I am setting up a bunch of Windows computers for a non-profit. Kids
wil be using these computers, so they are sure to get messed up.

I'd like to find a program that I could install on the machine so that
each time a new kids sat down at a computer, he could reboot it and
have it come up clean regardless of what the kids before him did.


I realize that I could try to lock down the machines so that the kids
couldn't mess things up in the first place, but I really like the idea
of *letting* mess up anything they want- it is a great way to learn,
just as long as the next kid can get a working computer. Also, in
practice I've seen that all locked down computers eventually get
messed up anyway.

There are commercial programs that do exactly what I want...

http://www.fortres.com/products/cleanslate_faq.htm
http://www.faronics.com/html/DFPro.asp

...but becuase this is a non-profit, there is no money to buy copies
of these programs, so I need a freeware or opensource alternative.

Thanks!

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Request for Question Clarification by sublime1-ga on 25 Jun 2005 00:37 PDT

Is there some reason that utilizing the Windows XP System Restore
wouldn't satisfy your needs? A good article about it is found here:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/helpandsupport/getstarted/ballew_03may19.mspx

sublime1-ga

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Clarification of Question by bigjosh2-ga on 25 Jun 2005 08:17 PDT

System Restore is not really what I am looking for. 

First off, there are lots of changes you can make to a system that
System Restore does not "undo". It pretty much only undoes changes
that are reflected the system registry or system fileset. My goal is
to be able to completely roll the computer back to a clean state so
that each kid starts with a uniformly working computer.

Also, executing a System Restore is non-trvial. The person has to
start the Wizard, walk through the steps, wait a while, and reboot the
machine. If the system had been rendered unbootable by the previous
user, then System Restore is no help. The comercial products are
attractive becuase all you have to do to restore the machine is
reboot. It is pretty easy to get people to do this, and in fact I'd
probably set up a button in the taskbar to do it in one step.

BTW, here is yet anther comercial soution...

http://www.centuriontech.com/driveshield.htm

...unfortunately they all seem to cost $30-$50 per machine which is
way too much. It seems like this would be a straightforward program to
write, and there are lots of non-profits, schools, and libraries that
would need something like this.

Thanks!

Something you might consider doing is writing to the commercial
vendors and tell them your situation. Perhaps one of them would be
willing to donate a license.

Along the lines of what mvguy-ga said, try microsoft.

They have "Microsoft Virtual Machine" and the company is always doing
things for charity.

On the flipside, if it doesn't *have* to be Windows, you could try
using a CD-bootable version of Linux.

http://www.innotrix.com/

This company has created Digital Dolly 1.0. Some info from download.com:

Software Publisher's Description

Digital Dolly is hard-disk-partition image and cloning software that
runs completely from a bootable CD-ROM. Digital Dolly can back up and
restore hard-disk partitions directly to and from Windows file
servers, and supports most common network cards. Simply put the CD-ROM
into the drive and reboot. The system will auto-detect and configure
the network card. There is no need to customize a boot disk for every
machine. System administrators can remotely control the whole
backup/restore process. Digital Dolly supports creating, cloning, and
resizing FAT16, FAT32, NTFS, and Linux ext2 partitions and works with
IDE, SCSI, USB, and FireWire drives.

*************************************

It has one use comment:

Pros: The product can do a lot and it is free. I can see a great deal
of uses for it.
Cons: You have to be careful about commands and linux or you may screw
up the machine. The speed of the coming, is a bit slow as compared to
non-free products.

*************************************

It has two licenses: Home and Commercial Site.

Home License  	FREE  	
	Free to use at home for non-business purpose only

Commercial Site License  	USD $29.95  	
	Electronic delivery only, including first year unlimited upgrades.
You are allowed to use the software on any machines in your own
cooperation or organization. Please be reminded that you are not
allowed to make illegal copies of the software and use it in multiple
machines at the same time.



The Home License is the one for

Ditial Dooly is interesting, but not really a solution for me. It
requires that you make the CD-ROM drive be bootable, which would mean
that anyone could take out the Digial Dooly CD and put in thier own
and boot the machine into an OS that would let them do stuff that
could mess up the machine. They could also just steal the CD, making
the machine unusable.

I've played around with having the machines boot completely off the
network using PXE to load a drive image. This has the potential to be
*very* nice since the machines would not need a CD-ROM or hard drive -
making them cheaper and having basically no moving parts in the
machine to fail. The downsides so far are...

1) I can't find exactly what I am looking for - a program that lets
the machines boot off a centrally stored hard drive image using PXE
and then emulates a local hard drive over the network when the machine
is running.

2) The wire is much slower than a local hard drive, so performace is
not so good - especially for windows machines with small amounts of
RAM.

3) it is very hard to actually buy machines that come with a windows
licence, but with no hard drive and CD-ROM drive.

Any ideas are welcome though...

This was just released by Microsoft...

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/sharedaccess/default.mspx

It lets you protect the hard drive and is free. Perfect!