[WEB4LIB] Internet Plugins

[Bill Teschek]

Brad,
    We use W2K and Deep Freeze on our public machines. I loaded 
them up with Microsoft Instant Messenger, AOL Instant Messenger 
and Yahoo IM because the kids were just downloading the 
programs every day. Made sense to me to have them available on 
the desktop preinstalled so they wouldn't have to do that. I logged 
into a Yahoo chat room and downloaded their chat applet, and did 
the same at www.ichat.com. Go to www.real.com and download 
realplayer, then fuss with the settings (especially message center) 
so that you can get it into the state you want before you do your 
Freeze. Do the same for Shockwave, Quicktime and Windows 
Media Player. Be sure to download the latest Adobe Acrobat 
Reader, then run it a few times before you freeze because the first 
time you use it it may pop up a message asking you if you want to 
check for updates. Turn off the feature that has it prompt you to 
download updates. The public will only get confused by such 
messages. If you have installed the automatic Windows update 
feature try and turn this off as well so that the public isn't bugged by 
the weekly (and sometimes more often) messages from Microsoft 
about the latest bug fix. A couple of image viewers that are good to 
have are Alternatiff and Mr. Sid. You can find where to download 
those with a Google search.

I also have the following in an accessories folder on the desktop: 
Accessiblity options (a control panel feature), Calculator, CD Player, 
Character Map, Clipboard Viewer, Microsoft Imaging, Magnifier, 
Notepad, Paint, WordPad, Windows Explorer, and Winzip. I put 
RealPlayer, Quicktime and Windows Media Player in here as well 
rather than on the desktop.

The hardest part of installing all of these with Deep Freeze is to get 
them into the state you want. They are often prone to popping up 
messages from time to time, or running at computer startup when 
you don't want them to. Spend a lot of time on the first machine you 
do then put it out for the public to play with for a few weeks so you 
can discover all the surprises that await you.

I'd be interested in learning of any other plugins that you or your 
other responders feel are very useful.

Bill Teschek
Lane Memorial Library
Hampton, NH
bteschek at hampton.lib.nh.us

> I am going to be upgrading to W2000 and reconfiguring my Public Internet
> computers in the next month or so. Does anyone out there has a good list of
> plugins, helper apps, chat apps, etc. to install so that patrons don't have
> to
> constantly be installing stuff on the machines? We run DeepFreeze, so
> anything
> that gets installed doesn't survive a reboot. I see people constantly
> downloading and installing God knows what. I would like to have all or most
> preinstalled to avoid them having to reinstall constantly.
> 
> Any suggestions will be appreciated,
> 
> 
> 
> Brad Sargeant
> Springfield Public Library
> Springfield, OR
> 541-726-2236
> 
>