Originally posted here by thehorse13
There is a StarBucks in CT (I wont disclose the exact location) that had a HUGE issue with this. In the end, they employed a computer consulting firm to lockdown their public workstations. The first thing they did was deploy W2K pro with pre-defined security templates that disabled all I/O ports except the on board NIC, display, audio and the PS/2 ports. Then all tools (tracert, etc.) were removed. They also locked the control panel and all ability to add software except for write access to a given directory (for resumes and such) which resided on a separate partition. Next, they locked down the browser to elimitate punks who come in and completely hose up the settings.

In the end, you were able to browse the web, print to either printer they have and write to a specific directory. Now, there are a bunch of small holes left behind but by doing these things, they removed a significant amount of trouble that they previously had.

This event comes from a friend who worked on the contract to fix this cafe up. I had a similar challenge with a library and of course everyone's favorite - school computer labs.

My two cents...
They have done similar stuff like this on our schools PCs. We can't do anything on those machines! They use a program called "fortress" which completely locks down the PCs from boot. One way I did find a way to run programs though...

Get a USB "pen drive" (the removable flash drives) and install your software on that. You can then just plug it in and use the programs you want. Even all of your utilities can be stored on it. I showed the admins in the labs and they just shrugged. Guess they locked down the machines more for the users who will mess up the computers... not use them for what they're worth. Heck, you can even use a MP3 player to install programs to. Then it just looks as if you're listening to music or editing a playlist.

In some circumstances, you can install to your "home" drive, but as long as the installer doesn't need to write to the registry. I'd just rather install to the pen drive at home and bring it in when I want to use it. Plus, I have more space on that than I do on the network. They are so cheap when it comes to storage... 100mb, used in 1 semester.