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Many of the libraries that contributed to the Cookbook extol virtues on software that "locks down" or "wipes clean" their public computers. As any librarian will tell you, much of the maintainance of computers is derived from reversing what patrons left behind. Faye Hover from Smith-Welch Memorial Library may have said it best, "because I'm sick to death of coming in in the morning and having everything changed--the background, they would change the wallpaper. I needed something that can prevent them from doing all of this."
Libraries have many products from which to select, and some speak of using Deep Freeze, others use Fortres Clean Slate, Centurion Guard, EnvisionWare, or Microsoft SteadyState.
Rodney Greensage, the intrepid blogger over at AALS Techie Corner and a contributor to the Cookbook, has just posted a review of SteadyState worth reading. Check it out and tell us what you use!
MORE resources!
Learn what libraries are saying about locking down their computers, and find out how they do it.
Chapter Two in the latest Cookbook covers the why and the how on locking down computers.
Listen to, or read an interview from the people who brought you SteadyState
Kevin Lo from TechSoup interviews SteadyState's development team, and asks them the tough questions.
Read what users think of SteadyState
TechSoup offers user-generated reviews of SteadyState, plus a free download of this release.
Start from the beginning: SteadyState basics
Chris Peters from the Washington State Library AND a contributor to the Cookbook explains SteadyState
and offers a handy comparison to the Gates Foundation’s Public Access Computer Security

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Tell us about your daily routine maintaining public computers, or a moment when you were particularly proud. Don't forget that what might be "that's nothing" to you may be an "aha!" to someone else!