Make Your Computer Indestructible With Deep Freeze - Comments Page 1

Hi!

DeepFreeze tends to make the computer slower over the day because it virtualizes all disk activity. So, over time the disk writes become more and more slow. This is solved by a simple reboot.

At least one antivirus does not work well with DeepFreeze: Bitdefender.

Also, in Windows 7 sometimes the sound drivers do not work with DeepFreeze.

In conclusion: test your PC and your software after installing DeepFreeze to make sure that functionality is correct.

Deep Freeze is used by many, *many* public libraries to keep their public computers from being overrun by user-saved files (both good and evil), and is highly regarded. I imagine if one downloads a lot of files - of whatever type - from possibly suspect websites, it would be a good idea to use at home. Casual downloaders, maybe not so much.

Great for internet cafe and public shared computers. I visited their page, there is not a way to hold it from working. The built-in System Restore does it all, you can go to any past saved date and click it.
For trying new softwares I would say that a sandbox can be much more practical and easier to use and you can control it.
www.sandboxie.com

I used Norton GoBack for years, and it dug me out of
several wholes. GoBack won't run on Windows 7, so I now use Rollback Rx. I can't make the comparison with Deep Freeze, but Rollback allows me to re-set the system to some chosen "before" point. I set a "rollback point" every day and before any new software installation. Very helpful program! (CMS BounceBack is another similar solution to resetting the system.)

Hi Bob,

This sounds like an ideal solution for kiosk PCs or those in Internet cafes where all sorts of people will mess with the PC's settings.

One reboot at the close of business or when a problem occurs and you have a clean PC again.

Deep Freeze seems too cumbersome to use. Every time I change a file "for keeps" do I have to go through a thaw?

I used to use GoBack when it first came out and it was a great product. Completely transparent, but if I had a problem it was there to save me. I did get rid of two viruses with it and many a bad installation. I think Symantic bought them out and I never heard much after that. Sure wish it was still around. - Gene

This looks like virtual drives for dummys...
A great idea but for those whom are completely illiterate, they will flip out when their information disappears..

Hello!

I've been a fan of yours since the early Internet Tourbus days. In fact, you're the one who set me on the path to geekdom ;-)

Reading your article, I thought about recommending this software but on further investigation, it becomes less appealing. They are not exactly transparent about their pricing.
After a number of pages, I found the information in the form of comments that it is being sold on an annual subscription basis--which seems rather absurd for something meant to be installed once so as to keep all settings stable. $35 for the Standard version for an individual seems reasonable until you realize that's for only one year, after which it will be anyone's guess. For organizations and the Enterprise version, the cost could really add up.

There are other means of achieving the same degree of stability. Internet cafes and public libraries can use a variety of software that erases all user activity on logout. One can set up a system to create a RAMdisk workspace and delete it automatically on reboot, or lock down the administrator account and use a LiveCD or bootable USB drive. A network administrator in a sensitive environment could set up an automatic process to reformat and reinstall on all workstations...

I suspect Deep Freeze may be a good solution for the individual without much interest in the technical side of things and with an adequate income. Anyone else may want to explore the alternatives.

Perfect solution for computer club that teach a variety of programs with hands on access. Play, change etc to your hearts content and each night just reboot all the clubs computers. What is the $$$$ for 20 computers?

Whatever the benefit or lack thereof, the product is extremely expensive: it seems to be licensed only by annual subscription at $36 per system, not actually sold!

For enterprises or schools, Deep Freeze is great. But I am not sure if using Deep Freeze at home is practical. I went back to school to update my IT skills and my university uses Deep Freeze. My friend and his wife both work in IT at the university. Deep Freeze has severely cut their support calls, so they can spend time on their regular job. Every student has to have a flash drive or portable hard disk drive. You need to save your work onto your own drive. I am not sure it requires a reboot. I think that Deep Freeze works on a logout as well.

At home, it can be intrusive and any documents and need to be saved on removable storage. If you have more than one partition or physical disk, you can put anything you save there, however, I believe most home users don't have that setup. So, I'm not clear if having this at home is useful. For the most part, at home it is not practical. For everyone in our household, even me, we use regular user logins. i.e. no one uses administrator logins. So anything that tries to change or add software, but not all settings (you need to let anti-virus/anti-malware software to allow updates), requires the administrator password. I am the only one with the administrator password.

I read the following in a comment posted to the web by johntangelo@gmail.com: Faronics Deep Freeze has all but bitten the dust at this point. They have been struggling to secure their program against a program called Unfreezer by Emiliano Torres (a black hat programmer in Santa Rosario, Argentina).

EDITOR'S NOTE: I clipped most of your comment, because the information you were quoting came from a post dated 10-25-2005. Since then, no such reports have surfaced, so I have to think that this problem was resolved a long time ago.

Scares me, Bob...of course i am an "old guy"...LOL. I maintain a data base program for my local club that is linked to a national organization. I both enter information and download updated information in the data base almost daily. I could not take a chance that any work I have done would not be there. Sounds like just the ticket though for public computers.

dosent sound like something i'd use, i have a external hard drive and occasionally make a system image, which is the same thing as this product, it dosent cost anything, its kinda a moot point if you know what your doing, sounds like something new to sell to a novice

We've been using Deepfreeze for many years now to protect the settings on a dozen student workstations in a SeniorNet Computer Learning center in a municipal senior center. We haven't had any problems using DeepFreeze. I suggest that DeepFreeze users setup a dedicated extra partition where they can occasionally save a file where it won't be wiped by DeepFreeze. When you install DeepFreeze, you have the option to choose which partitions you want to have protected. And if you know the password, you can control whether DeepFreeze will be functioning or off during the next session.

Another thing I had great success with was to install DeepFreeze on a dedicated hard drive along with numerouous powerful anti-virus detection and removal applications. I would then use that hard drive with DeepFreeze running on it to scan a second hard drive from another workstation or laptop that had been severely corrupted by very infectious viruses or one of those phony AV applications that users are occasionally conned into downloading and installing only to find that they are fraudulent. With DeepFreeze protecting it, the drive is able to scan and repair an infected hard drive without any of the viruses or AV applications being able to jump onto the DeepFreeze drive and permanently infect it.

Sandboxie does the same thing & it's free.

Deep Freeze allows you to create a virtual drive (usually T:) where you can store whatever you want to preserve. I've been using Deep Freeze for years without problems whatsoever. I don't even have an antivirus/malware installed and if I got infected everything was back to normal after the next reboot. Great piece of software!

I work whith Deep freeze (good one )when it was free,lost them and now it is not free

I'd love it for home use. Well, home/biz use. As a geek, the idea of locking down my system from "here let me help you" updates and add-ons just sounds delicious. (Just because I set everything I can to "let me decide" doesn't mean every update lets me decide.)

The $35 fee seemed too good to be true. I was expecting a much higher price. Turns out I was right. It's $35/year. There are no "updates" to the software, as with anti-virus, to justify an annual fee. So until the vendor changes its pricing plan, I'll pass.

QUESTION: Is my hard drive going out?
Windows would not boot up. I tried several times, including the system restore and the rescue disks about ten times with no luck. Magically the next morning it was as if nothing happened. I ran a virus scan and malware check and came up clear. Should I still go to the expense of getting my hardrive checked?