Restricting installs in Win 98

[neilt]

My boss wants me to look into whether or not it's possible to keep people from installing software on our lab machines. They still have to be able to download files. Is there any way to do this and keep the machines usable? Would this require monitoring software?

[shamus]

Definately third party software. We run Novell here at the high school and Zenworks is like poledit with a dashboard. We can push out McAfee dat updates and limit what everyone does at the same time....check it out.

[neilt]

Thanks, but we don't use Novell. Is there anything else out there that someone could recommend.

[shamus]

Try policy editor (poledit). You can force the machine to run only the apps you want it to. You can find it on the Win98 disk under Tools\Reskit\Netadmin\Poledit. I realize this is probably not going to stop them from downloading, but at least it will waste their time because the installed programs won't run. Maybe they'll get the hint.... here at the high school the kids and teachers have to sign an acceptable use policy in order to get an account on our network...if they break the rules they lose thier priviledges and their account. Maybe thats something your boss could consider.

[shamus]

just found this...worth a looksee:
http://www.anfibia-soft.com/products/watchman/index.html

[Ruben]

I tried using Poledit, it did restrict software that was already present but it did not prevent me from adding new software and then running it. Could I have made a mistake in the process?

[RWSchlatter]

hmm... the Poledit settings should work and you should not be able to execute unlisted software - the catch is, this flag has to be polled from any software that launches an app, and Windows Explorer does this. But if you find a way with another program that has a shell option, you can bypass the Poledit restriction.

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Regards - Richard