Password Lock Desktop & Apps Installed Etc Even If You Can Get to Homescreen

[larrytxeast]

My mother-in-law is an extremely smartphone illiterate person. Even so, she has purchased a Samsung Galaxy S3 for Verizon, prepaid. Within our small family, I'm sort of the assumed "phone expert," the one who knows how to work these things and set things up. I will typically install Nova Launcher and then have custom "shortcuts" for things such as dialing favorite contacts, turning the GPS off/on quickly via a widget, turning off the screen, getting quick one-tap directions to a place (which I set up, along with direct dialing of favorite contacts, via "shortcuts" within Nova launcher). I do this to make it as easy an experience for her as possible, because she's not going to think to go to the "app drawer" and hunt down the browser, or hit "contacts" and scroll for the 3-4 names she dials the most. She also doesn't know how to, for instance, put it in vibrate mode, and even if she did she forgets to turn it back on and then misses calls, so I had an app set up on the homescreen which gives a "timed" vibrate mode after which point it will then automatically turn the sounds back on.

The trouble is, periodically she will go to the store for "refilling" it, and when she does, the staff takes it upon themselves to "clean things up" and totally ruin the customized setup I've given her, and I have to do all of it over again. Nova launcher does have a "lock desktop" mode, but it doesn't have a means to PASSWORD lock this sort of thing down. The only way to password lock this down I've seen would be to password lock the lock screen, which she doesn't want. I want a way where this sort of thing can be locked down to a password even if someone can get to the homescreen.

Tips?

 

[larrytxeast]

Well, as usual, I've answered my own question--good thing, because it sure seems to take a long time to hear from anybody in here anymore.

ANYWAY--I found out, by trying out software on a spare phone, that ADWLauncher has a password-protected desktop option. It wouldn't protect someone from going into the settings well deep in the menus and turning it off, but it should do enough slowing down of things to prevent this problem from happening again. This is in contrast to Nova & Apex, which I'd used before, they don't have password-protection option with locking of the desktop.

 

[larrytxeast]

Also, another thing--an app called App Lock (Lock Master tools) {https://goo.gl/CDqCMq} I tried it out on another phone and it seems to allow you to lock out certain apps altogether. In this case it could be used to lock out settings (I tried it, it does so) to prevent someone from uninstalling apps, and you could lock out the Play store to prevent someone from installing apps.

I don't see a way to lock out someone from changing the setting in ADWLauncher which locks the desktop and has password protection yet still allows the program to run otherwise as a homescreen manager in general, that would be perfect--but what I have found is still much better than the setup as it was, where anyone could do anything (and did).

I think we need to rename this forum or have it come with a title "post tips you found YOURSELF here for later reference," because where it concerns help from others showing up, it never does.