I just downloaded the Portableapps tool a few days ago and I love it. It's a genius idea and easy to use. I even installed the Google tool bar into my portable Firefox without skipping a beat. It's a great app.
I have a question. Would it be possible to completely lock out the local OS, and force the system to only use the Portable apps? This would be great for security risk users and dangerously dumb users.
Just hand them a flash drive and no matter what computer they plug into they always access the same stuff and can't access anything else.
I'm sure you could do this by booting from the flash drive and using the MAC OS7 you have on the site, but that's a bit to technical and time consuming for the average dumb user.
Perhaps a VBscript could be set to autorun or something. Any thought?
Thanks
Great APP!!
Visit the Community page
Join our forums
Subscribe to our email newsletter
Subscribe with RSS
Follow us on Facebook
Follow us on LinkedIn
Follow us on Twitter
Follow us on Mastodon
Follow us on BlueSky
You could use a Linux distro on the drive like Puppy, remove everything except Wine and let them use it that way.
----
Ryan McCue
Santa: Ho Ho Ho!
Kim: Yes, thank you Santa, I am.
(Kath and Kim)
"If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate."
Wouldn't that require a reboot? It would be the same thing as booting from the flash drive, right?
I was hoping to find something that locked out the local OS as soon as you plugged it in.
scott
what you want is probably not possible simply because it would be too much of a security risk if the OS could grant USB sticks that much power
imagine what would happen if a malicious user could stick a drive like that into some corporations server
Well, the USB drive wouldn't need to have access to the local machines hard drive.
Actually, the whole point is for the USB drive to have Zero access to anything on the local machine. Basically have the USB drive turn the local machine into a dumb terminal or kiosk machine.
I'm just think from a parents perspective. I would like to be able to give my 10 year old a flash drive and no matter what computer in my house he goes to, when he plugs it in he always sees the same apps and can't access anything on the local drive.
That would even give me the option of setting up internet parental controls on the USB drive, and not on the local machine.
From what I'm hearing I may be SOL.
If you are worried about your 10-year-old, and you have full control of all the machines in your house, you should set up a user account for your kid and lock it down with registry hacks.
With the right hacks, you can hide all icons, reduce the start menu to remove all shortcuts and access to the control panel, and disable the right-clicks for the desktop and taskbars. A couple other hacks can either hide or disable selected drives in explorer.
This would not affect the other users, as long as you were careful to apply them while logged on to the account in question.
I do this at work all the time. Our protected profile includes:
No right-click on the desktop, Start Menu and Taskbar
Disabling that newfangled XP start menu
Hide all icons on the desktop
Hide all the drives on the computer (but you can select which ones, also - which still allows access to the CD)
Remove some of the options from the explorer window toolbar
Hide My Documents, Run, Settings, Help, etc, from the Start Menu (leaving only Shut Down and Log Off)
Disable access to some of the drives on the computer (stronger than hiding, and you can select them, too)
There's even a tweak to make sure that the USB drive runs Autorun, but I haven't tested that one yet...
It takes a little bit of skill to set this up in the first place, but once you do, you can add it to any other system with just a few clicks.
I don't want to clutter the board with non-portable-apps related material, but I could help if you need it.
BTW, it probably would be easy enough to write a VBScript that would apply the registry hacks I'm referring to, but reversing them upon USB eject is not so easy! Imagine your kid locking down every computer permanently!
Solanus,
The East Wind
I made this half-pony, half-monkey monster to please you.
Why when you can have group policies?
*limits all other accounts to only be able to run Firefox via GPE*
*evil laugh ensues*
----
Ryan McCue
Santa: Ho Ho Ho!
Kim: Yes, thank you Santa, I am.
(Kath and Kim)
"If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate."
worried about your kids? use something like a net nanny or some squid so you know at all times where they've been, and if they been bad, take away their inet
Read my profile (click on my name above).
I'm 13
----
Ryan McCue
Santa: Ho Ho Ho!
Kim: Yes, thank you Santa, I am.
(Kath and Kim)
"If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate."
For me, at work, we need to increase security within our group, but our central network people are unwilling to help, so without their assistance/permission, we cannot create and deploy group policies. They do allow our local systems admins to add registry changes to increase security for the keys that are not specified by GP. That's how I was forced to work out my own lockdown set of reg tweaks, with much help from www.winguides.com
I figured most home users are less familiar with the ins and outs of GP than with direct regediting.
I made this half-pony, half-monkey monster to please you.
That's a good idea. I've edited registry keys before and used a few Net nanny apps.
I'll just stick with doing that.
Thanks for the great comments.
Make sure that you only edit the HKEY_CURRENT_USER when logged in as your kid's account, and not HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE. You don't want to lock anyone else out!
I made this half-pony, half-monkey monster to please you.