[WEB4LIB] In search of: registry tool for "locking down" computers

[Andrew Mutch]

Charles,

Many of the third-party security programs out there are glorified registry editors with a good GUI.
Most also include some additional bells and whistles and tools added on to justify paying for them.
A few questions come to mind:

1) How much do you want to pay?
2) How technically savvy is the person or people who are going to maintain the security software?
3) What OS do you need to secure?
4) How much staff interaction or support is going to be needed on the computers?
5) Are the computers all on one site or will they need to be maintained remotely?
6) Is your goal to lock down the computer as tight as possible or just ensure that things don't get
changed so staff don't have to become computer troubleshooters?
7) Do you just need to lock down the OS or do you need to lock down programs too?
8) Are you just looking to lockdown PCs or are you interested in a more complete access management
system that can handle filtering, printing, computer sign-up, etc.?

With a little more details, there are a number of programs that could be suggested for what you
need.

Andrew Mutch
Library Systems Technician
Waterford Township Public Library
Waterford, MI



"Charles P. Hobbs" wrote:

> I know we can "lock down" computers (e.g. keeping users out of Network
> Neighborhood,setting RestrictRun so that only certain programs are available, hiding
> certain disk drives, etc) using RegEdit....but does anyone know of a utility that would do this,
> without having to dig through the registry to get to the appropriate registry keys?
>
> I've got 45 computers to configure real soon now, so I really appreciate
> any help you can give me. Thanks!
>
> --
> Charles P. Hobbs
> King Drew Health Science Library
> http://www.cdrewu.edu/kdhsl