Possible to hide the preboot screen?

Hi Guys,

I am using FDISR to secure my company's laptops (WinXPSP2) so that every time the user reboots it goes to a clean slate (so they dont install all types of junk on it and come back a month later and complain that the laptop doesnt work properly).

I anchor the "C:\Documents and Settings\<Username>" so that his/her documents does not get deleted upon reboot.

I've hidden the system icon, and moved the FDISR program folder in start menu from All Users to the Administrator's Start Menu > Programs Folder. But, I would like to HIDE the preboot screen as well so it doesnt give the user any ideas what's going on and reduce chances they try to hack into FDISR or try anything funny.

They just know that if they want to keep anything, keep it in My Docs.

Can the preboot screen be hidden?

Thanks.

 

ashpr,
You can disable the Pre-boot screen under the tab "Actions" on the main screen of FDISR, but that also means that in case of boot failures in Windows, FDISR won't be able to help you.
The pre-boot screen + F1-key allows you to boot in a rollback snapshot, when your working snapshot is in serious trouble, whatever the cause may be.
In other words by disabling Pre-boot you are killing FDISR's main feature : Immediate System Recovery (= ISR).
FDISR requires an absolute minimum of 2 snapshots : a rollback snapshot and a working snapshot.

If you are planning to use a frozen snapshot, the disabled pre-boot won't restore the snapshot anymore and I've tested this myself.

I think you are trying to use FDISR in a wrong way or you have a wrong idea about FDISR.
Maybe you need something like DeepFreeze or ShadowUser, both restore your system after reboot, but they don't work with snapshots.
FDISR, ShadowUser and DeepFreeze use all three a very different method to recover your system partition [C:].
ShadowUser and DeepFreeze are more simple solutions for average users.

 

Thanks Erik,

Yes I do have a feeling that I'm using FDISR in not quite the way it was intended .

I will try out Shadowuser.

I did try out deepfreeze before (a long time ago), but it wouldnt allow me to "anchor" certain directories. In effect, I cant use it because my user's docs and the AV updates will be deleted on every boot.

 

You can try to use the Snapshot Group option to set a password. A user will then require the password while in the preboot screen to use the snapshot. Then just set your BIOS to boot from the hard disk only and disable MBR changes through BIOS. For assurance, export your snapshots to an external storage and no one should be able to mess with it. When required just load back the snapshots from external media and you get to the previous clean state immediately.

If your application is in computer lab or public computer access, you can try HDGuard. HDGuard allows you to exclude the area you do not want to protect, and all changes on protected area are redirected. So this is much better solution for public access protection.

Hope this helps.