Question auto reset windows each time i open it

[shakkhor666]

our university computer lab has a system that everyday at 11 pm all pc restart and everything is gone. A whole new OS installation. I also want to do that for my office. i have windows server 2012 r2 with active directory and all connected pc has windows 10 on it. how can i do that?

 

[Math Geek]

my school uses a software package to undo any changes made at every reboot. i can look tonight when i go in and see what program is used.

many years ago we used to use a program called goback but that has been replaced and is outdated now.

but such a program is likely the easiest way to get this done. you use the group policy and such to limit privileges like normal, then the program will undo whatever small change was possibly made when rebooted. lock down windows to start with for sure though so nothing major can be done either way

 

[ss202sl]

Something like Deep Freeze may do what you want. It basically allows you to set up a box and then freeze the settings until you log in as an administrator to change the settings. Every time it boots, it will reset itself back to the last time the Deep Freeze administrator made changes.

 

[USAFRet]

our university computer lab has a system that everyday at 11 pm all pc restart and everything is gone. A whole new OS installation. I also want to do that for my office. i have windows server 2012 r2 with active directory and all connected pc has windows 10 on it. how can i do that?

Do your users ever save anything to their PC/workstation?
Ever?

 

[britechguy]

Do your users ever save anything to their PC/workstation?
Ever?

You and I are having the same thought.

Having been an intern in the computer labs at the university I was attending in the late 1990s, it was not uncommon to allow nothing to be saved to the system drive and that anything the user wanted to keep had to be either saved directly to a thumb drive (how quaint, as many forbid them even to be used these days) or on-disc storage that needed to be copied over to external storage before logging off.

I cannot ever see this being the case, or being proposed as reasonable, in an office setting [presuming a regular office with typical staff]. The whole purpose of a personal computer is so that the individual can have a tool that they can customize (within limits) and on which they can store data. I'd lose my mind if my office PC were being wiped on a nightly basis. I'd actually quit that job, in all likelihood, but that's just me.

 

[Math Geek]

for true personal use, i'd agree, but an office environment is not quite the same thing.

anything important for office use should be on a file server and used from there. true some personal settings and such would be nice to keep if i use the same pc every day, but i would not expect my pc to be where anything important is kept beyond temp daily use anyway.

backing up data is the MOST IMPORTANT thing you should always do no matter the nature of the system. so why should this case all of a sudden be any different. have a networked drive where my work data is stored and it won't ever be an issue.

 

[britechguy]

Math Geek,

I am not arguing your basic position in any way, but I can tell you that the conditions you describe, which are ideal, simply do not exist in many small business settings (Mom & Pops) just as they do not exist in many home settings.

I am simply reporting on the actual circumstances I see frequently, where a PC really is a personal computer and, if I'm lucky, the office has a regular backup protocol going on for its machines, which is often not anywhere near to daily. That's real life in a great many places.

 

[USAFRet]

anything important for office use should be on a file server and used from there.

I'd wager that the vast majority of small and even medium size offices do not do that.

 

[Math Geek]

sadly, you're probably right.

 

[britechguy]

sadly, you're probably right

I can assure you, he is. And that means meeting the clients where they are, as most have neither the time, inclination, or money to change what they're doing. If I can get them to establish a backup protocol it is a major victory.

It is what it is.