In one of the Microsoft newsletters that I occasionally receive, they introduced a new software called Windows SteadyState. Its primary use is for Internet cafes as well as libraries to ensure that their computers aren't tampered with by skilled computer people by restricting access to certain critical system functions (control panel, etc). This keeps the machines running at a "steady state".

However, home users can also benefit from using Windows SteadyState. It is excellent for parents of kids who know much about computers (like me) and are able to damage things. Restrictions on user accounts can be set (disable right click on Start button, etc). Also, time limits for each session can be set for each user, so Windows will log off the user after a specified amount of time, or a period of inactivity.

I have found a bug in this program, whenever updates is enabled, Windows doesn't know it. Enabling updates in Windows SteadyState will cause Automatic Updates to be turned off in Security Center, Norton Internet Security, Windows Live OneCare and I think that other security programs will think that updates is disabled as well. So therefore I don't turn on updates in Windows SteadyState.

What puzzles me is the feature labelled "Protect the Hard Disk". It is based off of Windows Disk Protection, but it doesn't need another partition for the cache because this program is designed for home/average users for ease of use. However, the cache file takes quite long to create, in contrast of the actual Windows Disk Protection. There are 3 options available: Reset changes on restart, Reset changes at specified time or Retain all changes.

I set it at Reset changes on restart (default). After saving everything and logging off, I decided to log onto a different user account to see if anything popped up, etc. Something sure did, a system tray icon notified "the user" that all changes saved were to be wiped off when the computer is restarted, so save your work on removable media, etc. Ok, that's fine. So I logged off again and logged into an administrator account to change the setting.

Since I just reinstalled Windows XP (because of a registry error), I had to reinstall my software, etc. I backed up everything onto Ubuntu and copied it from the ext3 partition over to the NTFS partition in Windows Explorer. After that, I installed a whole lot of software, changed the setting to "Retain all changes permanently". I then rebooted the computer to go into Ubuntu and saw this:
"Windows Disk Protection is ... changes on the hard disk" right on the Windows XP logo at startup. That was weird, so after it "made changes", it restarted the computer. I decided to boot into Ubuntu and work from there.

The next day when I decided to boot into Windows, everything changed. All programs that were installed the day before were gone. Windows Media Player was reverted to version 9. The only programs that remained were IE7, Windows Live Mail desktop, some sound card utilities, DellConnect and SeaMonkey. I lost a whole day of work in there!!

Now I question this software. Is it for the average user (a manager of an Internet cafe, a parent) or is it a GUI interface for a hardcore IT professional tool?