[CS-FSLUG] Windows XP restrictions & exploits

[Josiah Ritchie]

On Thu, 30 Sep 2004 15:56:54 -0600
"N. Thompson" <n.thomp at sasktel.net> wrote:

> Josiah Ritchie wrote:

> There are three main computer rooms in the school each with probably 
> between 30 and 40 computers running completely locked down versions of 
> Windows XP, then there are 12 computer in the library and aside from 
> that the rest of the computers are strictly for use by the staff only. 
> The computer tech is not the same as the computer science teacher.

Maybe he'd like a program we use on our labs here called DeepFreeze. It's
pretty popular in schools. The basic idea is that each time the computer is
rebooted, it goes back to the state it was in prior to the last start. It
is possible to "thaw" a system and make changes, then freeze it again. It
also has a number of central management related functions depending on the
version you purchase. We've had to make some of our machines ADMINs for all
users so that certain old pieces of software would operate on the lab
computers. I wouldn't have dreamed of doing this without that software and
I'm still a good bit... hesitant, but paranoia is a good thing right?

> 
> >What is the structure there? How is the professor teaching programming
> >related to the rest of the school, part-time prof or the same guy who
> >runs everything? I'm having trouble seeing how anything could run at all
> >as stated.

> I don't know how he's teaching it, any executable file format has been 
> completely locked out unless it is being run from C:\Program Files\ or 
> C:\Windows\ . My guess is that only computer science students get to run 
> exe files from their personal folders and even then a naming convention 
> for the exe's is to be observed so they can run. Unfortunately I'm not 
> in computer science until next semester so I'm going to have to hunt 
> down the computer tech and ask either for some sort of access to run my 
> program or if I can use a Knoppix LiveCD or SAM Linux/MandrakeMove on 
> one of the computers for the demonstration in which case the overhead 
> projector is not guaranteed to work.

Most projectors are pretty dumb, like monitors. Some of the newer ones seem
to provide advanced features via USB. My advice would be to know the model
of projector, test far enough ahead of time to get in a bit of research,
and keep the resolution and all that not higher than it needs to be.

> >If you have enough programming types, maybe you could start a school
> >LUG. Once organized, you might have a voice to present changes and offer
> >to help the school out. Definately try to be the benevolent assisters
> >rather than the discgruntled fiends in the eye of the administration.
> 
> I've helped lots of kids with their homework in the library when they 
> were having trouble with MS Word so at least a few kids there know I 
> have a pretty good idea what I'm talking about when it comes to 
> computers, but unfortunately there are very few of them who actually 
> know what Linux is and when I was looking for the school computer tech 
> everyone wanted to know what Linux was.

Sounds like an excellent way to tell the school about Linux. :-) Keep that
up, it might even give you an opportunity to share your faith with them.
That's one of the great things about this list. When people ask, "where'd
you learn all this stuff" you can say "a lot of places books, websites, My
friends as ChristianSource have been especially great." :-) 

JSR/