- Company or Source:
- Microsoft
- Skill Level:
- Intermediate
- Platform:
- Windows
Requirement(s):
- Windows XP
Windows SteadyState is a free program for Windows XP, that allows public access lab managers to administer program restrictions, user management, and even disk protection. Lab managers will have the peace of mind that users will be able to have a well managed computer for what it is intended, and spend less time fixing computers that aren't working properly.
Average Rating: 
Based on 5 Ratings
- Rating:
- Pros:
- It's free and I don't really understand why people have such a hard time configuring. Seems very simple to me and anyone with any knowledge of windows and the internet should no problems setting this up and, of course, you can also choose one of three default options which work very well also. I have never once in 2 years had any real problems.
- Cons:
- The only con is slow restart as it clears the cache and resets the machine but I can live with that.
- Rating:
- Pros:
- Better than nothing. After 2 months of tweaking have finally got it tuned up just right. Have to use some LOGOFF POLICIES scripts to clean up some of the social networking sites after a patron is finished. Disc protection is off.
- Cons:
- Must reboot between logon's to get LOGOFF POLICIES to work right. Took me a while to completely understand most of the setting, they seem straight forward but aren't.
Free is always good even if I had to jump through a lot of hoops.
- Rating:
- Pros:
- The "import user" makes it easy to replicate settings from one machine to another.
- Cons:
- Multiple problems with users created with Steady State: Computer freezes, "password lock after x minutes inactivity" feature doesn't seem to work at all.
Better than nothing, but frustrating even for an experienced tech.
- Rating:
- Pros:
- I installed Steady State on a brand new WinXP installation, no other applications in place. It worked exactly as advertised. Keep the user profile fresh as a newborn.
- Cons:
- Huge documentation file. User interface is not the easiest to use. Unsure of how it works with other applications.
Worth a try.
- Rating:
- Cons:
- I printed out and studied the 146 page document you can download but there were some important things they left out. Like the fact that after I installed SteadyState and rebooted, XP game me an error message that my system had changed and I needed to reauthorize my system. My network doesn't have internet access, and the phones were done so I was stuck. I could not uninstall the program either. I wound up having to wipe the drive and clone it from a backup copy.
Pass this one by unless you want a lot of headaches.
