If you’ve ever
had to setup a computer for the general public to use, you understand the headaches that are often involved. From the
accidents that inexperienced users make where they move the taskbar to the left or top of the screen, to the
malicious changes more “advanced” users can make, you constantly find yourself fighting to keep the system
in check. You can use security measures to prevent users from doing almost anything interesting, but nobody wants to
use a computer that is that locked down. Instead, why not make a system that simply resets itself back to square one
after every reboot?
The Microsoft Shared Computer Toolkit can do just that:
“Users generally prefer a consistent, familiar, and private shared computer experience. The toolkit helps shared computer operators create an interface that will not confuse or distract users with unnecessary programs or options.
The toolkit also helps to protect user privacy by refreshing the desktop, user settings, and user data each time a new user logs on. Plus, it consolidates several accessibility features into one user interface, so users can more easily access the features they regularly use. For users who are new to computers, the toolkit also provides a variety of suitable online learning resources.”








1. HELP!
I installed the shared toolkit on a school software load, and selected 'retain changes indefinately' to finish the load. at the end of it, after creating a ghost image of the load, and realising it was in the state it was before i activated the disk protection, i decided to uninstall toolkit because it seemed to be interfering with ghost.
IT TOOK THE LAST THREE WEEKS OF WORK WITH IT - NO WARNING, GONE.
this includes extensive scripts to rename and complete the configuration of the computer on every platform in the school, among other things - a lot of work. I had ghost images for backup, but because the toolkit seems to keep all your changes on a seperate partition none of these have any of my work.
PLEASE, I can see the 'unknown partition' still there in disk manager, is there any way to get my data from it? I'm currently doing a sector by sector copy of the whole disk using ghost in case there is a way - so I can try things.
If you know anything about this situation, please e-mail me! I'm about to start searching forums.
Posted at 9:54PM on Jan 13th 2006 by Dylan Hall