[windows2000] Re: Internet Only PC

  • From: George Yobst <george2@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: windows2000@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Wed, 28 Jul 2004 11:36:38 -0700

These links should help out:
This one has many free, small utilities.
http://www.teamsoftwaresolutions.com/downloads.html
This one will freeze a computer and boot up fresh every time.
http://www.faronics.com/html/deepfreeze.asp
The Gates Foundation is doing this kind of thing in public libraries.
http://www.pacomputing.org/PACTool/pactoolhome.aspx
-George

Greg Reese wrote:
My company runs Senior housing. Independent living apartments, assisted living, nursing homes, that sort of thing.

A couple years ago, it was decided to offer high speed internet in our resident libraries. My solution at the time was to put in a Wyse terminal running Windows CE and the CE version of IE. Everybody complained because they couldn't access their Hotmail account or Yahoo mail etc.

So I put in a Windows 2000 workstation with no cd and no floppy, then locked it down as tight as I could, set IE as the shell and left it.

I have continued to get complaints about it. They still have trouble accessing various types of webmail and they get errors instead of popups. The video went bad on one of them and I have it in my office. The thing is full of viruses, they somehow managed to install the yahoo toolbar, cool websearch and a few others. Kids and grandkids get ahold of this thing too, I don't think it's all our residents. I thought I had it locked down pretty tight for the sole purpose of keeping this from happening. It won't load plugins or Active X so I am not sure how this stuff got on there.

It's a real pain in the rear for me from a support standpoint. You think users are bad, try explaining the internet to a senior citizen sometime.

I was thinking of maybe a light install of Linux or something to straighten this out. But I want their web surfing to be as easy as possible which means they should probably stick with IE.

Does anyone else have to support something like this? I don't seem to have mine quite right and would like some ideas to make it better.

Thanks!

Greg




--
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
George Yobst, Library Technology Analyst        phone: 503.723.4890
Library Information Network of Clackamas County   fax: 503.794.8238
16239 SE McLoughlin Blvd, Suite 208         web: http://www.lincc.lib.or.us
Oak Grove, OR 97267-4654                  email: george@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"...it is impossible for anyone to begin to learn
 what he thinks he already knows."  - Epictetus

********************************************************
This Weeks Sponsor StressedPuppy.com Games
Feeling stressed out? Check out our games to
relieve your stress.
http://www.StressedPuppy.com
********************************************************
To Unsubscribe, set digest or vacation
mode or view archives use the below link.

http://thethin.net/win2000list.cfm

Other related posts: