Every week, families across Edinburgh — from Morningside flats to new-build estates in Livingston — bring us shared family laptops they want to lock down before the kids get hold of them again. The good news is that Windows 11 has the strongest built-in parental controls Microsoft has ever shipped, and they're built in, cross-device, and you don't need a third-party app. The slightly less good news is that the setup is scattered across the Settings app, your Microsoft account online, and the Family Safety mobile app, which makes it easy to give up halfway through. This guide walks you through the whole thing in order.
If you'd rather not wrestle with the menus yourself, our remote support technicians can do the full setup over a screen-share in one visit. But if you've got an hour and a cup of tea, you can absolutely do this yourself.
Before You Start: What You'll Need
Make sure each child has their own user profile on the Windows 11 PC — not a shared account, and not your administrator account. You'll also need a Microsoft account for each child (you'll create one during setup if they don't have one) and a Microsoft account for yourself that will sit at the top of the family group. Have your child's date of birth handy: Microsoft uses it to apply age-appropriate defaults, and getting the year wrong here will cause headaches later.
1. Set Up a Microsoft Family Group
Sign in to family.microsoft.com with your own Microsoft account — the one you use for Outlook, Xbox or your Microsoft 365 subscription. Click Add a family member and choose Member. This is the parent-side hub where every screen-time rule, spending limit and activity report will appear, regardless of which device your child uses. You only ever need one family group per household, even if you've got several children on different PCs.
2. Add Your Child's Account to the Family
Enter your child's email address if they already have a Microsoft account, or create a new one for them. Children under 13 (under 16 in some regions) must be added as a child member, which automatically applies stricter defaults and asks for your parental consent to comply with UK and EU data rules. Once invited, sign your child in on the Windows 11 PC: open Settings → Accounts → Family, then Add account and follow the prompts. Their account now appears in your family group online.
3. Configure Screen Time Limits
In family.microsoft.com, click your child's name and go to Screen time. You can set one combined limit across all their devices (handy if they bounce between a Windows 11 laptop and an Xbox) or separate daily allowances per device. Set the hours each day during which the PC can be used at all — for example, locked out between 9 pm and 7 am — and then a daily cap inside those hours. We usually recommend starting strict and easing off; loosening a limit is easier than tightening one after a row in Corstorphine.
4. Filter Apps, Games and Content by Age
Under Content filters → Apps and games, set an age rating. Windows 11 will use the PEGI rating system in the UK, so picking "12" blocks anything rated PEGI 16 or PEGI 18 from launching, including games already installed. You can override individual titles either way — allow a specific game your child has earned, or block an app they shouldn't have. If a younger sibling tries to launch something blocked, you'll get a request notification on your phone via the Family Safety app, which you can approve or deny in a tap.
5. Manage Web Browsing and Search
Under Content filters → Web and search, toggle Filter inappropriate websites and searches. This forces Bing SafeSearch on, blocks adult sites in Microsoft Edge, and locks down search results. You can add specific sites to an Allow list (school portals, BBC Bitesize, a homework site) or to a Block list. Important caveat: the web filter only works inside Microsoft Edge. If your child opens Chrome or Firefox, the filter is bypassed, so Windows 11 will automatically block all other browsers when this setting is on. Don't switch that off.
6. Review Activity Reports and Spending
Once a child account has been active for a few days, the family hub starts showing weekly activity reports: total screen time per device, top apps, top games, web searches and sites visited in Edge. Switch on email summaries so you get a recap every Sunday without having to log in. Under Spending you can pre-load their Microsoft account with credit for the Microsoft Store or Xbox, and require your approval for any purchase — vital if your card is saved to the account.
7. Tweak Controls as Your Child Grows
Parental controls are not a "set and forget" job. A sensible cap for a nine-year-old in Dalkeith will be a battleground for a fifteen-year-old, and a PEGI 7 filter will block half of GCSE-friendly content. Check the rules every school holiday and again at the start of each new term, adjusting screen-time totals, allow lists and age ratings to match how your child is actually using the PC. The Family Safety mobile app makes most changes a thirty-second job once you've done the initial setup.
A Few Pitfalls to Avoid
If your child already has their own non-family Microsoft account from a school or an old Xbox, that account can't be retroactively turned into a child account — you'll need to add a new one and migrate. Local Windows accounts (no email attached) are not supported at all, so convert any local accounts to Microsoft accounts before you start. And if your child knows your administrator password, every control above can be turned off in seconds, so change it now. While you're locking the machine down, it's also worth scanning for any sketchy software that's slipped on by checking our guide to signs your PC has a virus — kids' shared laptops in Portobello are some of the most malware-prone machines we see.
Need a Hand Setting It Up in Edinburgh?
If the family group, screen-time rules and content filters aren't behaving — or you'd just rather not spend a Saturday afternoon on it — we can help. Our home callout team can set up parental controls in your living room, and our software troubleshooting technicians can untangle Microsoft Family accounts that have gone wrong after a school-issued login. Book a session online and we'll have the family PC locked down and tidy before bedtime.
Last updated: 23 May 2026