Microsoft Offers Free Hard Drive Virtualization for Windows

Hard drive virtualization is very important when you’re managing hundreds of computers at a library, cybercafe or a school institute. One of the place where I am working at has more than 500 workstations and is used by students. Even though the students are on restricted limited account, some smart virus still manage to infect the whole computer. I’ve spent countless of hours just by scanning and removing virus. Some virus even made it impossible to clean that I had to reinstall the whole system.

Antivirus don’t really help much because new undetected virus can still infect the computer. So the best is to use a virtualization software. Previously I’ve mentioned about Returnil Virtual System which is able to restore everything to its original state by a reboot. They have a free version but it is only for personal use, not commercial use. The finance people checked the price and told me that they couldn’t afford it. So I had to use another solution…

Windows SteadyState is a tool developed by Microsoft that gives administrators enhanced options for configuring shared computers, such as hard drive protection and advanced user management. It is primarily designed for use on computers shared by multiple people, such as internet cafes, schools, libraries etc. SteadyState is the successor to the Shared Computer Toolkit. SteadyState is available free of charge from Microsoft for computers running genuine copies of Windows XP and Vista.

There are Global Computer Settings and User Settings. For global computer settings, you can set computer restrictions, schedule software updates and protect the hard disk using Windows Disk Protection. When Windows Disk Protection is turned on, it has the ability to revert a computer to a previously stored state every time it reboots, or when an administrator sets it to. The good thing about it is the user’s My Document would not be affected by the virtualization, which allows the user to save their work there.

As for User Settings, you can find 4 tabs which is General, Windows Restrictions, Feature Restrictions and Block Programs. In General, you’re able to configure session timers to define the duration of a logon session or of the idle time before a session terminates. On the Windows Restrictions tab, you can set restriction levels that define the content of menus and the Windows XP or Windows Vista tools and features that a user has access to. As for the Feature Restriction tab, you can select restrictions that will prevent users from accessing a program attributes that could damage or clutter the computer. Finally on the Block Programs tab, you can select the software you want to prevent the user from accessing.

Actually I got to know about Windows SteadyState early this year. Tried it and it made my computer really slow. Other than that, my computer takes more time to boot in Windows. Well, I was using Windows SteadyState 2.5 Beta back then which is unstable. Few days ago Microsoft released stable final version of Windows SteadyState 2.5, which adds support for Windows Vista SP1 and Windows XP SP3. I believe they’ve fixed the “hang” problem as well.

I’ve tested the latest SteadyState 2.5, it is much better than the BETA version and I noticed it increased my computer’s boot up time by a few seconds. I am willing to give up the few seconds rather than spending hours in scanning and cleaning up virus. Here’s how a high restrictions limited account desktop looks like.

One important note, any administrator is able to run Windows SteadyState because it doesn’t have the ability to password protect itself. So make sure you create a limited user account and let them log in as limited user, not administrator.

[ Download Windows SteadyState 2.5 ]