I’m sure many of you, like me, who are frequent users of the Internet have had your share of problems with viruses, spyware and other malicious and unwanted “modifications” that seem to find their way onto your computer. This, in turn, tends to significantly slow your online activities and in some cases cause major operating system and software issues. This can get so bad that you may have had to take the drastic and time consuming step of reinstalling your Windows operating system and start fresh. I know I have and it’s not fun.
Well, I recently came across an offering from Microsoft that many of you, who rely on Windows XP as your operating system, may not be aware of that is designed to automatically revert your system back to it’s original state if you run into any of these malicious software related issues. It’s a free download called Windows “SteadyState” which essentially allows you to set-up a locked-down platform by way of separate user accounts. Once you have everything set up the way you want it, you can share the computer and rest easy. Any changes a user might make to the configuration or hard disk can be undone by simply restarting the machine.
Windows SteadyState is particualrly helpful for parents who may wish to control and enhance their children’s computer experience. They can customize the computer to be safer and easier to use. Internet access can be carefully controlled. Different levels of restriction can be applied for different children. In cases where a single machine is used by children and parents, the parents’ configurations, programs, and files can be completely isolated from access by the children.
Parents may have concerns about their children viewing inappropriate content on the internet. Windows SteadyState helps give parents the control they want over their children’s web access. All websites can be prohibited except for those the parent specifies as acceptable.
Windows SteadyState helps make it easy to control the programs and Windows features a child can access on a family computer. A parent can prevent a child from using Internet Explorer, Windows Messenger, or any other program installed on the computer. Windows management features such as Control Panel can also be restricted.
Parents can take full control of the family computer with Windows SteadyState. A few more examples are:
* Simplify the interface by removing options from the Start Menu that your child doesn’t need.
* Apply a time limit to your child’s computing sessions.
* Block access to any hard drive, partition, or removable media you don’t want your child to access.
Below is a link to the Microsoft Windows page that contains more detialed information and some video demos you can check out. I hope everyone finds this helpful and I would be interested in reading your comments and feeback regariding your expereinces.
Windows SteadyState Information
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Marty