.
Well, I have a partial solution. Keep the user out of places they
shouldn't be playing.
<
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/sharedaccess/default
.mspx>
University policy and academic freedom....
My authority is rather limited when it comes to student owned computer or
computer under the authority of various professors. Also, many of the
computers I deal with are controling very expensive intruments.
The main problem in those cases is keeping them from putting such machines on
the internet.
It wasn't really designed for the purpose, but it's sufficient to
prevent total beginners, arrogant grad students, and ivory tower
professors, from trashing the operating system. Plenty of other
solutions, but this is the one I like. As soon as they shutdown, the
computer returns to its original state. Once a month, the PC goes
into the shop for an update, lube job, and oil change. I have it
installed at 2 car wash kiosks and one middle skool classroom. Other
than having to establish an update regime, it works well.
Would work well in a room with 50 similar computers. We don't have any
(though other departments do) such setups.
Actually, you don't really need to install MS Steady State on every
laptop in your system. Just one or two and the word will get around.
After that, merely the threat of having it installed should be
sufficient to inspire the students to clean up their act.
Also, you're being too nice. Make it clear that they are responsible
for their own data backups. If they bring a machine to you for
cleanup and disinfection, they should assume that it will be wiped and
reloaded from scratch.
When I am talking about someones years of research, I warn them to back up
everything, I ask if it is ok to wipe their drive if needed, I make an image
of the drive before I do anything to it, AND I restore all their data that
can be recovered!
I tell everyone about a guy I knew that had 9 years of research data in his
car (paper notes) and his car caught fire and burned. He never finished his
research and a few years later, he blew his brains out.
The lesson, I tell them, is
'make backups',
'make frequent backups',
'make multiple backups'
and 'keep your backups in a different place from where your computer is
located.'
It is bad enough to have to tell someone "I am sorry, I can't recover
anything from your [hard|thumb] drive.
There are companies that, for hundreds or thousands of dollars, will
disassemble it and attempt to recover your data. Is it THAT important to
you?"
I would much rather have someone say "thank you SO much for saving my data"
than "you ruined my life", or going 'postal'.
