Prevent users from running apps on their USB devices

You're going to have to provide some detailed information or expand upon your question. It is vague. What USB devices do they have that can launch an application on the Mac?

well, simply put, students are bringing in apps from their own mac on a USB stick and launching the app from their mounted device. I have simulated this by dragging disk utility from the utility folder to my USB stick. I then log in as a student account and can launch it and use it.

I have locked down system prefs and the utility folder using WGM but as always students find a way around these things.

If you need more info let me know.

resolved the issue but'll it mean a bit of work. I have decided to enable "always use these applications" in WGM - this basically means no application will work unless it is in my list of approved apps. In my experiments I have found that there are "helper" apps for the main applications which need tracked down as well otherwise you will recieve errors when launching. For example, simply enabling Photoshop does not allow the app to function properly. There are several helper apps nested away which also need to be on the allowed list.

It's all good fun with OSX!

Very creative students. You always need to be a step ahead of them. This country needs ingenuity.

Maybe you can put what programs they use on your computer. I imagine it is probably a browser - I do not know. Do you use Apple Remote Desktop? Just curious.

Yes I use ARD. Hmm, well let's just say the students bring in software that is prohibited by our college, and I'm not about to install it for them :O)