What I need in ProcessGuard

I manage 14 XP Pro computers at a school. I would like to be able to set up an environment on one pc and then image it to the other pcs.

A few things I need to be able to do are:

1. prevent downloads, unless I allow them using a password. This is realtime however. If, for example, I am in a class and a student goes to a web page and the computer requires flash I need to be able to enter a password and allow that Flash download just for that session.

2. Prevent changing of the desktop. Unless I want to change it then when I right click on the desktop and receive a unathorized dialog box I want to be able to enter a password and change the desktop just for that session.

3. Allow use of a particular program if I forgot to allow it before imaging the PCs.

Is ProcessGuard this flexible?

I have tried it back in the version two days but it didn't seem to be *this* flexible.

Thanks,

John Cesta

 

I don't know about PG and no one has answered, so I'll volunteer to say that Faronics makes 2 products that would be useful in your situation: Deep Freeze (DF) and Anti-Executable (AE). I use both at home, and have seen DF set up on a school network. The Enterprise Editions of both programs have provisions for maintaining across a network.

With AE installed it creates a White List of all your installed executables, so no other executable can be downloaded, installed, copied across a LAN without you turning it off. Easy to do - the icon resides in the SysTray and is password protected.

Installing Flash, and changing the desktop just for that session: rebooting the computer at the end of the session will restore the system to it's state prior to the session because it is locked down by DF (also password protected). You have to put the computer into a "Thawed" state before any changes will stick.

This, by the way, is bullet-proof protection against students who think it's fun to try and mess with settings and configurations: no changes will survive a reboot.

Again, the Enterprise Editions have provisions for maintaining across a network - the home editions do not, so I don't have specifics. I suggest you contact www.faronics.com for more information.

regards,

-rich