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Tired of people screwing your PC?

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Name: XpUser
Date: June 19, 2007 at 07:33:05 Pacific
OS: XP Home & PRO All SP2
CPU/Ram: 2.02GHz/512RAM
Comment:

If you are tired or afraid of family members, friends and strangers screwing your PC, or installing programs you didn't want, don't fret. You can reboot the PC to start like new every time - with M$ new freeware called Windows SteadyState.

Once you have everything set up the way you want it, you can share the computer and rest easy. Any changes a user might make to the configuration or hard disk can be undone by simply restarting the machine.

Go HERE for more info & download link. Oh, your copy of Windows must be genuine or it will not go through

Another Oh, If you're already running M$ Shared Computer Toolkit you will need to uninstall it, do awfully lot of maintenance work. The best way to go about it is fdisk the whole thing & start afresh then install this new program.

i_XpUser




Response Number 1
Name: rsn000
Date: June 19, 2007 at 08:35:06 Pacific
+1
Reply:

I imagine system restore must be turned on for this to work?

Yes or no?



Response Number 2
Name: XpUser
Date: June 19, 2007 at 08:40:49 Pacific
+1
Reply:

AFAIK Windows SteadyState uses a different system restore engine called Windows Disk Protection (WDP).

WDP restores system configuration
to its original intended state and User Setting, which restricts specified
users from accessing various features, documents and applications.

i_XpUser



Response Number 3
Name: rsn000
Date: June 19, 2007 at 08:55:21 Pacific
+1
Reply:

Have you use this? I know it's only been out a couple of days. Do you think it'll put a strain on system resouces/performance?



Response Number 4
Name: XpUser
Date: June 19, 2007 at 09:13:02 Pacific
+1
Reply:

No I haven't used it on the PC I am running at the moment. Internet Cafes are the perfect candidate for it. As for "strain on system resource/performance," it should be about the same when you are running Norton Ghost or Acronis True Image in the background.

The relationship between XP System Restore and Windows SteadyState WDP isn't clear to me. I suppose M$ will divulge more information to the public in time.

i_XpUser



Response Number 5
Name: domass
Date: June 19, 2007 at 09:14:12 Pacific
+1
Reply:

Dang it, I knew I should have downloaded Shared Computer Toolkit before they took it off the website.



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Response Number 6
Name: Jennifer SUMN
Date: June 19, 2007 at 09:35:04 Pacific
+1
Reply:

Are you sure you don't want to rephrase that, XPUser? LOL

Life is more painless for those who are brainless.



Response Number 7
Name: XpUser
Date: June 19, 2007 at 09:36:47 Pacific
+1
Reply:

Nay LOL :-)

i_XpUser



Response Number 8
Name: Sabertooth
Date: June 19, 2007 at 09:39:06 Pacific
+1
Reply:

Microsoft finally tosses a cold one from the "Deep Freezer" ;-)

@ domass,

As it turns out, your inaction isn't so much a drawback, since SteadyState is really Shared Computer Toolkit 2.0; which in & of itself is PAC Tool 2.0.




Response Number 9
Name: Jennifer SUMN
Date: June 19, 2007 at 11:04:44 Pacific
+1
Reply:

Well, then. Thanks for that visual. LOL

Life is more painless for those who are brainless.



Response Number 10
Name: XpUser
Date: June 19, 2007 at 11:07:14 Pacific
+1
Reply:

I haven't read everything there is to be read but I presume there has to be a difference between Steadystate and Deepfreeze.

For the former, SteadyState covers only the users' areas while DeepFreeze is machine-wide regardless of users which is why YOUR own stuff don't get purged when you reboot the PC.

i_XpUser



Response Number 11
Name: XpUser
Date: June 19, 2007 at 22:16:55 Pacific
+1
Reply:

Update 1: I've finally read SteadyState handbook. Brief FYI:

1. Windows SteadyState WDP protects only the OS partition.

2. Each User profile that you add to Windows SteadyState are created on separate partition not protected by WDP unless you configured it otherwise.

i_XpUser



Response Number 12
Name: Sci-Guy
Date: June 21, 2007 at 15:52:43 Pacific
+1
Reply:

I have a much more reliable method of preventing people from screwing up my PC.

I break the hands of anyone that touches it!!

Please let us know if you found someone's advice to be helpful.



Response Number 13
Name: tomdelonge
Date: August 23, 2007 at 15:31:19 Pacific
+1
Reply:

Thanks for the reply XpUser.
I have two questions about the software, if you don't mind me asking.

Can users still save stuff to my documents and find it when they log in again? (they are being specific about this at the centre, they want the pcs to be user friendly but also secure)

How would I be able to administrate the computers? Would the program just apply to a user account and not the administrator account?

Sorry, that's three questions!!

Living on a steady diet of....soda pop and ritalin



Response Number 14
Name: XpUser
Date: August 24, 2007 at 06:22:56 Pacific
+1
Reply:

Hello Tom,

It would be better if you repost the question in your original thread for more users opinion. No one that I know of go as far back as this thread to read what's added to it.

i_Xp/VistaUser



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