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| Thread ID: 94002 | 2008-10-10 00:33:00 | How do I provide a standardised desktop? | Tony (4941) | Press F1 |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 711198 | 2008-10-10 00:33:00 | I've become involved with SeniorNet, which is a series of clubs that aims to provide computer education for older people. I'm teaching, rather than learning, and trying to help my local club improve their administration. We run a whole series of short courses, with both Win XP and Vista, and Office 2003 and 2007, etc etc. Each course does different things with files and the general environment, so there is an ongoing problem of providing a "clean" environment for each course. We have two classrooms, with several networked PCs in each room. So what I am looking for is a process whereby a standardised setup can be provided for each course, with the appropriate file/desktop/browser etc configuration. At the moment we have dual-boot, but that is all. One way would be to do a drive-image thing for each course, but that seems to be a bit of an overkill. Does anyone have any ideas about how we might best achieve this? I'm not too worried if the initial setup needs some technical expertise, but the deployment for each course needs to be do-able by someone with only basic skills, as it would probably be the instructors who would be doing it, and they are often only a few pages ahead in the manual from the students. Any ideas would be warmly welcomed, and if there is anyone in the Auckland area (especially West Auckland) who has particular skills in this area and would be willing to help a good cause, that would be even better. TIA. |
Tony (4941) | ||
| 711199 | 2008-10-10 00:40:00 | I would be using VMWare and creating a image for each course that can be replaced clean after each usage. | DeSade (984) | ||
| 711200 | 2008-10-10 00:52:00 | Or even easier, just install Deep Freeze (www.faronics.com) on all the PCs - that way as soon as they log off, the things reboot and nuke all the changes that were made suring the session. | Erayd (23) | ||
| 711201 | 2008-10-10 01:02:00 | google these Hdguard Deepfreeze basicly using either of these, the machine will return to orignal config on reboot even if critical system files are deleted. if you need more info on Hdguard goto www.eye4you.com.au (http://www.eye4you.com.au) not sure who distrubutes deepfreeze but a google search should reveal. |
beama (111) | ||
| 711202 | 2008-10-10 01:05:00 | Or even easier, just install Deep Freeze (www.faronics.com) on all the PCs - that way as soon as they log off, the things reboot and nuke all the changes that were made suring the session.That looks like a definite maybe - do you have personal experience of the product? | Tony (4941) | ||
| 711203 | 2008-10-10 01:05:00 | Damn that software looks great. | DeSade (984) | ||
| 711204 | 2008-10-10 01:07:00 | Windows SteadyState (www.microsoft.com) too, similar to the other programs that have been mentioned. Free as a bird. | wratterus (105) | ||
| 711205 | 2008-10-10 01:09:00 | I would be using VMWare and creating a image for each course that can be replaced clean after each usage.That's a possibility - I'm not sure about the deployment by non-skilled users, though. Not that I'm a very experienced VMWare user myself, so I may be exaggerating the issue. | Tony (4941) | ||
| 711206 | 2008-10-10 01:15:00 | Windows SteadyState ( . microsoft . com/windows/products/winfamily/sharedaccess/default . mspx" target="_blank">www . microsoft . com) too, similar to the other programs that have been mentioned . Free as a bird . The price is certainly right - I'd never heard of it . I haven't done the hard yards yet in terms of detailed analysis of our requirements, but my gut feel is that what we will need is a whole bunch of specifically configured environments - different for each course - which sounds like a VMware thing rather than the "revert to a standard setup" thing that seems to be what the other suggestions are doing . Or am I missing something? |
Tony (4941) | ||
| 711207 | 2008-10-10 01:16:00 | No, you'd be right to a certain extent, although the environment still needs to be set up in the first place. VMWare maybe the better option, its just getting it all set up in the first place. SS is really good actually, great for internet cafes and that kind of thing. |
wratterus (105) | ||
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