Posted by Jim at November 17th, 2005

I administrate both windows and unix systems. I’m responsible for 10 publicly shared computers for one of my clients. As a result, one of my responsibilities includes keeping said computers safe from the random depredations of whoever happens to come along.

We’ve already had one rather disturbing incident that I’m not going to describe here.

As a result, my client suggested that I research our options in terms of really locking down the computers. Though there’s plenty of Linux based options for public terminals, converting these computers to Linux was not an option. Thus, I had to wade through a lot of websites that offer kiosk/public terminal software for Windows.

I needed a program that would:

1. Prevent users from viewing pornography. In fact, since these computers are mostly for data entry web access is unnecessary so cutting off all web access would work too.
2. Prevent users from installing programs on the computer or deleting system files.
3. Preventing spyware or viruses from taking the computer over.

I didn’t really have time to work on it last spring so rolling out something has been put off till this fall. In the meantime, I discovered that I could download a toolkit directly from Microsoft for free.

What’s cool is that it does all I need and more. Additionally, I don’t have to calculate how much licensing fees would cost (always too much for a non-profit). I plan on installing it next week or the week after. We’ll see how it works in practice.