[OPLINTECH] Solution for some flash memory drives not working on public computers?

[Phil Shirley]

Here's a summary of the answers I got:

U3 smart drives (most SanDisk Cruzer flash drives) want to install 
and/or run their own software – tell patrons to delete the software or 
hold down the shift key while inserting their smart drive, temporarily 
disabling the specialized software and allowing the drive to be used as 
a normal drive [I'm going to pass along both of these suggestions to my 
patrons and staff.]

Install Windows Activesync, which adds drivers for USB devices, and then 
uninstall it. [I'm going to do this.]

There was some problem related to Roxio wanting to use drive letter D: - 
so made sure drive letter D: was available and that fixed it.

Allow any program to run and use Deep Freeze or something similar, with 
various means of rebooting  [I'm told Microsoft Steady State is another 
option for rebooting between users]

Could not get the Safe Removal icon to work consistently - made sure the 
USB device was optimized for quick removal vs. performance so patrons 
could disconnect the device safely without using the Safe Removal icon 
in the taskbar. [Our safe removal icon works, but still I'm interested 
in doing this just to protect people who don't use it.  However, the 
option is unchecked and grayed out on at least some of our public 
computers (Win2k), even when I'm logged on as the local admin.]

Phil

Phil Shirley wrote:
> With the security we have on our public computers, there are some flash 
> memory drives that won't work.  Some of these want to run their own 
> software, which doesn't work because we only allow the running of 
> certain software that's installed on the computer (Word, etc.), and I've 
> heard that even if we allowed the running of the applications on some of 
> the popular flash drives by adding them to our "run only" entry, some of 
> these programs would still have a problem because they want more access 
> to the registry than we should give them.
> 
> Has anyone encountered and solved a similar problem with giving access 
> to flash memory drives on public computers, or does anyone have any 
> suggestions - perhaps at least a list of program names for these drives 
> to add to my "run only" list?
> 
> Phil

-- 

Phil Shirley
Technology Services Coordinator
Cuyahoga Falls Library
Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio
330-928-2117, ext. 109
pshirley at CuyahogaFallsLibrary dot org

-- 
This message has been scanned for viruses and
dangerous content by MailScanner, and is
believed to be clean.