Using Deep Freeze on your computer - A guide to computer technicians

Most of my students in Xavier Technical Training Center always ask me how they could maintain their computer running smoothly, and prevent the downtime on their units. Some of them were asking how they could prevent others who also use their laptop or desktop computers from changing any settings on it, installing some programs they don't want for example. In computer maintenance solution, aside from Group Policy Editor in Windows operating system, I recommend to them to use a third party program called "Deep Freeze". Deep Freeze is made by Faronics which when installed, Freeze the current system. In other words, if your computer will be "Deep Freeze", no changes will happen on the partition it will freeze. No changes means no users could install or uninstall software, Save, Delete any files even if that files is a bootable or program files. So your computer and your files save on it are safe. 

If you will use Deep Freeze especially in a computer shop, you don't need to install any anti-virus. It will be useless because as I said, when you Deep Freeze, any changes made on your computer will be revert to its current state after it will be reboot. Just Make sure you have back up your system before applying the Deep Freeze. This back up could be done either on Disk Imaging or Disk Cloning. 

Here is the tutorial on how to use Deep Freeze. Let us first learn how to install it.  Follow these steps: 

HOW TO INSTALL?

1. Double click the setup icon, in the Welcome Screen, you will learn that this installer will be use to uninstall it so do not delete the installer. Just save it on your computer so in case you need to uninstall the Deep Freeze, it will be easy. 

2. Tick the I Accept option and click next.

3. Enter the License Key then click Next.

4. Select the partition you want to "Freeze". On this part, you should think what is best on your computer. Most of computer shop owners do not create other partitions on their disk drive so the whole disk will be deep freeze. This is because they don't need to save anything on each units and it will be easy for them if they freeze the whole computer so they will have less monitoring on their client moves on each unit. Also, Daily maintenance will be lessen. For those who will use Deep Freeze on their personal computers, I advise them to create another partition from their hard disk drive. Then during the installation of deep freeze, just select the system partition. Leaving the other partition. This will allow the computer user to save their important files because only the system drive is freeze. 

5. Click Install button. After the installation, your computer will restart automatically.

HOW TO USE DEEP FREEZE? 

Secure your Deep Freeze. 
After installing the Deep Freeze, you need to set a password on it so others will not be able to change any settings on it. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Access Deep Freeze. You could access it using a keyboard shortcut combination CTRL + SHIFT + F6. or by holding the CTRL+SHIFT keys and double clicking the icon of a bear in notification area.

2. Set the password by clicking Password tab.

3. Enter the password then click Apply and reboot. Take note that if you want to change any settings in Deep Freeze, you need to reboot your computer.

4. Click OK.

5. Click YES to reboot your computer.

HOW TO DISABLE DEEP FREEZE? 
If there will be time that you need to do something on your computer, installing or uninstalling a software for example, and changes should be done, you need to disable the Deep Freeze First then reboot the computer. After the reboot you should notice that the icon of Deep Freeze in your notification area should be mark with X, and usually blinking. This means it is disabled. So changes on your computer will be done.

1. To disable Deep Freeze, Click Boot Thawed option and Click Apply and Reboot.

 2. If you want to enable it, just select again Boot Frozen then click Apply and Reboot.

HOW TO UNINSTALL DEEP FREEZE? 

If you need to uninstall the Deep Freeze on your computer, the installer you used must be run again. Do not forget to disable first the Deep Freeze. After running the installer,

2. Click Next to continue.

3. Then after clicking next, you should see the uninstall button, then your computer will restart automatically. After the reboot it should be successfully removed from your computer.

Common cause of Blue Screen of Death (BSOD)

What is Blue Screen of Death? 

Blue Screen of Death or BSOD for short is also known as a bluescreen because of a full blue screen generated by Microsoft Windows Operating System. 

What are the cause of Blue Screen of Death and how to Fix it? 

BSOD in computers might be a cause of Hardware or Software issue. Here are some of the cause of blue screen of death. 

1. Outdated, incorrect or corrupt drivers is one reason why the system encounter a STOP error, resulting in the BSOD. So to prevent this, try to re-install and update your system’s device drivers. Having the correct drivers ensure that all bugs are fixed and that all hardware has the correct driver.

2. Incorrect configuration of BIOS / BIOS failure. This is because of Windows update, installation of new hardware, overclocking, or you just  change  your systems configuration incorrectly. So simply load the default Bios settings. You could also reset the BIOS,  this way will result in a safe configuration to be used for your motherboard, CPU and memory. Bios may fail too due to overheating, over use or obsolete. 

3. Memory failure can easily cause blue screen errors, this is because of loose contacts of memory card to the slots of motherboard due to dust, or more often, defective RAM module. Cleaning the memory interface and memory slots could be one solution. Swapping other compatible memory is another options.  

4. Video Card Failure. Video card adapter can be a cause of BSOD if improperly installed in AGP or PCI-e Slot. Conflict in video card adapter drivers may cause blue screen, and overheating due to dust or the thermal paste in its heat-sink is already dry. 

4. Bad sectors in HDD. Bad sectors in Hard Disk Drive is either caused by bad or corrupted software or simply a failing hard disk drive and this is one reason why system encounter BSOD. We always recommend  a system restoration to verify without doubt that this is not a software issue. If after re-installing Windows, and updating it with all the latest updates, you continue to get this error we suggest swapping other compatible hard disk drive.