Deep Freeze... Why isnt it as popular as I think it should be?

[auto-logic]

I saw a thread about how people manage their security on ars technica.

Personally, I would never even consider running a computer without installing deep freeze immediately after a fresh install, before connecting to the net. It's like the final lock in the system, with near zero performance hit.

I guess I'm just wondering why this isnt a more popular solution! It's also cheap. And for my data, I just have it on a seperate partition that is not frozen.

If you dont know what it is you can check it out at the link. Literally one reboot and your hdd is untouched.

Thoughts?

http://www.faronics.com/html/deepfreeze.asp

[Popcorned1]

How do you install applications / games without deepfreeze reversing the changes?

[CY:G]

Well, it is more famous on the education departments, both my High School and University computer labs used it.

I don't see a use for it personally, im always installing new apps and changing config files, i think it would just be a hassle.

[hjf288]

Well, it is more famous on the education departments, both my High School and University computer labs used it.

I don't see a use for it personally, im always installing new apps and changing config files, i think it would just be a hassle.

I figure the gain in security is simply not worth it for the amount of hassle and arsing around I'd have to go through in order to use my computer daily with it.

[auto-logic]

Hmm... maybe I am just super neurotic about a clean system... but I think it's worth it.

To install new stuff, you type in the DF password, and then reboot into an unfrozen state. You can then tell it, on next reboot, to freeze again.

As far as bookmarks etc, I just keep em 'in the cloud'.

Does anybody else out there use DF?

[etempest]

Deep freeze requires a min of 10 purchases before you can buy it...

[auto-logic]

You can get a home (personal) copy for $45.

https://store3.esellerate.net/store/checkou...PageCatalog.htm

[sweetsam]

The very concept of needing a reboot to get to unfrozen state is a turn off. What I do is I image my hard drive after I have a windows install up to date and with all the apps I use installed. Now when I run in to issues either because of infection or because of issues caused by a program I tried out I simply restore the image which takes 10 mins and voila I have a fresh install in mins. This in my opinion is a lot simpler compared to frequent switches between freeze and defreeze mode.

That said its a perfect solution for public computer where they simply don't want people messing with it. All you need is a reboot. Can't get more simpler than that.

[auto-logic]

Hmm it's seeming like I just have weird priorities then!

I also image the hard drive, before it's frozen.

[ring0]

The very concept of needing a reboot to get to unfrozen state is a turn off. What I do is I image my hard drive after I have a windows install up to date and with all the apps I use installed. Now when I run in to issues either because of infection or because of issues caused by a program I tried out I simply restore the image which takes 10 mins and voila I have a fresh install in mins. This in my opinion is a lot simpler compared to frequent switches between freeze and defreeze mode.

^^^

since i don't run every exe and go to every shifty russian website i can find, i don't need that kind of ridiculously over-the-top cleanliness/security. i'll keep an image in a hidden partition, just in case things get really nasty, but i might have to restore that... pfft... once a year, tops.

doesn't seem practical for a home user. think of the madness when you'd fix up a relative's machine and they call you the next day FREAKING OUT because all the things they just did the previous day are gone. before you say "oh that wouldn't happen - i'd just show them how to unfreeze blah blah blah".... no.... if they won't even bother to use firefox when there's a firefox icon right beside the ie6/7 icon, they aren't going to bother with this.

[bloodrain]

every school I've seen has used deepfreeze, its more for computer stupid people and school where you dont want people messing with ****. For example I have installed on my fathers pc at his house. Since then, the stupid calls of "why do i keep getting messages telling me I won $10,000. Do they send me a check or something?" have since stopped.

[sweetsam]

^^^

since i don't run every exe and go to every shifty russian website i can find, i don't need that kind of ridiculously over-the-top cleanliness/security. i'll keep an image in a hidden partition, just in case things get really nasty, but i might have to restore that... pfft... once a year, tops.

doesn't seem practical for a home user. think of the madness when you'd fix up a relative's machine and they call you the next day FREAKING OUT because all the things they just did the previous day are gone. before you say "oh that wouldn't happen - i'd just show them how to unfreeze blah blah blah".... no.... if they won't even bother to use firefox when there's a firefox icon right beside the ie6/7 icon, they aren't going to bother with this.

I wasn't recommending it for a home user especially not for people who do not have a clear understanding of how computers work. Just incase it wasn't clear.

every school I've seen has used deepfreeze, its more for computer stupid people and school where you dont want people messing with ****. For example I have installed on my fathers pc at his house. Since then, the stupid calls of "why do i keep getting messages telling me I won $10,000. Do they send me a check or something?" have since stopped.

haha

[The Rev]

Maybe Microsoft will make it better.... They've got a similar program in development called "SteadyState"..... at least, i think its still in dev.... correct me if i'm wrong.

[_BeanZ_]

Maybe Microsoft will make it better.... They've got a similar program in development called "SteadyState"..... at least, i think its still in dev.... correct me if i'm wrong.

Been out for nearly a year now - http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details...;displaylang=en

[auto-logic]

Oh, nice. I'll have to check out that SteadyState business...

I dunno, something about nothing altering the state of my PC in any way is appealing to me.

Plus I don't have to run AV or bot checks...

[WooSH]

how would you do bookmarks? whats the "cloud"?

[auto-logic]

Storing them using delicious google bookmarks etc., meaning online on somebody else's server, as opposed to stashing 'em in my Firefox bookmark bar which would be wiped on reboot.

[tagerd0g]

how would you do bookmarks? whats the "cloud"?

you can use google bookmarks (attached to their toolbar)

[The_Decryptor Veteran]

As other people mentioned, it pretty much makes your computer useless.

I'm running firewalls on all my computers (app based firewalls) and AV on my Windows PC, and my router is running another firewall (set to reject everything by default), a port scanner shows a total of 1 port open, and that's just when I'm running the app on that port.

My configuration gives me good security, and i can still save files.

[virgo89]

This is the software that they used at my high school. This thing is unbreakable.

[majortom1981]

We use deepfreeze at work. For public computers it rocks. ITs not really meant for home use.

You can set it to automatically unfreeze at a certain time and then have wsus download the updates at that time and have the virus scan do the same time then have the computer refreeze at a specific time.

You can also use the deep freeze console to remotely wake up the pc.

ITs also pretty hard to crack.

With deepfreeze you can also have a thaw drive which is allowed to be changed and not effected so if yo uwant to store all your documents and music and game saves and stuff create a thaw drive.

Deepfreeze is awesome!!!!!

[morficus]

IMHO, Deep Freeze is only worth getting if you have to handle a large amount of public access computers...or if you have a kid at home who screws things up all the time.

Internet Cafes, Some college/university labs, some high school labs, public terminals - all great places for this product.

But if you have a good domain admin, you can pretty much set rules to restrict just about anything and get as detailed as you need. DF is just a quick and dirty solution.

The down side.. is that you can't do automatic updates... since DF would just revet it. Same goes for any changes you push using Group Policy... DF would just revert them next time you boot up.. and the policy would have to be pushed again...and again...and again...

[classicdisastr]

My school has deepfreeze on every computer students use, but they also have Novell on there with everything restricted, and Norton and SpySweeper. They have the network drives with our home folder unfrozen. But i think they're pretty secure there. haha. That bad thing about it is that they dont get automatic updates. They only have SP1 on the computers.

[majortom1981]

IMHO, Deep Freeze is only worth getting if you have to handle a large amount of public access computers...or if you have a kid at home who screws things up all the time.

Internet Cafes, Some college/university labs, some high school labs, public terminals - all great places for this product.

But if you have a good domain admin, you can pretty much set rules to restrict just about anything and get as detailed as you need. DF is just a quick and dirty solution.

The down side.. is that you can't do automatic updates... since DF would just revet it. Same goes for any changes you push using Group Policy... DF would just revert them next time you boot up.. and the policy would have to be pushed again...and again...and again...

Your wrong. Deep freeze allows yo uto have dep freeze automatically have the computer reboot unfrozen and then set a time where the pc reboots frozen. Then you use Group policy to set windows update to download the updates from an wsus server at that time. Deep freeze compliments grou policy very well. we use deep freeze with an antivirus server, group policy and wsus all work perfectly.

If you dont beleive me here is fro mthere web site

http://www.faronics.com/html/deepfreeze.asp

"Schedule Thawed Maintenance periods to perform Windows updates through the Internet or a SUS/WSUS server or run a custom batch file to update your antivirus definitions

Schedule Send Message tasks "

[ironsight2000]

This is the software that they used at my high school. This thing is unbreakable.

its very easy to break forget how now but it was done this was 6 years ago.