Software To Restore Window 2000 Pro

[wenching]

I need some help here.

My org had a lot of PCs and everytime there is a problem we need to ghost all the PCs over and over again. It is wasting time.

Is there any software on Windows 2000 Professional that allow to restore back to the default settings? I heard windows xp had that feature built in.

The reason is normally students (domain user for TECH Domain Controller) will simply install illegal software and i worry about the copyright issue. So when the student log off, all the Windows 2000 Pro settings (including the software config) will return back it was to be.

Is there any freeware or shareware which i can download to test on? Include the link please.

Thank you.

Regards,

Chua Wen Ching :unsure:

[nicodareus]

If they are Users, how are they able to install software? Security should be set up so they cannot install software from the beginning.

As far as free software to return to a previous state, I cannot think of any off the top of my head.

[Smash]

Well I KNOW that it's possible because at my college (which is running win2k), I can install software even if I'm a user (of course the administrator doesn't like this :rolleyes: ), but the next time I log in on the same computer, the software is gone.

Also, I noticed there's a black DOS window poping up and then dissapearing everytime someone logs in. I seems like it deletes some files.

[ahodes1]

Roxio GoBack's autorevert feature would do this, but it costs money..

You could rename the ntuser.dat file for the user to ntuser.man and the registry modifications to HKCU wouldn't be saved but that's as close as you can get that i know of.

[wenching]

Do you have a link for that? The Roxio AutoRevert?

Is there any freeware or is well recommended? Does the Roxio software had any trial download so that i can try whether it suites the org.

Regards,

Chua Wen Ching ;)

[ahodes1]

  Quote

Streamline lab maintenance in minutes. GoBack can handle whatever your users dish out -from unauthorized installations and downloads, to changed wallpaper and even corrupted file systems. In a lab environment, simply enable the Auto-Revert feature and schedule every PC to revert to a predetermined "clean" state - automatically.

http://www.roxio.com/en/products/goback/go...education.jhtml

Trial version is here http://www.roxio.com/en/jhtml/products/gob...ckpreview.jhtml

I'm not sure if that's the home or deluxe version of GoBack, but its probably the deluxe and the feature you are looking for is AutoRevert.

[wenching]

Thanks for the link. The features sound good.

How about IBM restore? It just release on 21 November 2002.

Regards,

Chua Wen Ching :cool:

[altezza Veteran]

Norton Ghost 2003 :D

Been using it for some time and it saves me lots of time without reinstalling Windows and the whole software again.

[ahodes1]

  altezza said:

Norton Ghost 2003 :D

Been using it for some time and it saves me lots of time without reinstalling Windows and the whole software again.

  Quote

My org had a lot of PCs and everytime there is a problem we need to ghost all the PCs over and over again. It is wasting time.

altezza: You should be ashamed of yourself, not reading the post ;)

[altezza Veteran]

You're right ahodes...I was half asleep at that time ;)

[wenching]

I had tried the roxio goback 3.0 deluxe edition and found that it is marvelous. But it is too slow and take up a lot of memory. Is there any idea how those people create this software?

Regards,

Chua Wen Ching :D

[Murdoc]

OK, we had this same issue at my school until our teacher got a program called DeepFreeze. It does exactly what you want. search it on google- id tell you more, but im going to be late for class.

hope this helps

[Aaron P]

How about address issue of students being able to install software to the Windows 2000 machines. If they are only users on the system, they will not be able to install software at all. Remove them from the local Administrators group (i.e. only Administrator and Domain Admins should be in this group by default).

All workstations should be running the NTFS file system, which with the default security settings will ensure that users are not able to put files into folder such as \WINNT and \Program Files.

If you arent using NTFS you can convert the drive with the following command:

CONVERT C: /FS:NTFS

To reapply the default security settings and ensure that the drive is secure use the following two commands (the lines will be wrapped)

COPY %SystemRoot%\SECURITY\DATABASE\SECEDIT.SDB %SystemRoot%\SECURITY\DATABASE\SECEDIT1.SDB

SECEDIT /configure /DB %SystemRoot%\SECURITY\DATABASE\SECEDIT1.SDB /CFG "%SystemRoot%\SECURITY\TEMPLATES\SETUP SECURITY.INF"

I'm sure that this would be a better solution that having to restore each time - stop them from doing damage in the first place.