings, or uninstall it. An administrator account can, so this is a step you need to take, not something that happens automatically.

If you installed FamilyProtect with the account your child normally uses, check its account type now: open Settings > Accounts on that PC and look at the label under the account name. If it says Administrator, follow the standard-account guide to switch it over safely. It takes a few minutes and keeps every file, app, and setting your child already has.

Once your child’s account is Standard, keeping an administrator account for yourself is what makes the tamper-resistance guarantee stick.

Does my child see anything on the PC?

Almost nothing. There is no FamilyProtect app for them to open or close, and no pop-ups during normal use. If they visit a blocked site, the page simply doesn’t load, and with DNS Protection on they see a clean block page instead of a scary browser error. You can read exactly what runs under the hood in how DNS Protection works on Windows.

Can I install on more than one PC?

Yes, and it’s the same one flat price. Run the same installer on each Windows PC you want covered. Every device shows up in your dashboard, each with its own protection status.

How do I remove FamilyProtect from a PC?

From your dashboard, not from the PC. Find the device under Your devices and click Remove device. FamilyProtect reverts every protection on that PC and removes itself completely, usually within a few minutes; the dashboard shows “Offboarding” while that happens. You don’t have to do this before closing your account: if you delete your account, your devices are released automatically.

Something didn’t work. What should I check?

• The device never appears. Make sure the PC is online and give it ten minutes. The guided setup shows its own troubleshooting tips once it has waited that long. If it still isn’t there, run the installer again; it is safe to re-run.
• The download button shows an error. Sign out and back in, then try again. Your installer is only available while your subscription is active.
• Windows SmartScreen warns about the file. This can happen with any newly downloaded installer. As long as you downloaded it from your own FamilyProtect dashboard, choose “More info” and then “Run anyway”.

Still stuck? Get in touch with the PC’s name and what you saw, and we’ll sort it out.