WesleyThomas
2007-10-02, 21:03
I am a tech guy for a small town library in Kentucky. We have two locations, each with a five peer-to-peer networked XP boxes used for public internet usage. Public, of course, means they often become riddled with viruses and spyware.
I've been browsing for programs that will erase user changes upon their logout. This has proved somewhat fruitful as I've found Windows SteadyState, Clean Slate, and, upon the recommendation of a colleague, Deep Freeze.
I tried Windows SteadState which proved to be a nightmare. Despite how many times I attempted to uninstall it, the beast would not leave my system alone. First time I tried it, I uninstalled, and the silly PC would lock the desktop. Also, each time I brought up a browser the homepage would change and it'd be as though I just installed it. I finally deleted the user account which got rid of the problem.
Stupidly, I decided to give it another go, and it got even worse. I uninstalled it, before even activating the disk protection, which caused both Windows Security Center, System Restore and Automatic update to stop working. There might have been a few other small ticks but these three were by far the worst. I installed it again in hopes that uninstalling it would truly clean it out ... but I failed. Finally, I did a clean reboot and was able to use system restore. That was my last dealing with that program.
I tried Clean Slate which worked well for about a week. It'd erase changes and keep the desktop as I wanted after a user logged out. I even installed MyspaceIM, a program I hate, and it took both the install file off the desktop and removed the entire program off my machine! Exciting!
Sadly, some issue the program had with Microsoft Office arose which caused me to have to uninstall it! It was depressing. I tried putting it on another machine today, in hopes that the previous issue was a fluke, but another problem arose. Now adobe reader won't work properly!
Deep Freeze looks to be my remaining option. I tried it some but, unlike Clean Slate, you have to completly reboot the system for changes to wipe. And, it's applied at the drive level, not the user. So administrator changes are taken away as well. You can set it to boot "thawed" for when you wish to make permanent changes. There are some other ways around the admin problem but they seem to be a big headache.
Anyone have any experience with these products or anything like them? I'd appreciate thoughts.
I've been browsing for programs that will erase user changes upon their logout. This has proved somewhat fruitful as I've found Windows SteadyState, Clean Slate, and, upon the recommendation of a colleague, Deep Freeze.
I tried Windows SteadState which proved to be a nightmare. Despite how many times I attempted to uninstall it, the beast would not leave my system alone. First time I tried it, I uninstalled, and the silly PC would lock the desktop. Also, each time I brought up a browser the homepage would change and it'd be as though I just installed it. I finally deleted the user account which got rid of the problem.
Stupidly, I decided to give it another go, and it got even worse. I uninstalled it, before even activating the disk protection, which caused both Windows Security Center, System Restore and Automatic update to stop working. There might have been a few other small ticks but these three were by far the worst. I installed it again in hopes that uninstalling it would truly clean it out ... but I failed. Finally, I did a clean reboot and was able to use system restore. That was my last dealing with that program.
I tried Clean Slate which worked well for about a week. It'd erase changes and keep the desktop as I wanted after a user logged out. I even installed MyspaceIM, a program I hate, and it took both the install file off the desktop and removed the entire program off my machine! Exciting!
Sadly, some issue the program had with Microsoft Office arose which caused me to have to uninstall it! It was depressing. I tried putting it on another machine today, in hopes that the previous issue was a fluke, but another problem arose. Now adobe reader won't work properly!
Deep Freeze looks to be my remaining option. I tried it some but, unlike Clean Slate, you have to completly reboot the system for changes to wipe. And, it's applied at the drive level, not the user. So administrator changes are taken away as well. You can set it to boot "thawed" for when you wish to make permanent changes. There are some other ways around the admin problem but they seem to be a big headache.
Anyone have any experience with these products or anything like them? I'd appreciate thoughts.