FAQ Sentinel LaunchPad™

Schools already give out Chromebooks. Why is this better?

Chromebooks and their ecosystem are designed for schools and not for parents. The LaunchPad was designed for parents and their children for home use. While Chromebooks are used in a huge percentage of schools in the US, school-issued Chromebooks are problematic for parents in many ways:
“School-issued Chromebooks create challenges for parents regarding child safety, data privacy, and excessive screen time. Key issues include exposure to inappropriate content despite filters, lack of parental visibility, potential for cyberbullying, and the merging of school/home boundaries. Parents often lack control over device settings, and concerns exist about data tracking and remote monitoring capabilities.” (Google, 2026).

The LaunchPad was designed for parents and their children with:

1. Features supporting improving study habits, focus, attention and academic performance and, as a desktop system, emphasizes ergonomics and productivity. Ideally, students would use the LaunchPad rather than their Chromebook at home for schoolwork and possibly not even bring it home from school. For more info click here.

2. Operating modes to support the child’s full screen time life. In addition to Education modes, Exploration and Entertainment Modes can provide safe, age appropriate enrichment, play and connection.

3. Advanced and secure parental controls so parents can easily set and maintain use limits. Distinct operating modes and age based limits and restrictions simplify this process. Since family life is dynamic, Sentinel parental controls are flexible with remotely managed real time, one time, current day and even holiday exceptions. The GamePlay+ feature allows preset use extensions for Entertainment modes to help kids wind down before bed. No workarounds, no tricking parents and no excess screen time. School and district IT staff have no access to the LaunchPad nor are required for support.

4. On demand and periodic screen image capture allows parents to remotely see what their child is doing on the system. Children, knowing that their parents are “looking over their shoulder”, are less likely to engage in risky or inappropriate behavior. If parents see something concerning, they can communicate this to the child through the system, and if necessary, remove them from the system altogether. As the child matures, parents can give their child increasing levels of autonomy and privacy. Screen privacy levels are always displayed on the front panel in all modes.

How is the LaunchPad easier on parents?

It reduces the complexity of keeping children safe and productive online - period! Parental controls today are a hodgepodge of afterthought, product features and tech giant liability insurance. They have been added to computer Operating Systems (OS), gaming systems. smartphones, Internet and Cellular Service Providers and even WIFI routers. In addition, third party device parental control software and controls for applications such as video games, social media and Artificial Intelligence (AI) intend to fill the gap in protecting children. And what about school issued devices? Parents have little if any control of them and must rely on the school district’s IT department to keep their children safe. WOW - how can parents manage all of this? They can’t.

This is why only about 50% of parents have any parental controls on their children’s devices and children are spending way too much time on screens as a result. Many experts are arguing that this has caused a crisis in both academic achievement and youth mental health in the US.

For Sentinel Computers keeping children safe and productive is the most important thing. The LaunchPad was designed from the ground up to help parents guide and protect their children. Easy 5 minute setup and the most comprehensive parental controls of any computer made today. And as a child matures so do the limits.

Who is Sentinel Computers?

Sentinel Computers LLC, located in Lake Forest, California was formerly named Sentinel Gaming Systems and has since 2015 developed and manufactured personal computers for the treatment of videogame and other screen addictions. In 2024 the name was changed to Sentinel Computers as the company’s mission expanded to focus on systems to be sold to the general public to prevent the harmful effects of problematic computer use. Dr. Kenneth Woog, one of our founders, is a clinical psychologist treating screen addiction and a computer engineer and primary hardware designer of Sentinel Computers systems. Dr. Woog founded one of the earliest personal computers in the late 1970s (before IBM, Microsoft, Dell, Google or HP made personal computers) and since founded tech companies whose hardware or software has shipped on millions of personal computers worldwide. Sentinel Computers® is a registered trademark of Sentinel Computers LLC. For more information check out the About Page.

What software and apps is the LaunchPad compatible with?

The LaunchPad includes many powerful applications preinstalled at no additional cost. This includes Google Chromium (Linux version of Google Chrome web browser) that provides access (parental control managed) to many of todays popular education, entertainment, social media, videogaming, music, videos, health and AI web apps. The LibreOffice productivity suite, compatible with Microsoft Office, includes word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, database and drawing applications. Applications for image and video editing, computer programming, media players, meditation and more are also included. For a full list refer to the Product Specifications. By design the LaunchPad does not offer an “App Store” to install new applications. Except for a few applications (Microsoft Visual Studio Code, Reaper Digital Audio Workstation and RealVNC Lite), no other additional applications can be installed.

What hardware devices is the LaunchPad compatible with?

The LaunchPad supports a huge variety of hardware devices from keyboards, mice, touchscreens, graphic tablets, MIDI keyboards and devices. In general if they are compatible with Microsoft Windows systems without requiring any special drivers they are likely to work. Printer support via wireless, Ethernet or USB connection does require driverless setup. Brother printers have been found to be the most compatible.

The LaunchPad has two micro HMDI outputs compatible with video displays supporting at minimum 1080p and 720p resolutions. One micro HDMI to HDMI cable is included. The LaunchPad has 2 USB 2.0 and 2 USB 3.0 ports compatible with a variety of peripherals.

For more detail check out the LaunchPad Compatibility Guide.

My child is a real tech wiz and has hacked or worked around everything else we have done. How is this different?

There are many ways traditional parental controls can be bypassed - click here for a white paper on this subject. Cycles of failed limit settings can contribute to problematic use patterns and addiction. For the past 10 years we have been working to make systems that could not be easily hacked by those struggling with screen addiction - some of which themselves are highly technical professionals. Because of this we have taken parental controls to a whole new level. Here are just some of the ways:

1. With the LaunchPad, parental controls are simplified and automated, No need for monitoring and limiting every application or website your child wants to use. Sites and applications are automatically blocked based on the mode of operation, age of the user and other settings. Since parents don’t have be the day-to-day System Administrator and IT department for the system they also aren't vulnerable to manipulation or accidentally allowing the user access to the parental controls. Set the Sentinel configuration and if you need to make a change, this can also be done easily and quickly from any web browser (including your smart phone). No more forgetting to change the settings back! Holiday and one time setting override changes make this both convenient and secure. Using the Restricted Content Access request feature of Study Desktop and Exploration Desktop modes, a child can request access to a specific YouTube video or website. Parents receive an email, check out the requested site and easily authorize that site if appropriate.

2. The LaunchPad has dedicated hardware maintaining a secure connection to remote servers to enforce limits. Sentinel Computers systems do not rely on third party parental control solutions or even OS managed parental controls which can be disabled or shut off when the Operating System is reinstalled, Parental controls are built into the security software designed by Sentinel Computers and is hardware enforced. Time and date settings cannot be changed to bypass limits as usage and limits are fully managed by the remote Sentinel servers. If somehow connection to the remote servers is lost, the system owner will receive an Alert Notification and the system, based on settings, can be automatically shut down.

3. Similar to our higher end models, the LaunchPad makes video watching or videogaming during times allocated for schoolwork unpleasant even if a user were able to access sites not already blocked. The LaunchPad allows the operating performance for the Chromium Web Browser to be configured during Study Desktop Mode so that while casual browsing is not seriously affected, audio and video media would be “glitched”. Video watching will be very unpleasant and playing any form of action game impossible, The LibreOffice Suite (word processing, spreadsheet) and other productivity applications continue to operate at full performance,

4. The LaunchPad monitors activity during certain modes in real time to ensure a user does not stray from authorized web locations. If a user attempts to go to an unauthorized online location, an image is immediately captured, sent to parents and the user is kicked off the site. Excess attempts will automatically result in the user being locked off the system.

5. The LaunchPad detects software tampering and physical sensors detect intrusion into the hardware. This means that if security software were to be defeated or disabled in any way, the main hardware will no longer operate until restored by Sentinel Computers (Integrity Service). There is no provision for reinstalling the Operating System on the LaunchPad. It can only be updated as authorized or required by Sentinel Computers. Virus scanning software is regularly updated but is kept separate from Operating System Updates. The system is also rendered inoperable until reset by the factory should the case covers be removed. The main system board and other hardware within the system are custom and cannot be operated or bypassed by a user opening or reconfiguring the system.

My child needs a computer for homework. How can I stop him from playing games or watching videos instead of doing homework?

No computer can force a child to do homework, but the LaunchPad can help ensure that videogaming, YouTube, TikTok, social media or AI chatbots are not the distraction. Also the LaunchPad has advanced features designed to help parents increase their child’s motivation to do homework and improve their academic effort:

1. Study Desktop , Study Desktop+Focus, Online Learning, Online Learning Zoom and Guided Instruction Modes tightly restrict access to websites and applications that are not appropriate for a learning environment. No Discord, YouTube or social media sites. In addition, video and audio performance is reduced (configurable) to ensure that even if your child found some site that was not restricted, watching videos or playing games would be frustrating or impossible. On the other hand, word processing, online reading, educational courses, lectures, casual web browsing and listening to music (depending on settings) works just fine.

2. If listening to podcasts or music is a distraction, audio can be globally disabled during the Study Desktop Mode. If audio is needed to assist focus and attention, Study Desktop+Focus mode can be used to provide an approved audio source (i.e. Brain.FM) while studying.

3. The Academic Bonus feature can be used to motivate a child to get better grades in school and thus increase motivation for completing homework and school studies. After setup, parents simply periodically enter the child’s updated class grades and Entertainment Mode time each day is automatically increased of decreased. Increases can be set to be provided on the weekend days only. Learn More

4. Screen image capture allows you to check in to make sure your child is staying on task. Real time updates to their login allow you to kick them off altogether (with warnings) if you see them abusing the computer privilege. If your child needs a specific restricted site for schoolwork, this can be requested and authorized by the parents in an automated fashion.

5. Daily Entertainment Mode Enable conveniently prevents preset entertainment use (i.e. gaming, social media) until the parent specifically (and conveniently) enables use for that day. Parents can check homework, Study Reports, chores or other responsibilities have been completed before allowing gaming, video watching and social media for that day. Once schoolwork, chores and other responsibilities are complete then many entertainment options are available.

6. Parents can quickly review the user’s screen images after Education mode and identify off-task or bonus on-task activities. If the amount of time is significant, the parent can enter the amount of time into the Behavioral Bonus feature setting and Entertainment time will be automatically be reduced or increased for that day.

My child already has a computer. Do you have a program or hardware I can install on their computer?

No. To provide the security and features of a Sentinel system requires a level of custom hardware, operating system, application and remote server integration that would be impossible to implement as an app or hardware accessory on existing computers. All Sentinel systems are designed to limit the ability of users to operating the system in a way and at times that are not authorized by the Account Owner (parent).

However, the LaunchPad™ can be used with their existing Windows system in one of two ways:

Networked and Secured

Relocate their existing computer to a secure, lockable location (i.e. parent’s closet), preferably connected to your home network via direct Ethernet. Once properly configured, the LaunchPad can remotely access the existing computer in one of two ways:

1. The Windows system running the RealVNC Server and installing the RealVNC Remote Desktop App on the Sentinel. Remote access (without sound) can be made available in Education, Exploration and Entertainment Desktop Modes. This is not intended for gaming applications.

2, A Windows gaming system running the Sunshine, XBOX and Steam (applications) and the Sentinel running in PC Remote Play Mode. This allows the Sentinel to play games with audio from the Windows gaming computer including XBOX and Steam games. Will require game purchases or subscriptions (i.e. XBOX Game Pass).

System Not Relocated

If you are the System Administrator and have full parental control privileges for their existing system, you may be able to have them use their existing system for Entertainment use only and the LaunchPad to complete schoolwork and for online exploration. Simply set the allowed times for the existing system to be after Education and Exploration. Alternatively, parents can use Gaming Timer Mode, Study Reports and Entertainment Enable as tools to help guide when to manually allow and shut down their existing system. Parents can then allow access to their existing system only after they log into Gaming Timer Mode on the LaunchPad. To share displays, keyboards, mice, you can use a low cost (around $20) HDMI KVM Switch.

Do you offer an App to install on their XBOX or PlayStation console?

No, but the LaunchPad can be used with an existing PlayStation gaming console or Windows gaming PC to play PlayStation and XBOX games.

1. PC Remote Play allows the Sentinel to play Windows, XBOX and Steam games with a Windows gaming system in the home running the Sunshine and XBOX apps. Will require game purchases or subscriptions (i.e. XBOX Game Pass).

2. PS Remote Play mode can be used with an existing PlayStation 4/5 console in the home. Place the console system in a locked area with WIFI or Ethernet internet access or place it in a specially designed, locked case (click here). Run PS Remote Play Setup to pair the two devices. By launching PS Remote Play mode, the user can now run the console games on the LaunchPad.

Note: If you do not want to relocate/secure your PlayStation 4/5 console or Windows PC and you have full access to the parental controls for these devices you may be able to have them use their existing console for Entertainment use only and the LaunchPad to complete schoolwork and for online exploration.

3. Other Gaming / Entertainment Devices - Gaming Timer Mode. The LaunchPad can be used as a unifying usage timer for any or all gaming or entertainment devices your child might use. This includes tablets, iPads, handheld and console gaming devices, personal computers smartphones and just about any device that can be either physically restricted (taken away) or has parental control settings allowing use limits. Gaming Timer Mode provides a use timer matching the limit settings for Entertainment Mode. The status is shown on the front panel LCD screen. This can be used so a user can request an alternate device (i.e. Nintendo Switch, iPad, smartphone) after logging in to Gaming Timer Mode. The parent can either provide the device directly or enable use of the device with the device’s own parental control settings. When time runs out completely, the parent receives the Email notification and either requests the device back and/or shuts off the device using the parental control settings of the device. Use of this mode consumes Entertainment Mode time and usage is logged. GamePlay+ extensions can be requested during the last 2 minutes of available time. The computer video display is blanked during this mode to save power and the front panel display constantly shows status.

This will give you full access to the features of Gaming Timer Mode, Study Reports and Entertainment Enable as tools to help you know when to allow and shut down their existing console. Parents can then allow access to their existing console only after they log into Gaming Timer Mode on the LaunchPad. To share displays, keyboards and mice you can use a low cost (around $20) HDMI KVM Switch.

Do you offer a laptop or tablet computer?

No, all models are desktop computer systems. While tablet and laptop designs are clearly possible, at this time Sentinel Computers believes that these types of devices, while convenient, have led to overuse by children. We are encouraging intentional and limited use of computers by children for education, exploration and entertainment. That said, the LaunchPad is tiny and transporting it between households or for travel is simple. For portable use, the LaunchPad is small enough to be placed in a travel bag with a portable display and cell phone battery charger for power. The LaunchPad does support WIFI connections to a mobile hotspot or hotel WIFI without a WIFI Extender, although this is not optimum for gaming.

If I limit the gaming on the LaunchPad I am afraid that my child will just spend more time gaming on his smartphone or portable gaming devices. Then what should I do?

If your child has other gaming/entertainment devices, including smartphones, computers or tablets, these will need to be physically restricted. Since the LaunchPad does not support monitoring and limiting Android, iOS, Nintendo or other handheld gaming devices you will need to manage physical access to these devices if they are to be allowed. The Gaming Timer mode on the LaunchPad can be used to help parents “check out” and “check back in“ these devices based on allowed Entertainment Mode time. This can be implemented by physically providing the devices and requesting the devices back OR by directly controlling the device remotely using the parental control settings for those devices.

If your child is younger (under 16 years of age) and spends too much time on their tablet or smartphone or if you struggle to set limits, we recommend that you consider removing those devices from them until they are older and more mature. The LaunchPad has features to help parents make this transition or to delay the introduction of the smartphone in the first place.

I have never heard of Sentinel Computers before. How can I trust your system support will continue in the future?

Obviously there can be no guarantee that the LaunchPad will be supported forever, Sentinel Computers LLC, (formerly Sentinel Gaming Systems) has been making and supporting a line of high end personal computers for the treatment of videogame and other screen addictions for more than 10 years. While Sentinel Computers is a very small company compared with giants such as Apple, Dell, Google and Microsoft, these companies all started as very small companies in a garage or college dorm room. . The LaunchPad is our first product being offered to the general public and we are hopeful of widespread adoption to keep children safe and productive as their first computer.

While Sentinel systems require remote servers for complete operation and the Sentinel Web Portal for configuration, all models provide failsafe support should the remote servers be inaccessible for any reason (i.e. router or ISP blocking access, server failure, denial of service attack or natural disaster). The LaunchPad in particular not only stores important parental control settings on the device, it even automatically stores periodic screen images (if previously enabled for that mode) on the system for local viewing by the parent.

Also note that Microsoft is ending support for one of the most popular Operating Systems, Windows 10, potentially obsoleting millions of computers worldwide.

What Operating System does the LaunchPad use?

The LaunchPad uses the Linux Operating System (OS) to support its advanced features and highly secure parental controls. The LaunchPad software design has prioritized simplicity, reliability and safety for use by children. Linux originated in 1991 from the Unix OS as an open source alternative to proprietary operating systems. While Linux is installed on a majority of web servers and supercomputers worldwide, desktop system adoption is still below Microsoft Windows and Apple Mac OS. Its adoption for desktop use has been accelerating in recent years and according to Google Gemini:
“Linux's desktop market share has tripled in the last decade and has seen an accelerating rate of growth in recent years.

Record Highs: By mid-2025, Linux's desktop market share reached record highs in both the US and worldwide, with some reports showing it surpassing 5%.
Regional Adoption: Linux is seeing substantial growth in specific regions, such as India, where it holds a significant second-place market share, and in Europe, where governments are promoting its adoption to reduce reliance on proprietary software.”

Note: 78.5% of developers worldwide reported using Linux as either a primary or secondary operating system.

Is the LaunchPad made in China or other Asian Countries”?

No, Unlike the top computer and smartphone manufacturers in the world, all Sentinel Computers models are “Assembled in the USA”, When Sentinel Computers was unable to procure parts from China and Asia in 2020 due to Covid-19 pandemic related worldwide supply chain disruptions, we began designing a small system that could be assembled in the USA with components and assemblies primarily sourced from the USA and Europe. While this design was intended to treat screen addiction, during development it was clear that this product could do much more than that. It could serve to protect children as their first computer.

The LaunchPad hardware design contains proprietary components manufactured by Sentinel Computers in the USA and custom versions of standard components designed and manufactured by other firms. While the LaunchPad does contain components manufactured in China and other Asian countries, over 90% of components/assemblies (by value) used in the LaunchPad are manufactured in either the United States of America (USA) or the United Kingdom (UK). Because of this, Sentinel Computers is well positioned to be protected from significant costs increases associated with tariffs, global shipping and future supply chain risks associated with Asian manufacturing.

All Sentinel Computers security and server software is developed and maintained by Sentinel Computers LLC in the USA. Sentinel Computers servers used with the LaunchPad are sourced from Google. All Central Processing Units (CPUs) and custom microcontrollers within the LaunchPad are sourced from semiconductor manufacturers headquartered in the USA.