- Jan 25, 2009
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I work in IT at a public library and we use a software called Centurion Smartshield .
The purpose of this software is to undue any changes a patron may have made to a computer when it reboots ... if they save their social security number to the desktop it gets erased when it reboots.
When the software is in protected state any changes are instantly undone when the computer reboots.
When the software is in the unprotected state all changes are saved like a normal computer.
For the majority of our computers it works perfectly without fail.
One of the features of Centurion Smartshield is called Optional Directory Protection.
The purpose of this is to allow certain folders to update and persist after reboots.
On all of the gaming computers I have the games installed the C:\Games directory and so that folder is included on Optional Directory Protection.
This allows games to update and not have to download gigabytes of patches each time the computer reboots.
Last week we updated Windows 10 1803 with 70 or so patches to all 8 gaming computers.
None of the patches instantly pop out as hard drive / SSD related updates which I assume is where this issue lies.
After patching it was noticed that the Steam Large Library does not show any games and shows an empty black screen instead on all 8 gaming computers.
Switching to the Steam Small Library does show games correctly and the games run without issue.
It was also noticed that this issue only appears when centurion is in the protected state and the C:\Games folder is selected in Optional Directory Protection.
When the computer is unprotected or when the C:\Games folder is Not in Optional Directory Protection the Steam Large Library works just fine.
We should probably upgrade to Windows 1903 and I probably will if nothing else fixes this issue.
If that fails to fix the issue I may have to manually uninstall each patch, turn on protection, reboot the computer and then test Steam ... a process I am dreading.
Has anyone else had this highly specific issue?
The computer specs are
Alienware Aurora R4
CPU: Intel 7900x
Ram: 16 gigabytes DDR4
GPU: Geforce 2080
The purpose of this software is to undue any changes a patron may have made to a computer when it reboots ... if they save their social security number to the desktop it gets erased when it reboots.
When the software is in protected state any changes are instantly undone when the computer reboots.
When the software is in the unprotected state all changes are saved like a normal computer.
For the majority of our computers it works perfectly without fail.
One of the features of Centurion Smartshield is called Optional Directory Protection.
The purpose of this is to allow certain folders to update and persist after reboots.
On all of the gaming computers I have the games installed the C:\Games directory and so that folder is included on Optional Directory Protection.
This allows games to update and not have to download gigabytes of patches each time the computer reboots.
Last week we updated Windows 10 1803 with 70 or so patches to all 8 gaming computers.
None of the patches instantly pop out as hard drive / SSD related updates which I assume is where this issue lies.
After patching it was noticed that the Steam Large Library does not show any games and shows an empty black screen instead on all 8 gaming computers.
Switching to the Steam Small Library does show games correctly and the games run without issue.
It was also noticed that this issue only appears when centurion is in the protected state and the C:\Games folder is selected in Optional Directory Protection.
When the computer is unprotected or when the C:\Games folder is Not in Optional Directory Protection the Steam Large Library works just fine.
We should probably upgrade to Windows 1903 and I probably will if nothing else fixes this issue.
If that fails to fix the issue I may have to manually uninstall each patch, turn on protection, reboot the computer and then test Steam ... a process I am dreading.
Has anyone else had this highly specific issue?
The computer specs are
Alienware Aurora R4
CPU: Intel 7900x
Ram: 16 gigabytes DDR4
GPU: Geforce 2080
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