Changing the way Family History Center computer work

I'm note sure if this is the best place for this discussion but I wanted to see if other people were having the same issues we are at our Family History Center. We have 7 computers, 4 of which are ever really used. I am the Stake Technology Manager and am responsible for maintaining the computers here. I will get everything straightened out and working and then on Tuesday I'll get a call saying at least one computer is not working correctly. The missionaries come in on Monday (their P day) and send emails. Some of them are doing much more than that and are installing Linux, getting into the Administrator account, deleting shortcuts, etc and basically doing things that are making if difficult for the Family History workers to help other people.

Can we set up a single computer as a network admin and use some kind of software so if the missionaries or anyone else comes in and deletes or saves files, installs programs, etc it automatically deletes it all when the user is logged off? I know this kind of software exists, but do i need permission to do this?

This is the 3rd time I've had to reinstall windows on all the computers and I'm sick of it. Really its going to be this kind of fix or the missionaries won't be allowed to come in and I don't want to do that.

Any suggestions?

Cavanaugh

I moved this into a more appropriate section.

First off, I'd have a talk with the mission president as his missionaries are doing things they shouldn't. He needs to know that.

Secondly, how are they getting into the the admin account? Maybe time to change the password.

But ultimately I think the real answer, assuming you are a authorized FHC and not something the leaders made up, is to use Deep Freeze. It's one of the apps offered when you install Tivoli. Once the computer is "frozen" it returns to that state on every reboot.

Where can I obtain Deep Freeze? I manage a family history center computers (an official one), and I have had to Group Policy the heck out of the computers to keep people from changing things. And frankly it is getting annoying to have to go back in and reinstall printers, setup software again and again and again......

Thank you

rl_albright wrote:Where can I obtain Deep Freeze? I manage a family history center computers (an official one), and I have had to Group Policy the heck out of the computers to keep people from changing things. And frankly it is getting annoying to have to go back in and reinstall printers, setup software again and again and again......

It's on the FHC Application Finder, which you can find under the FHC Support Tools when you are signed in as an administrator.

But make sure you read the documentation carefully. A casual installation of Deep Freeze can lead to endless reboot cycles when Windows updates are applied. I'd strongly recommend that you join the ldsfhctech group on Yahoo, since Lynn Shaw (a FamilySearch engineer who develops and supports software used in FHCs) posts a lot of helpful Deep Freeze information there.

aebrown wrote: It's on the FHC Application Finder, which you can find under the FHC Support Tools when you are signed in as an administrator.

Where is this located at? I am looking throughout LDS.org and I am unable to locate it. Do I need to be at the family history center to find this application?

aebrown wrote: But make sure you read the documentation carefully. A casual installation of Deep Freeze can lead to endless reboot cycles when Windows updates are applied. I'd strongly recommend that you join the ldsfhctech group on Yahoo, since Lynn Shaw (a FamilySearch engineer who develops and supports software used in FHCs) posts a lot of helpful Deep Freeze information there.

Good advise, I will definitely look into this.

The Application Finder is installed on each FHC computer, and must be run on each computer.

rl_albright wrote:

aebrown wrote: It's on the FHC Application Finder, which you can find under the FHC Support Tools when you are signed in as an administrator.

Where is this located at? I am looking throughout LDS.org and I am unable to locate it. Do I need to be at the family history center to find this application?

It's not on the website, but on the computer itself as an offered application. This is assuming you've install Tivoli that used to manage machines and applications.

russellhltn wrote:It's not on the website, but on the computer itself as an offered application. This is assuming you've install Tivoli that used to manage machines and applications.

The Tivoli application finder has been replaced by the FHC Application Finder. I suppose there might still be some FHCs with computers that haven't been upgraded with the new application finder, but none of the computers at my FHC have any offers under Tivoli anymore.