Tired of that family member who sends your computer flying every week? Forced to keep a watchful eye on a system used by many people? Windows offers administrators different mechanisms to limit user actions, but if the idea is to 'clean the table' with every restart, then you need something like ToolWiz Time Freeze.
A Blast from the Past: Deep Freeze
A common tool in cybercafés and other public internet access points was Deep Freeze. Just imagining what went on in those computers sent shivers down your spine, and maintenance became a chronic task, hence Deep Freeze made its appearance to protect the mental health of many administrators. Cybercafés have lost their shine, and home access points continue to multiply, yet the need to lock down the entire configuration of a computer never fully disappeared. There are environments and computers with specific roles that must withstand the clumsy guy of the moment no matter what, but at the same time flexibility should not be sacrificed, or else the administrator will have to release permissions on that PC every twenty minutes or less.
ToolWiz Time Freeze in Action
A viable solution is ToolWiz Time Freeze, an application similar to Deep Freeze that 'freezes' the computer's state and returns it to its original condition with just a restart. The first thing to configure in ToolWiz Time Freeze is the cache size, an important value if user sessions are very long. Another aspect to highlight is the exclusions section. Here, the administrator can tell the program to ignore one or more folders, so that they retain their content even after restarting the computer. Finally, we come to password protection. Activating and deactivating ToolWiz Time Freeze is very easy, but with a password in the way, certain claws will be forced to keep their distance.
Focus on the System Partition
Now, ToolWiz Time Freeze focuses its functions on the system partition. In other words, if there are files saved on other drives or partitions, the program will leave them there. ToolWiz Time Freeze is free, has no time or day limits, and its compatibility extends to Windows XP, so even the oldest computers can stay relatively protected.
