Ask Slashdot: Protecting Home Computers From Guests? 572
An anonymous reader writes "We frequently have guests in our home who ask to use our computer for various reasons such as checking their email or showing us websites. We are happy to oblige, but the problem is many of these guests have high risk computing habits and have more than once infested one of our computers with malware, despite having antivirus and the usual computer security precautions. We have tried using a Linux boot CD but usually get funny looks or confused users. We've thought about buying an iPad for guests to use, but decided it wasn't right to knowingly let others use a computing platform that may have been compromised. What tips do you have to overcome this problem, technologically or otherwise?"
Guest wifi... (Score:5, Insightful)
I think they call it guest wifi and byod.
Re:Guest wifi... (Score:4, Funny)
"Sorry, it's broken. Burned out some bits, radiation leak, 2.8 dead."
Re:Guest wifi... (Score:4, Insightful)
Uhhhh, a guest account with limited privileges, maybe?
Re:Guest wifi... (Score:4, Insightful)
I understand your point but the problem is that many, maybe most people don't know any better. They don't even know how to take responsibility.
I would never let a guest run Windows. I have guest accounts on a couple of Linux machines. All they get on the desktop is a browser icon or two (Firefox and Chrome). That's more than enough for anything a guest needs to do and I don't see how they can get confused.
If they have things to do like edit documents or write papers or whatever, they probably have already brought along a laptop and they can use my network with little chance of harm (other than blatantly illegal activity). Or they can use their Google Drive account.
Re:Guest wifi... (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:3)
Same in Ubuntu. It's a good approach.
Re:Guest wifi... (Score:4, Insightful)
Friends who respect you will take care when using your stuff. They will ask permission and they won't willingly or carelessly damage, and they will replace what they do break, and if they can't, they won't borrow it in the first place. The gp is right: today's culture doesn't teach respect of property, self, or the truth. Immediate indulgences and the expectation of entitlements are stronger social imperatives these days. Saying 'no' has become 'offensive' because no one should ever be so mean! Choosing not to share all the time, or even being choosy with whom you choose to share with is considered 'anti-social.'
iPad's cost money... (Score:5, Interesting)
With Win 7 Pro you can install XP Mode which is an XP virtual machine. Set up a guest user and set that to autorun the XP Mode VM in full screen. Once it is setup make a copy of the VHD as a backup. They can hose it up all they want and when they are done just delete the VHD and copy in the fresh copy from the backup.
Re:iPad's cost money... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:iPad's cost money... (Score:4, Informative)
So if they want to install an add on VM system like VMware they can:
- Acquire and install the virtual host software
- Figure out how to install the virtual OS inside the host
- Figure out how to activate and/or license the virtualized OS
Or if the OP has Win 7 (pretty good odds)
- They can follow the prompts on the download page for XP Mode and get a legally licensed, preloaded, and activated copy of Win XP in a virtual environment that 95% of adults will be able to navigate with no learning curve. I was mistaken earlier when I thought XP Mode required the Pro version of Windows. (Pretty uncharacteristic of them to make something like that available for free across the whole product range.)
The download link is: Microsoft Download Center - XP Mode [microsoft.com]. Just follow the page instructions and download and install the pieces and you are golden. I would create them a separate Win 7 user and remove all the obvious icons for anything local to keep them from mucking things up.
Once it is in it runs as if it is an RDP session to a remote computer. Very simple.
But yeah, if you want to buy or stealware a more difficult solution, then yeah, that is possible.
Re:iPad's cost money... (Score:4, Insightful)
After all the hype it didn't deliver any more than Virtualbox and all the others.
Except for the part where it can be setup by non techy types by installing three "updates" from a single simple download page.
Plus it comes with a pre-installed, licensed and activated copy of virtualized XP for 0$ that is legal for free use even in enterprise environments.
Malware eh? (Score:5, Funny)
> We are happy to oblige, but the problem is many of these guests have high risk computing habits and have more than once infested one of our computers with malware,
Really? It's not that they started typing something into your browser and the browser history showed off all the sick and twisted porn you watch? :P
Re:Malware eh? (Score:5, Funny)
of course not, by the time they get to the computer in the sex dungeon, they know what kind of stuff I am into.
Re:Malware eh? (Score:4)
This article can be summed up in one sentence: "LOL WINDOWS USERS"
Linux Boot (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Linux Boot + PRINTER (Score:4, Informative)
>> Have a dedicated Linux boot just for them, and if they give you funny looks tell them too bad.
This. As long as you can PRINT from it. (Most of the time I loaned "local" computer access it was to let someone print airline boarding passes.)
Also make a couple paper copies of your WiFi creds and encourage them to BYOD.
Re:Linux Boot + PRINTER (Score:5, Insightful)
>> Printing boarding passes? How quaintly retro!
I think you'll find that the same guests who want to borrow your computer are also the same ones who won't be able to get boarding passes on their phone.
Re:Linux Boot + PRINTER (Score:5, Insightful)
I consider myself to usually be on the bleeding edge of technology, but phone-based boarding passes are right out. I've never had a piece of paper run out of power, but I've had my phone die halfway through the travel day for reasons unknown (turned into a little toaster and burned through its battery - presumably the radio got in a weird state) and have had it stolen while traveling. I keep two boarding passes, typically - one folded in my pocket, and one in my carry-on. If I lose one, I just grab the other one.
And yes, most of the time when my guests want to borrow a machine, it's because they need a printer for boarding passes.
Re:Linux Boot + PRINTER (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3)
Adding complexity always drives up the possibility of failure... Needless complexity drives down reliability for no good reason.
Smartphone a luxury or necessity? (Score:3)
smartphones are all but the norm anymore
Then it appears you disagree with some other Slashdot users who have told me that smartphones are a luxury, not a necessity. The only necessity is an $80/year dumbphone in case of urgencies, and that's only because payphones are being removed. But I'm willing to consider your arguments as to why a smartphone is a necessity.
Re:Linux Boot + PRINTER (Score:5, Funny)
How do you know what seat you're in ?
I look down. If I see my legs, that's the seat I'm in.
Re:Linux Boot (Score:5, Interesting)
I've had lots of visitors in my house, of various ages, various skills levels. Most of them managed to get a browser open on linux, then it all works from there.
Other way is to use a VM, with a snapshot, so you can just revert it when you have finished.
Re:Linux Boot (Score:5, Funny)
And when she has trouble, all she needs to do it call down to the basement.
Re: (Score:3)
I live in my own apartment with my wife and baby. My wife is using KDE Fedora/Linux just fine, too.
As I say, modern Linux is just like Windows, IMHO is KDE/Linux way easier to use then any Windows.
Re:Linux Boot (Score:4, Informative)
Have a dedicated Linux boot just for them, and if they give you funny looks tell them too bad.
Once you have Linux, it doesn't have to be dedicated. Just use a Guest Account with permissions to use the browser, and not much else.
The big thing is just get rid of Windows in your home. You have nothing that needs interoperability with your work that
can't be handled by Linux. Once you dump Windows, all the bad browsing habits no longer matter.
The problem here is the insistence of keeping Windows for no good reason.
Re: (Score:3)
The issue is not about getting rid of Windows, is knowing that you very likely paid for a license, so why not put it to use anyways?
Re: (Score:3)
In fact, the question submitter explicitly identified the reason for keeping Windows for the guest access, "funny looks and confused users" when offering Linux instead.
Re: (Score:3)
Re:Linux Boot (Score:5, Funny)
You could even have it just boot straight into Firefox. No-one would even know it was Linux.
Just tell them that it's the new version of Windows.
And when they decide that the GUI is all F-d up compared to what they're used to, they'll figure yup, it's a new version of Windows all right.
Virtual Machine (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Windows Steadystate used to do a decent job of this on XP.
Which, for some reason that probably had nothing to do with pushing AD and group-policy tinkering on a bunch of schools and libraries and other relatively unsophisticated organizational users, is why Microsoft killed it. Support ended a couple of years back, availability 3-ish. No 64-bit or Win7 compatible version ever existed.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Windows Steady State for 7 is a do it yourself through Windows 7 tools matter. http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=24373
Re: (Score:3)
I actually bothered with a license for DeepFreeze for the one box that I allow guests to use. That, a Kensington lock, BitLocker and proper password protection of the BIOS and the HDD is good enough.
That way, the DeepFreeze-protected machine is one reboot away from getting cleaned up from whatever ails it. Especially with the fact that the guest user has no administrator rights, so malware would have to find a hole to get to a Windows admin context, then find a way to attack the DeepFreeze driver in order
Re:Virtual Machine (Score:5, Informative)
I agree. Fullscreen the VM, and they'll probably never even know that they weren't using your "actual" PC.
Re: (Score:2)
Agreed. You can also run the machine in a non-persistence mode so that nothing is written to the disk at all while in use. Just periodically fire it up in a persistent state to apply important security updates etc for their safety. Unless they are savvy they won't even know they are running in a VM.
Re:Virtual Machine (Score:4, Informative)
If you have Windows 7 Pro or greater, you can get an instance of XP running on Virtual PC for free. It's called "Windows XP Mode."
Rob
Re:Virtual Machine (Score:5, Informative)
Why go to all the trouble of reverting the snapshot?
Just set the disk to "non-persistent" and nothing they do will modify the system. Each time the VM is restarted it's back to its default state.
I don't have any experience with VirtualBox, but with VMware include a line something like this in the .vmx file:
ide0:0.mode = "independent-nonpersistent"
When you want to make changes, shut down the VM and change that line to:
ide0:0.mode = "persistent"
then change it back when it's the way you want it.
I'm sure VirtualBox has something similar.
Re:Virtual Machine (Score:5, Informative)
For VirtualBox, the method I use is slightly different but gives similar results in the end.
This must be done from the command line with the vboxmanage.exe tool, I'm not aware of a GUI way to do it.
I have a 'template' VM with fully setup windows and configured how I want it.
Then I make a new 'guest' VM (from scratch) and copy the template disk image to a new name (cloned, from virtual media manager), from template.vdi to guestbox.vdi, and then I use a command line tool to set the new disk image immutable, so it can not be changed again.
vboxmanage modifyhd whereever/guestbox.vdi --type immutable
Then point the guest vm to the guestbox.vdi image under settings -> storage.
Each time the VM boots, disk writes go into a seperate copy-on-write file, which gets deleted once the VM is powered down. A "revert" action takes as long as a delete command unlinking an inode.
When I need to make updates, I do that in my template vm, then copy over the vdi setting it immutable again. Copy the new guest image over the old one, and the VM is updated.
Locked up in a safe. (Score:2, Funny)
The guests, that is.
NoScript (Score:5, Interesting)
It's a Firefox addon. Check it out. Also Adblock Plus. With those two installed and running, things get a lot safer. Of course, NoScript requires a bit of savvy to be able to browse the web correctly. You might have to help. Otherwise, tell them to bring their own darn laptop.
Re: (Score:3)
I use and LOVE both of those add-ons. Ghostery is also good, and it shows what's tracking you even if you choose not to block them.
Re:NoScript (Score:5, Insightful)
Except that NoScript does not protect anyone from downloading "hi_I_saw_you_wanna_fuck.jpg.scr.pif.exe.bat.com"
Seriously? (Score:5, Funny)
The moment your computer becomes public (however limited that "public" is), it is a goner. It is like asking how to secure your computer after it was compromised.
I don't even let my visitor plug into the same network my main computers are, and have both a separated WiFi network and a separated ethernet segment for them (1 port only in the guest room), that I treat as a DMZ. Ok, I'm paranoid, but still.
Maybe use removable HDs, and keep one for your own use, and swap it for an entirely different one (which you can restore from a Ghost image or something) for your guests. As in PHYSICALLY disconnecting your HDs when they are going to use.
Otherwise, it is like using band-aids to stop a leaking dam.
Re:Seriously? (Score:5, Funny)
I don't even tell people where I live.
Re: (Score:3)
I don't even let my visitor plug into the same network my main computers are, and have both a separated WiFi network and a separated ethernet segment for them (1 port only in the guest room), that I treat as a DMZ. Ok, I'm paranoid, but still.
I shudder to think what booby traps you set up to keep your house guests away from your silverware and jewelry.
Re: (Score:3)
What kind of guests do you have? Why do they spend so long using the Internet that managing it becomes an issue?
My flatmate is from a different country, and regularly has friends visiting. They often ask to print a ticket or boarding pass, check email, check Facebook, but it's never been a problem. They can log in as guest on any computer, and the wifi password is on a post-it by the router.
Re: (Score:3)
I don't even let guests use the same internet.
Virtual Machine (Score:5, Insightful)
Something like VirtualBox or VMWare that supports snapshots. Install an OS into the virtual machine and set some firewall rules to keep it from accessing anything else on your network. When they ask to use your computer, launch the virtual machine and set it to full screen. They won't know the difference. When they're done, revert to snapshot.
Chromebook? (Score:5, Interesting)
Sound like a good use for a Chromebook.
Re:Chromebook? (Score:5, Insightful)
VirtualBox (Score:2, Insightful)
Know what I'd do. . . (Score:5, Funny)
Get smarter guests
Re: (Score:2)
Get smarter guests
Exactly.
"Hey, can I use your computer to..."
"No."
Who doesn't have a smartphone/tablet these days to do such things?!
Just sandbox them (Score:2)
Just create an ad-hoc guest account with limited rights. That way they can't really screw up things. Once the guest has left the premises, remove the account. You don't even have to log out yourself if someone just needs the access for five minutes, just switch users.
A step further: Build a virtual machine with a e.g. your basic Linux distro or Windows XP, create a snapshot of it in it's "fresh" state, and set it up to talk only directly to the Internet without any access to your local network. You can achi
Re: (Score:2)
The guest account is the way to go. Anything that infects the PC is unlikely to make it past the guest account as long as you keep your Windows Updates up-to-date. I would also recommend going the extra step and setting ACLs to deny usage of Internet Explorer. Install Firefox and/or Chrome.
Use two routers. (Score:2)
Boot to the guest account (Score:5, Informative)
I know it's not flawless but I still feel pretty comfortable letting my tech savvy (e.g. dangerous) friends stay over unattended. It wouldn't hold up to anyone seriously determined to break the security but they have access to the physical machine and can't really be stopped anyway.
Just say no (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3)
Yes, and if your guests want cake you should let them eat cake.
"may have been compromised" (Score:2)
"it wasn't right to knowingly let others use a computing platform that may have been compromised."
Then why are you letting them use ANY computer? There is no platform where you can say 100% that it has not been compromised.
By far the iPad would be the least likely to be infected by anything, and require the least maintenance. I can't understand your rationale for not going this route at all.
Re: (Score:2)
We've thought about buying an iPad for guests to use, but decided it wasn't right to knowingly let others use a computing platform that may have been compromised.
Is he really worried about an iPad being compromised compared to a windows box? It's pretty hard to accidentally mess up an iPad even visiting shady sites.
Fon Hotspot (Score:2)
I have a cheap fon router which provides two wireless networks. One for my family and one non-encrypted.
The non-encrypted network normally requires a logon, but some IP addresses can be excluded from that requirement. You might choose to exclude all requirements so that your guests get straight access.
You also get to rate-limit the connection too.
If you run a connection and leave it turned on you get free logon to other peoples fon hotspots too - and there are thousands in the UK.
http://corp.fon.com/how-it- [fon.com]
Stop using Windows (Score:2)
Just use a Linux distro - problems solved. Create a guest account that automatically wipes every time you log out.
Tell them no (Score:2)
Obvious answer (Score:3, Insightful)
Change a few words ... many of these guests have high risk driving habits and have more than once driven one of our cars into a phone pole ... and the answer is obvious.
Not convinced? Try this one ...
... many of these guests have high risk sexual behavior habits and have more than once infected one or more of our girl/boy friends ...
heh heh. (Score:2)
Easy (Score:2)
Anyone who stays at my house has to help slop the hogs and clean out the barn. You can play with the computer afterward.
Problem solved.
Linux PC running VirtualBox fullscreen (Score:2)
With Windows inside the VirtualBox. Once the guests leave, revert the VirtualBox image.
With a little work, you can make a "guest" login that launches VirtualBox and can't do anything else.
On the other hand, it might be enough to make a "guest" account, and just run a script that cleans out /home/guest after the users leave:
/home/guest /whatever/guest /home
# remove all trace of guest directory
rm -fr
# set up clean copy again
cp -pr
If you are using Linux Mint with MATE, your guests should be able to cope with
Two words: (Score:2)
Virtual machine.
iPad (Score:4, Informative)
Seriously? What have you been reading that gives you bizarre notions like that? The iPad has a number of general shortcomings, most of which are related to its single-user OS and its closed architecture. And I'd hesitate to lend a guest my iPad, but only because – once unlocked for use – it's wide open for the user to poke around (e.g. read my mail, browser history, etc). But in terms of the OS being compromised, an iOS device that hasn't been deliberately jailbroken (by you) is about as safe an internet-access device as you're likely to find, short of custom building a Linux- or BSD-based system yourself.
privileges (Score:3, Informative)
Old school (Score:2)
Windows XP with Steadystate
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_SteadyState [wikipedia.org]
Puppy Slacko 5.5 (Score:4, Interesting)
Let them run Puppy and if they get confused lend them a hand. Usually most people seem to want to check email or some other trivial task. You do want to be certain that your email account does not allow auto sign in while you have company.
Cheap-o (Score:3)
Get a cheap computer (i.e. used/refurb), and keep installation media on-hand.
You can optionally install Linux to make it more resistant to stuff.
And put the homepage to something [rshirley.com] that discourages them from visiting naughty sites.
Chromium OS (Score:4, Interesting)
Chromebook (Score:3)
I keep a chrome laptop around for this. It's enough for most people, and after logout everything's clean.
media bay boot / SD card boot... (Score:2)
My two cents...
Keep an extra media bay or hard drive for a notebook that lets you just remove your hard drive and stick another in. .iso or other backup from which to do a restore.
Take your regular hard drive and put it away when you've got guests coming over. let anyone use your notebook with this alternate media to boot and run from. Just keep a
At the end of the night, just reimage the alternate media and put it back on a shelf.
Put your drive / boot media back in and you've got your machine back. No worri
Create a clonezilla partition on your hard drives (Score:2)
Run backups before they arrive, and run restore after they leave. Plus your machine gets backed up which you probably needed to do anyway.
Buy a Chromebook (Score:4, Informative)
If you're willing to buy a $499 iPad [apple.com] just for guests to use, then you'd probably be willing to buy a $249 Chromebook [google.com] instead. It's a great second laptop, and perfect for guests to use. There's even a "Guest" account they can use, and it clears the data when they are done using it. And it's secure - which you want if your guests have "high risk computing habits."
probably redundant (Score:2)
Eight (Score:3, Funny)
Just put Windows 8 on it. Nobody will be able to figure out how to launch anything besides Bing and Zune.
Re: (Score:3)
That would put ME at a disadvantage, some of the people I invite over have Win8, unlike me.
One of them mentioned he actually LIKES it. I haven't spoken with him since, I don't want to be associated with lunatics.
Guest account on a Mac is perfect for this (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Guest network on a separate machine (Score:3)
These comments suggesting a Linux boot CD, or a Virtual Machine (VMWare , VirtualBox, etc) are all viable solutions if you trust your guest to stay within the environment you give them.
A VM, in my opinion, is really just useless, because the guest can switch away from it too easily and get at your main machine. Then perhaps become confused which browser is which, see your firefox on the desktop, double click and continue away... This is common with guests that are not too computer savvy....
Someone mentioned using a VM with a guest network and router firewall rules?? that's just more useless, the guest is sitting at your main machine. See the point above.
A linux boot CD is much better than a VM, with firewall rules to prevent this booted machine from accessing the local network, but any linux environment gives local access to local drives, so before you know it your (computer savvy guest) is browsing your local hard drive from your standard everyday system you use, and reading all your fine datas. Or if they are a reboot happy user (I've seen that, if the browser gets slow they power off) then that user may reboot when you're out of the room, and they may now boot into your main system and continue along, without you even knowing it, until much much later. You won't know this unless you are watching what they are doing every minute, and I am sure that won't go over well either.
The only way to go here is to have a separate guest network (hardwired or wifi or both) and have your guests BYOD. If you wish to be accommodating when they don't have their own device then you can give them a slow, cheap, small laptop from craigslist or something, and make them use that. Use any hard drive mirroring software to wipe and reinstall the Linux OS on it after they leave, or use a netboot to boot an image from a local server which you have a virgin copy of for the next user. As someone else already said, make sure it can access the printer, guests always want to print something.
I do the above. An old DELL Latitude D600 is the device for my guests. It has a 14" screen, 1 GB RAM, Pentium M 1.6Ghz, a 30GB hard drive, and dual boots Linux Mint or Windows XP so they have a choice if they care. The entire HDD is overwritten from a server image when they are done.
I say all this because I am the type of person that doesn't want anyone sitting at my local machine. I wish to give them full access, freedom to take their time and do what they want, without me watching guard over them to be sure they aren't reading anything of mine. I don't want them to start my Yahoo, or MSN , or read my email, my PC has years of financial data on it, local documents to my Condominium Corporation, letters to family, and the other 50% is ... well... we all know what the Internet is really for ;)
confine them to a virtual instance (Score:3)
make a guest account (Score:3)
I made an account with username 'guest' and password 'password'. then just let them log on.
I also had ssh installed. one day the sysadmin at work come to see me and tells me that my laptop had been blocked from the network because it was making a large number of outgoing ssh connections. important lessons were learned.
(some distros offer a locked down password-less guest account. this is a much better idea)
Problem solved (Score:3)
"We have tried using a Linux boot CD but usually get funny looks or confused users."
So, then, you already solved your problem. Why are you posting to Slashdot?
Re:Locked down guest account? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
And put it in its own separate guest network, which is logically isolated from your own stuff by a firewall, maybe run a print server too (people often want to print boarding passes)...
As for funny looks, a browser is a browser and i've never had any problems giving someone a linux livecd, it has both firefox and chrome and most people are perfectly familiar with these applications.
Re:Locked down guest account? (Score:4, Insightful)
And put it in its own separate guest network, which is logically isolated from your own stuff by a firewall, maybe run a print server too (people often want to print boarding passes)...
As for funny looks, a browser is a browser and i've never had any problems giving someone a linux livecd, it has both firefox and chrome and most people are perfectly familiar with these applications.
Why go to the trouble of a separate network?
The odds of even the most retarded of users inadvertently fucking anything beyond the one machine they're touching is absurdly low, unless you're running outdated shit on your network. Remote exploits are remote exploits, and you should protect each device regardless or whether or not you trust the rest of the network.
If someone is so fuck-up prone that you think your proper boxen could be fucked by some schlub lolcatting around on the same network, you should be more worried about them tripping in your house and suing you.
Re:Locked down guest account? (Score:5, Interesting)
There was a time in the distant past that I built a "very special" win9x machine for this very purpose.
Yes, I can read your mind. "Win9x? Are you fucking serious? Turn in your geek card right now!" Yadda, yadda.
Just hear me out.
Win9x, because it relies on realmode dos interrupt disk handlers, can be loaded from a preboot environment ram only block device. Such as that provided by Memdisk, from the syslinux tool set.
Essentially, you have a disk image file on a bootable EXT2 volume (nothing ever gets written on it, so it doesn't need a journal.) With the syslinux bootloader on the MBR. It is the default boot device.
On boot, syslinux starts, loads the memdisk block device driver, and copies the win9x image into ram, it patches int15 to report a different max size of installed XMS, then executes the "mbr" of the ram block device.
BOOM. Win9x in a ramdisk.
You can use a drivespace compressed image to achieve maximum data density for the consumed block of memory. Drivespace3 with ultrapack on gets almost 2:1 packing on normal program and file data. You can get a *lot* of stuff inside a 512mb image file.
Throw in a reasonably recent firefox, courtesy of KernelEx (an open source kernel resource extender for win9x, which allows a good deal of 2k and XP native applications to run, including FF10, and a modern flashplayer with ABP and noscript.) And a good software firewall, turn off all filesahring services, and essentially lock down the 9x system as far as possible, and you have exactly what your horrible family member and or aquaintence wants: a familiar user environment that they can walk all over.
It also has what you want: pull the plug, and it is magically fresh, clean, shiny and new again as soon as you power it on.
9x doesn't know how to deal with EXT filesystems, so the physical HDD is never exposed to your user.
The only major problems are 9x's abhorrent 2gb RAM limit, and its abysmal network safety rating, coupled with its rather dated hardware base. (Plus the difficulty of getting a 9x install up and running smoothly with all the perks a normal user could want, without breaking it, on a teensy weensie volume.)
On the plus side, being 100% in RAM on a reasonably modern hardware platform, it is fast as fuck. The test systems I built had Office97, firefox 10, flashplayer10, the WEP, a pirate copy of zonealarm pro, photoshop7, media player 10, KernelEx, and a few other odds and ends on it, with 50mb of "free" space left on the compressed volume to serve as browsing cache space. It was snappy as hell.
I have only done this a few times as just a lesson in self-punishment/"let's see what kind of frankenstein's monster we can build out of retro parts!" Type exercise, but the finished product is incredibly hard to kill, and keep dead. Bluescreens of death? Caught a nasty worm in the 10 seconds it was on the net? Power it off, power it back on. Good as new.
Gives a whole new meaning to "zombie workstation".
I have a celeron POS I am contemplating doing this to actually. I would prefer ramdisked win2k or better though, but I don't know of a way to boot the OS out of a block device after NTLDR starts, and before control is passed to NTOSKRNL. Maybe a hacked FreeLDR from reactos would work though.
Re:Locked down guest account? (Score:4, Interesting)
That is quite an interesting solution!
I just wanted to see if you've ever played with BartPE before?
It's main function is to take a windows xp (or 2k i believe) installation cd, a folder of special packages to include, and optional custom config files (ie network settings) all as input.. and gives you a bootable ISO image as output.
Obviously it's meant to create a boot cd/dvd, but using syslinux similar to how you do, one can boot that ISO directly off a USB flash device as well.
Flash makes it fast, and easy to overwrite the ISO for any system upgrades. No optical media slowdown either.
ISO makes it read only while running from a RAM disk, so is quite fast.
For just running a web browser, it at least gives you a slightly newer kernel and base system to build upon.
Still, I'll have to play around with your method too, as I have some old legacy 95 and 98 boxes at work I need to keep alive for the foreseeable future, where in some of those cases virtualization isn't an option.
(I've managed to virtualize custom ISA cards, but can't say the same for custom PCI cards)
Thank you.
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Re:Hey, I'm lazy too! (Score:5, Informative)
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I am not sure why users give you funny looks with Linux. Is it because things like Flash/Java plug-in/etc. are not installed?
Flash and Java are standard parts of a modern Linux install these days, such as the latest versions of Linux Mint.
Maybe they gave him funny looks because he installed Ubuntu, or worse, Fedora, and they were sudddenly exposed to the horrors of Unity or Gnome3. Just when Linux was really looking like a viable replacement for Windows on the desktop(/laptop) for regular users, Unity an
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I am not sure why users give you funny looks with Linux.
Sort of the same reason for getting funny looks when you show up at a wedding in shorts and a Bud Lite T-shirt.
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