Getting a windows 7 box as reliable as possible

-1

We're looking to use an existing (decent) windows 7 box in a small theatre for sound playback and possibly some video (using http://www.showcuesystems.com/ mainly). I'm a mac and debian guy normally but am happy to dig around in windows.

My main concern with this setup is reliability of the OS and other "background fluff", what can I do to make this box rock solid and reliable?

My plan so far is to do a clean install, then disable any unneeded services/startup items etc.

wjdp

Posted 2012-05-10T22:53:26.857

Reputation: 161

Use windows update in control panel to get it fully patched, including optional updates that are for "reliability" and compatibility, avoid driver updates from windows updates if it is an OEM PC. – Moab – 2012-05-11T01:20:29.250

Are you using the Media Center edition of Windows 7? Perhaps that has features you could use? – djangofan – 2012-05-12T16:12:59.480

Answers

Run as standard user. Nuff said. Spend the rest of your tweaking time on actual productivity.

surfasb

Posted 2012-05-10T22:53:26.857

Reputation: 21 453

It's Windows 7. Unless you log in as the account named "Administrator", everything you do is as a 'normal user' by default. You have to answer a prompt in order to elevate your privileges. – Mark Allen – 2012-05-11T00:21:54.967

The point is that attitude, not implementation, will earn you a "reliable" box. UAC prompts will not stop the inadvertent click of "Yes, I want to do this. Yes, I want to do that." Research will surprise you on how often people click Yes/OK without reading the prompt. – surfasb – 2012-05-11T05:18:38.220

Yes we'll be doing that anyway as there will be many people using the box who I don't really trust so... – wjdp – 2012-05-11T09:00:15.060

@will: Well untrusted users it a TOTALLY different issue! – surfasb – 2012-05-11T22:42:04.337

They're not too bad, and the box does spend most of it's time off a network. – wjdp – 2012-05-12T11:59:11.810

Oh! I didn't understand the original question I guess then. A search on using Windows 7 as a Kiosk machine would be handy. I've seen machines setup for that kind of thing, but have not done it myself and yes you certainly wouldn't make the user an admin user. http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-desktop/how-can-i-setup-a-computer-with-windows-7-to-be/89f3246f-baaf-45fc-b946-07450475a5b0

– Mark Allen – 2012-05-14T19:56:32.440

Get the computer the way you want it, running fine... remove everything unneeded and clone it. Use clonezilla, ping, acronis, ghost whatever. Another way is to use something like SteadyState (group policy), Deep Freeze. Somebody will mess it up sooner or later. And its easier to recover via image than spending hours trying to fix something and then ending up reinstalling anyways.

Logman

Posted 2012-05-10T22:53:26.857

Reputation: 3 452