Faronics DeepFreeze Program?

[agarabaghi]

Anyone use this program...

 

We have been using it for a few years, and since the newest release we have been having tons of issues with Windows Update loops.

 

Is there another company that offers a similar solution to freeze lab machines and run maintenance on them via a windows server?

[creese]

Still using an old version. We had no reason to update it as it still does what we want in a training room environment.

 

Can you downgrade?

[agarabaghi]

what version are you on? My issue is with windows update task. It seems to freeze the machine before the updates are actually done. Turns out DeepFreeze/Faronics is away and gave me some .sys files to copy over and remove deepfreeze if this occurs. But hat is a pain in the a$$ and takes a long time...

[creese]

4.20.0613 (win 2000/xp)

 

Told you it was old. :-) from 2003

[AlexG]

Anyone use this program...

 

We have been using it for a few years, and since the newest release we have been having tons of issues with Windows Update loops.

 

Is there another company that offers a similar solution to freeze lab machines and run maintenance on them via a windows server?

 

I been using DeepFreeze for sometime. It is a good program though but not efficient sometimes. A little bit of research and came across another solution known as " Drive Vaccine" by Horizon DataSys. It does quite a brilliant job and has more features. Check it out @ http://www.horizondatasys.com

Edited October 17, 2013 by AlexG

[Duke5A]

We're running Deep Freeze on about 800 clients and I've seen this issue crop on more than a few. It's exactly as you described where the machines still require an additional reboot for those multi-reboot updates, but they freeze before the last one causing an indefinite loop.

 

The quick and dirty individual fix is to put up with WinPE (available via our WDS server), drop to a command line, and deleted "C:\windows\winsxs\pending.xml".

 

I haven't seen the issue recently, but we're still fixing problems with client-side targeting working on our WSUS server so a large portion of student machines aren't getting updates right now. If you use client-side targeting specified in GPO, then remove all Windows Update configuration from the Deep Freeze client configuration file.

[wesleyw]

Net-Runna used to do this but they are out of business I think. Novell ZenDesk may be able to though.

 

 

 

 

Wes

[wesleyw]

Others are:

 

Clean Slate: Fortres Grand: Clean Slate

 

Storage craft : Onsite, Offsite and VM Backup Solutions for Home and Business

 

Smart shield: Centurion Technologies | SmartShield

 

Shadow Defender: Shadow Defender - the easiest PC/laptop security and privacy protection tool

 

Lethe: http://lethe.sourceforge.net/

 

Steadier State: Steadier State

 

Restore RX : Reboot Restore software is a Freeware Alternative to SteadyState and replacement of Microsoft Shared computing toolkit

 

Rollback RX: Horizon DataSys - Windows System Restore Software designed for desktop virtualization, instant recovery and OS integrity

 

Drive Vaccine: Drive Vaccine PC Restore Plus - Automated PC Restore Software for public access PC's and shared compututing environment - Buy now

 

 

The last three are all from the same company Horizon Datasys.

 

 

 

Wes

[smjack813]

We did experience nightmares with Windows Updates and looping issues; however, we got in touch with their tech support and they helped us configure our environment that the boot loops stopped immediately.

 

 

The key points where to make sure the workstations are online by setting a WOL task; then to make sure they don't go into Standby / Sleep when the updates are getting installed and also make sure to use the caching of Windows Updates for faster installation.

 

 

We've got two sites with Deep Freeze and one of them downloads the updates from the Internet and other uses a WSUS server, both environments have been working fine since the last couple of versions and the recommended settings.

 

 

Give it a shot or get in touch with their tech support – they are amazing.