Hello IEXBETA gods i humbly ask for some advice

I am trying to set up a small network of about 30 computers.

I want to basically have it do two things

1) I want everyone to sign in with a user name and password
2) when they are done i want the program to erase everything they had done and restore itself to its factory condition

its kind of like a setup done at universities.

what would i need to read or what do i need to buy in order to achieve this goal.

The school i work for is under a proxy so if there would be a way to assign different IP's to different users that would be splendid

the server for the username and password is a old dell running on a intel xeon i dont know the exact specs but can work on that if you would like

thank you for the knowledge

BigBoss

Well if the users are not local administrators, then they would not be able to make system changes. And if they are using mandatory profiles, then their profile changes won't be saved.

You would need to setup a shared folder on a server for the profiles and create a folder for each user (since it's going to be a mandatory account, you could create one account for multiple users.) Then on your domain controller, open each user's properties and go to the "Profile" tab. Under "Profile Path," type the network path to their folder on the server. The next time the user logs on and then logs off, their profile will be saved to the server. Customize their profile how you want it, and then log off. In their profile folder on the server, you will see a file called "ntuser.dat." Rename it to "ntuser.man"

That makes it a mandatory profile. When they logon, their profile will load from the server. And when they log off, none of their changes will be saved to the server.

And for the IP addresses, can't you just assign them a range of addresses with DHCP? If each computer must have a certain address, then you could setup reservations in your DHCP scope.

Or, if they don't need user accounts, set a default limited account and run deep freeze. When the comp reboots, it'll go back to it's state before they logged in, erasing any information that was created since they logged in.

I would use Chug's method though.

Using Chug's method however, any 3rd party applications configurations could be altered. With deepfreeze it would truly be a 'factory config' every time it is rebooted.

No. For most applications this is not a problem because they save their data in the registry or under "Application Data." Modification of HKLM is off-limits as a standard user, and modification of HKCU gets reset since it's a mandatory profile.

I have worked with the DeepFreeze software for a couple of years, and I got sick of it. Whenever you need to make a small change to a large group of computers, it's a royal pain in the ass. And then you have some programs like Java that get stuck in a never-ending update loop each time the computer is restarted. I have come to believe that DeepFreeze is an improper and lazy way of securing Windows.

Thank you very much.. ive gone to deep freeze to keep the teachers and kids from installing stupid things on the comp. i will take your advises on the logon but i think im pulling away from that because its a school and everyone is asked to have a flashdrive.. i am very inexperienced with networking but i figured that you guys taught me how to build a computer a few years back that this would be the best place to ask..




i understand its lazy, to use deepfreeze but i am going to be a teacher and the network admin.. logging the children every year and creating users every year might kill any time i have left to myself