Software to lock down a public PC?

[edmicman]

Gehhh.....my company does tech support for the local community library on the side. Its a mixed network of win98, winME(!!!!) and an NT4 workstation they got from a Gateway/Microsoft grant. The 9x machines have GoBack installed to revert back an original setup each night at midnight, and the stupid NT machine came preinstalled with a ton of security settings which lock public users out of most everything, and makes it a PITA for me to administer. But thats another issue....I'm having problems keeping the computers clean. I've installed SpyBot and immunized the PCs, and run it when I stop by there, I've tried on the NT machine to set restrictions as tight as possible, but still punk ass kids find ways to install spyware, those stupid web search toolbars, web accelerators, porn stuff.....all kinds of crap.

I can't disable activeX totally because our antivirus program (Sonicwall ASAP) uses activeX to update its signatures. At least it broke something when I tried disabling activeX before. The librarian also wants kids to be able to use the various IM programs too. I hate it. I've thought about using Firebird or Mozilla in a kiosk mode or something but I'm not sure how well that would work, and I'm sure I'd get enough complaints that sites or plugins or whatnot didn't work right to make it not worth it.

Is there anything out there that will secure a PC and allow web browsing, using apps on the PCs like Word, etc., but not let all that crap be installed or put on, and keep things clean? Thanks for any help!

 

[WobbleWobble]

Check out a program called "Deep Freeze"

 

[43st]

Firefox in kiosk mode is the way to go I think. Once you get it configured with all the plugins it works on 99.9% of the sites on the net. You also don't have to worry about any adware crap.

Don't most IM programs have web portals also? I know ICQ does, not sure about the others.

Can you set up a sample on a spare PC to test and configure it?

 

[edmicman]

I might try and see what I can do. Deep Freeze sounds kinda good, though I'm not sure how different it is from GoBack. Thats what GoBack is supposed to do - revert back each night, but it seems like it doesn't wipe out the various IE toolbars and whatnot that people've put in. Not to mention the adware crap they must have installed when they check their hotmail accounts or something. Also, if I set up FF in kiosk mode, that will probably lock them out of using the computer apps like Word and Excel, which they want them to be able to do. Same goes for the NT machine, too. Plus, that came preinstalled with a bunch of kids games and crap they want available too. Gehhhh, I hate supporting public PCs, and I hate even more whoever the punk kids or whoever that comes in and does things they shouldn't be doing on the PC, making my job even harder!!

 

[43st]

It sounds like you're stuck. If you can't change the OS or the installed programs then you're not going to find an easy solution.

Maybe Linux can be installed with OpenOffice and some games and a browser? Probably too much work to research and prepare though.

 

[edmicman]

Yeah, I just thought I'd check and see if there was some magic solution out there. Most of the problem is the hodge podge of PCs they've got that we're supporting. They've just received a new millage or something and so are going to be redoing everything from the ground up. I don't know if we'll be doing the project or not, but I think most of the problem is not having a standard rights policy set up for everything. I think a lot would be solved by having identical machines all on a win2k network that I set up myself, rather than supporting something that a bunch of people have put in. Ah well, thanks anyway!