Local user & mouse over in IE

[jjtbt]

I have a group of public access computers in a public library that are running Windows XP Pro. Presently, they only log into the domain and I have not created a "local user" on any of the computers. This seems to prevent a lot of the spyware out there from infecting the PCs.

Unfortunately, we have a found that a couple items in Internet Explorer do not work correctly because of this.

For example, a site entitled

http://www.archivalmethods.com

has a bar across its home page...when I move my mouse over the options on the bar, a drop-down menu is supposed to appear. However, on a PC that does not have a local user defined, this doesn't work. As soon as I make the domain user a "standard user" ("restricted user" doesn't work either), the site works ok.

In another instance, a user wanted to access a test they were taking on

http://www.kaptest.com,

but this only worked if I made my domain user a standard user of the computer also.

Any suggestions short of making all these users standard users of the computer and purchasing software to ward off the spyware I'm going to get?

 

[linney]

Microsoft Shared Computer Toolkit for Windows XP (Beta)

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...2EA-857D-92B716077A84&displaylang=en#overview

Don't be put off by the "Beta" there are distinct possibles with this software, read the review carefully, it is a free and smallish download and worth experimenting with.


Commonly Asked Questions: Public Access Computing

http://www.michigan.gov/hal/0,1607,7-160-18833_26348-83329--,00.html

Guest users
thread779-947138


Securing a public computer.

http://www.google.com/search?source...oe=UTF-8&q="public+computer"+security+windows

http://groups.google.com/groups?sou...oe=UTF-8&q="public+computer"+security+windows

This may have some possibilities too.

http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_securityconsole.htm

 

[jjtbt]

Thanks for the links...I'll read through them today to see if I can find any. The PC's are already pretty secure...I'm using Group Policy from a Windows 2003 server to lock down Windows and a program from TeamSoftware Solutions called Public Browser that locks down various options in Internet Explorer. I am also running Microsoft Antispyware Beta on all the PC's as well as eTrust Anti-Virus. But these specific issues are directly related to whether or not my domain user is a local user or not. Even if I log in as Administrator with none of my security features enabled, if the account is not also a local user, these features in IE don't work.

 

[geeve]

jttbt,

I went to your two web sites and when I looked at the code I noticed that they use Flash and that looks to be the source of this problem.
I also am a tech at a public library and know what you are talking about. Sometimes these types of issues can be fixed if you pull the user/computer out of the OU into the user OU and the computer into the computer OU and then install the app. If this does not work then go to the individual computers log in as the user and add the user account as a domain user under the users/control panel. Change the user to admin. If you do this you might consider installing Shockwave and Adobe Reader at the same time. When you are all done then delete the local user account. This works sometimes...
I have to say the single,BEST piece of software and the solution to a lot of our previous headaches is Deep Freeze by Faronics. It freezes the image and no matter what the public does, a reboot brings it back. We are across the road from a middle school so you can imagine what we were dealing with. If you can possibly afford it get the Enterprise version as then you can manage everything from the server. Our entire consortium swears by this. I know some techs also use on problem staff computers too which you can do by partitioning the drive and only freezing certain partitions.

http://www.faronics.com/index.asp

 

[jjtbt]

Thanks...I'll try your suggestions this week...

 

[jjtbt]

And actually, the other issue that I was going to post is that I have disabled downloads on the PC's. Unfortunately, that also prohibits users from clicking on and opening up a PDF from a web page and also from viewing PDF's & JPG's that they receive in email. Any suggestions there?

 

[linney]

Sometimes, quite often, a pdf file can be downloaded as a html type of file, if the option is available from the link.

What E-mail program are you using?

 

[jjtbt]

On these public access PC's they are only allowed to use their web version of their email programs...ie, they go to

http://www.aol.com

or

http://www.juno.com

or

http://www.hotmail.com

to look at their email.

 

[geeve]

We enable pdf file downloads because of tax forms and other files. If something unfortunate is downloaded we simply restart and deep freeze resets the computer.