Microsoft’s Steady State.
A lifetime ago, I owned and operated a coffee house. The shop was also an internet cafe with wireless access and 6 terminals for people to use. Back then I had a program, who’s name escapes me, to remotely control registry settings within the terminals to circumvent infections and spyware. This was only mildly successful. The number one law of public terminals is “if they can be infected they will be.” Microsoft’s Steady State would have been a god send back then.
The basic idea is this: Setup a PC exactly how you like it, Microsoft’s Steady State will take an image of the PC in that (um…) state, and every time the PC reboots it reverts back to that initial (um…) state. So that’s the basics but it goes well beyond just the basics. There are a lot of other security features that allow an administrator to lock down Users.
So let them eat cake because really no harm can come to the system. If a user downloads a virus or malware of any kind just reboot the PC and BAM! it’s gone. Do you see it’s potential for your kids (or even kid like coworkers)?
I currently use it for a public terminal at one of my dealerships. Every time the system gets clogged up with malware I just tell one of the employees to reboot it. I’ve also got it setup to erase any user changes upon log off and I coupled that with forcing log off every 60 mins (all features in Steady State). This insures that someone doesn’t walk away leaving their bank’s website logged in or leave a file with personal information in it.
Check out Microsoft’s website for all the features and demo videos. If you have kids that have their own PCs or public workstations that you manage, give it a try. How can you go wrong, it’s free?
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/sharedaccess/default.mspx
