The (nearly) Indestructible Computer
Stan Pokras
I usually trash spam aimed at this list. But, for some reason, I like
the guy sending this message. So, please suffer me this opportunity
to announce the (nearly) INDESTRUCTIBLE computer.
At NTR we serve the low-income community with a three-year, no-fault
guarantee on most of our desktop computers. So, we get to see lots
and lots of things that go wrong with our machines as they are used
and misused by the novice computer aces we cater to.
We have learned to accept that there is a small class of clients who
claim that their very presence near a working computer can cause its
demise.
For these people I have been experimenting with a program from
Microsoft called "Steady State." It was designed to protect computers
installed in public places. The start up files and other programs can
be highly well protected from alteration using this program. No other
method has been proven to work as well. Virus programs and spyware
protection tools all do their work after the computer has been
affected. Steady State actually prevents any changes from becoming
permanent.
The two draw backs to the full blown use of this program are that a
user can't save Internet bookmarks and can't use the default document
storage spot called "My Documents" since these elements are restored
to their original status each time the computer starts up. Since most
of our clients find this to be unacceptable, I've had to discover a
way to work around these issues..
The solution is to use a second storage unit to hold the My Documents
folder and Firefox instead of Internet Explorer as the main Internet
browsing tool. Both of these features can be moved to a second
(completely separate) storage unit within the computer, thus making
their resources available even after all other aspects of software on
the primary storage unit drive have been restored.
These improvements have been incorporated into our (nearly)
Indestructible computer. Plus one more feature: We provide a spare
copy of the startup drive, just in case the original one actually
does get whacked. If for any reason the start up programs become
damaged the user can connect a physical spare copy of the startup
programs and be back in business in minutes. Neat, eh?
If you know someone who constantly suffers from "weird" things that
happen to their computer, and who doesn't need or want to make
frequent changes to their machine, then our (nearly) Indestructible
computer may be the answer to their dreams.
Stan
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* * *
Stanley R. Pokras, President & CEO, Nonprofit Technology Resources (NTR)
Regional Coord, Community Technology Centers' Network (http://www.ctcnet.org/)
Chair, CTCNet of Delaware Valley, Regional Planning Committee.
Nonprofit Technology Resources
1524 Brandywine Street
Philadelphia PA 19130
215-564-6686 (day) 215-564-6642 (fax)
267-968-0407 (cell)
Find our "Home Page" at http://NTRweb.org
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