A friend of mine sounded a bit at sea, a few months ago, when I called him
seeking for any functioning deep freeze application version that he could
assist me with. His response was–as you could have guessed by now-not in the
affirmative. Being the tech-savvy mortal that I have known him to be, I was
quite surprised that he hadn’t the foggiest idea on what this 5-8MB (Depending
on the version you come across) alien was all about.
Deep freeze is an application that allows system administrators to protect the core operating system and configuration files on a workstation or server by restoring a computer back to its original configuration each time the computer restarts. It is available for the operating systems Microsoft Windows, SUSE Linux and Mac OS X.
No one would want to have someone playing around with their computer, reconfiguring, or installing several applications (read software, games, etc) that will impact on its overall performance. Well, with deep freeze, one can still lend out that treasured gadget and be sure to have their PC in very much the same state as they gave it out. Deep freeze enables the PC’s administrator to choose which partition they wish to freeze; and better still allow the user to unfreeze the other partitions previously frozen.
How does it work?
Deep Freeze protects hard drive integrity by redirecting information being written to the hard drive or partition, leaving the original data intact. This redirected information is no longer referenced once the computer is restarted, thus restoring the system to its original state at the disk sector level. This allows users to make 'virtual' changes to the system, giving them the appearance that they can modify core files or even delete them, and even make the system unusable to themselves, but upon reboot the originally configured 'frozen' state of the operating system is restored. This ensures that no alterations/installations made during the PC’s running time are retained.
To make changes, a user with administrator rights must 'thaw' the protected partition by disabling Deep Freeze, make any needed changes, and then 'freeze' it again by re-enabling Deep Freeze. These changes become part of the protected partition and will be maintained after the PC restarts. 'Freezing' and 'thawing' can be done at the workstation level or remotely via either the Faronics Core management platform or the Deep Freeze Enterprise Console.
This, unfortunately, does not spare any other non-system files, such as word documents, music and others.
The ideal situation would be freezing only the partition on which the operating system is installed, and saving any other documents on other unfrozen partitions. This saves on the time one would spend trying to uninstall unwanted applications, as well repairing the PC in situations where virus attacks have affected the operating system.
Users of the deep freeze Enterprise version can also create virtual partitions called ThawSpaces (of up to 1 TB on an NTFS-formatted drive) to retain data on "frozen" hard drives after restarts.
The Pros:
• Deep Freeze can also protect a computer from harmful malware as it automatically deletes (or rather, no longer 'sees') downloaded files when the computer is restarted.
• Deep Freeze can also be used as an antivirus/antimalware application since it undoes all malicious work after restart.
• Unlike most effective anti-virus applications, it uses almost no system resources, and does not slow down the computer noticeably.
The Cons:
• Deep Freeze cannot protect the operating system and hard drive upon which it is installed if the computer is booted from another medium (such as an external hard drive, a USB device, optical media, or network server). In such cases, a user would have real access to the contents of the (supposedly) frozen system. On a Windows-based PC, this scenario may be prevented by configuring the CMOS (nonvolatile BIOS memory) on the PC to boot only to the hard drive to be protected, then password protecting the CMOS.
• Deep Freeze can only protect hard drive partitions of up to a 2TB capacity (using NTFS)-not a very big deal for most PC users in Uganda, since very few people have hard drives with a capacity of up to 2TB.
• Deep freeze does not provide real-time protection since an infected computer would have to be restarted in order to remove malware (this can be worked on, really).
Once installed and configured, a white deep freeze icon appears in the right bottom corner of the taskbar. To access deep freeze in this state, Hold down the SHIFT key and double-click the Deep Freeze icon. Alternatively, you can press CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+F6. A dialog box is displayed, from which you can configure password & boot options.
Deep freeze is an application that allows system administrators to protect the core operating system and configuration files on a workstation or server by restoring a computer back to its original configuration each time the computer restarts. It is available for the operating systems Microsoft Windows, SUSE Linux and Mac OS X.
No one would want to have someone playing around with their computer, reconfiguring, or installing several applications (read software, games, etc) that will impact on its overall performance. Well, with deep freeze, one can still lend out that treasured gadget and be sure to have their PC in very much the same state as they gave it out. Deep freeze enables the PC’s administrator to choose which partition they wish to freeze; and better still allow the user to unfreeze the other partitions previously frozen.
How does it work?
Deep Freeze protects hard drive integrity by redirecting information being written to the hard drive or partition, leaving the original data intact. This redirected information is no longer referenced once the computer is restarted, thus restoring the system to its original state at the disk sector level. This allows users to make 'virtual' changes to the system, giving them the appearance that they can modify core files or even delete them, and even make the system unusable to themselves, but upon reboot the originally configured 'frozen' state of the operating system is restored. This ensures that no alterations/installations made during the PC’s running time are retained.
To make changes, a user with administrator rights must 'thaw' the protected partition by disabling Deep Freeze, make any needed changes, and then 'freeze' it again by re-enabling Deep Freeze. These changes become part of the protected partition and will be maintained after the PC restarts. 'Freezing' and 'thawing' can be done at the workstation level or remotely via either the Faronics Core management platform or the Deep Freeze Enterprise Console.
This, unfortunately, does not spare any other non-system files, such as word documents, music and others.
The ideal situation would be freezing only the partition on which the operating system is installed, and saving any other documents on other unfrozen partitions. This saves on the time one would spend trying to uninstall unwanted applications, as well repairing the PC in situations where virus attacks have affected the operating system.
Users of the deep freeze Enterprise version can also create virtual partitions called ThawSpaces (of up to 1 TB on an NTFS-formatted drive) to retain data on "frozen" hard drives after restarts.
The Pros:
• Deep Freeze can also protect a computer from harmful malware as it automatically deletes (or rather, no longer 'sees') downloaded files when the computer is restarted.
• Deep Freeze can also be used as an antivirus/antimalware application since it undoes all malicious work after restart.
• Unlike most effective anti-virus applications, it uses almost no system resources, and does not slow down the computer noticeably.
The Cons:
• Deep Freeze cannot protect the operating system and hard drive upon which it is installed if the computer is booted from another medium (such as an external hard drive, a USB device, optical media, or network server). In such cases, a user would have real access to the contents of the (supposedly) frozen system. On a Windows-based PC, this scenario may be prevented by configuring the CMOS (nonvolatile BIOS memory) on the PC to boot only to the hard drive to be protected, then password protecting the CMOS.
• Deep Freeze can only protect hard drive partitions of up to a 2TB capacity (using NTFS)-not a very big deal for most PC users in Uganda, since very few people have hard drives with a capacity of up to 2TB.
• Deep freeze does not provide real-time protection since an infected computer would have to be restarted in order to remove malware (this can be worked on, really).
Once installed and configured, a white deep freeze icon appears in the right bottom corner of the taskbar. To access deep freeze in this state, Hold down the SHIFT key and double-click the Deep Freeze icon. Alternatively, you can press CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+F6. A dialog box is displayed, from which you can configure password & boot options.
-Dan B. Atuhaire
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