Windows8 - public access setup

joey1211 · 19 Apr 2013 at 20:36

I've been asked to setup a pc for a community-run local café. It's to be use by the customers for internet access. It's a HP Proliant All-in-one, running Windows Home Premium, so no gpedit.

What they require is an account that is completely locked down other than running IE. The account is reset to it's default settings when the use logs out.

Any suggestions/tips? Is the built in Guest account up to it?

joey1211 · 20 Apr 2013 at 12:51

Anyone?

Raumarik · 20 Apr 2013 at 15:20

Lock it down as best you can with group policy then possibly use a program such as Deepfreeze?

That way the PC is entirely reset (including idiots thinking they reformated a HDD) when you power it off and back on again. I used it in schools and libraries before and it was extremely effective. In order for any changes to the PC to be saved post-reboot you have to disable deep freeze first to allow it. Otherwise any changes at all are lost upon rebooting.

They were beta testing it for Windows 8 not long ago so it's worth calling them to find out if they've added support for it now. There's probably alternatives to this too, I remember a hardware solution called Bodyguard but I can't find it online now.

joey1211 · 20 Apr 2013 at 21:14

I've been testing Deep Freeze today. Seems to be a good solution.

Is there a Group Policy in the Home Version. I can't find it

I'll need to disable logout and change it to restart, in order to wipe out the last users passwords / files etc

There was a Guest Mode in Win7 beta which did exactly this but called pulled from the official release.