Protecting Your Computer Using Deep Freeze
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By Marcus Hochstadt | Filed in Reviews
It’s now almost three weeks ago when I installed Deep Freeze on my machine. Time for a review.
I stumbled upon Deep Freeze via James’ retired blog when he talked about computer security and how it affects our Internet business and can become a pain. He recommended a small tool which is being used by Internet cafés and libraries, for example. With that neat little tool, there is…
- No need to run and install the latest version of anti-virus software
- No need to run and install the latest version of anti-spyware software
- No need to run and install the latest version of Windows Update (some of which destroy your Windows installation; isn’t that funny?)
- No need to run and install the latest version of firewall software
- No need to make a new, clean OS install every 1-2 years because the computer became too slow
- No need to worry about data loss due to hackers, trojaners, viruses, system crashes, etc etc
- No need to worry about whether or not Windows’ System Restore works (it never worked in my case)
Sounds too good to be true? Read on…
It came in handy because one of my three Operating Systems (“OS”), Windows XP German, did not run properly anymore. And shortly after this, the second one (XP English) as well not anymore. It seemed as if I had a virus, although I ran updated anti-virus and anti-spyware… (Sounds familiar?)
So, I found it to be a good time to give Deep Freeze a shot.
Preparation For Deep Freeze
Now, the tricky part was to prepare for The Day and set my system up properly. What I mean is this…
As the name implies, Deep Freeze puts your machine into a deeply frozen state. Once you reboot your system, all is back to normal. It is as if you’re bringing your computer back into the freshest or newest state possible.
Here is how one would normally install Deep Freeze…
- Format the system disk/partition
- Install the OS and all of the software you need on a daily basis
- Install Deep Freeze and tell it to freeze your system.
- Now, whenever you boot your system, all is back to the point where you installed Deep Freeze.
As mentioned, the tricky part for my particular case was the set up process. First thing I did was formatting my main hard drive.
There are four hard disks in my computer. The first one with 180 GB is for the operating systems. I split that disk into 3 partitions: #1 for Windows XP, #2 for Windows Vista, and #3 for “other stuff” such as testing a new operating system, or if the other two do not boot I still have one partition remaining to install an OS on and boot my computer to see what’s wrong with the other two partitions.
Then the next disk (180GB) is one I use to save all kinds of data (for several years already), more or less timeless stuff.
Then comes the third disk (500GB) which I use primarily for my SiteSell video productions, my Web sites’ files, product creation files, some more “stuff”, as well as for “My Documents” and the MS Outlook data file (which I do not use anymore though since I “outsourced” e-mail to GMail).
Finally, there is disk #4 (150GB) which I used to use as a backup disk for my most critical data (video production files, Outlook data file, Web sites files, etc), but because of Deep Freeze I can safely skip this step and use disk #4 for saving the day-to-day software programs there. (For performance reasons, it is a good idea to install software on a separate disk so that you have one disk for your OS and one for installed software.)
I still do use a hard drive for backup purposes, which is an external one and requires USB only, and it is excellent for when I’m traveling. (Seagate FreeAgent Go 160GB – I love it! :-)
Now, before I set up Deep Freeze, I was under the impression it would create images (i.e., clones) of all the disks that I want to freeze. To my surprise, though, it is a neat little program running in the background, which I notice by its taskbar icon only (and perhaps a 3-second message during restart).
Compare that with some of the anti-virus or anti-spyware programs out there and you know what I mean. Once you installed them, they immediately slow down your system in order to “do a good job”.
Deep Freeze, however, keeps your machine in good, fresh shape.
How Deep Freeze Works
The only thing that may annoy people and got me to change my habits: Deep Freeze resets everything.
Saved a URL in your browser’s favorites? That is lost once you reboot the OS. Saved a file on your desktop? Yup, that is lost, too. Changed settings in a software application? That’s also reversed to the previous setting. So, how do you save your day-to-day work or change preferences?
Two options for saving your day-to-day stuff…
- You let one disk (or one partition) in an unfrozen state. You can define that during installation of Deep Freeze. You specify which drive letters you want Deep Freeze to protect. In my case, I have disk #3 in unfrozen state, the one where I save and work with important day-to-day data. The crucial parts (disk #1, #2 & #4) are in frozen state though and therefore perfectly protected.
- You use a thumb drive, memory stick, or simply an external hard drive.
As for changing settings, preferences, or saving favorites, you simply tell Deep Freeze to restart your computer in an unfrozen state (by pressing the Shift key on your keyboard while double-clicking on the Deep Freeze symbol in the taskbar, then modify accordingly).
Once you reboot, you can change whatever you wish, save passwords, bookmark, etc. Once you reboot your computer again (so it’s in the frozen state again), all your changes are saved, and you can continue to work more conveniently and fully protected—without anti-virus nor anti-spyware nor any other of that crap.
Additionally, once I notice some weird happening, I simply reboot the whole system and that “weird happening” magically disappeared as if it was never there. (Just happened in a coaching session yesterday… black screen while still on the Skype phone. A quick reboot and it was solved.)
There is a downside though… Although it is supposed to restore everything, including your browse history, it does happen on my machine that visited URLs disappear from the browse history. (Though, I figured that to be a very minor downside.)
Also, in case you delete something, it restores it. Even when you hold down the Shift key while pressing Delete, it restores it. This may be a downside for some. But when you look at it from the other side, Deep Freeze is supposed to completely protect whatever you have installed and saved.
Just imagine you let one of your friends (or kids?) on your computer and s/he “accidentally” deletes crucial data. No worries with Deep Freeze… it’s all still there after reboot. :-) (That means, when you do want to delete something from protected partitions, unfreeze your computer, delete the file(s), and refreeze it again.)
Bottom Line
The Bottom Line is that I now save a whole bunch of valuable time—at least a couple hours per month—fixing idiosyncrasies on an ongoing basis. And I can sleep a bit better now. ;-)
—Marcus Hochstadt
Tags: computer security, deep freeze
48 Responses to “Protecting Your Computer Using Deep Freeze”
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Hehe funny, never heard of that one, and never experienced myself. It works like a charm. Can you be more specific? Or is that just an assumption?
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I don’t have DeepFreeze, but I did use something called System Commander at one time that did about the same thing. I created 6 drives on one computer and ran Linux, XP, and 98 on three partitions. The other three were split up into executables, documents, and file sharing. It worked out pretty well.
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great review! Seems a very handy software to me! I always seem to get a virus here and there even if I update my anti-virus regularly.
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Running only Linux, and sometimes BSD or Solaris, I don’t have the need for any of this. But for those who love the Dark Master Windoze, this seems like a good tool. There have been partition and disk imaging packages for many years, of course, like Ghost. But if it is easier to use, it is a valuable alternative. Thanks for the well-written review.
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Rich (1 comments) says: I have been using a very similar setup for over 6 months. It works great. You do have to always remember to move new data to the secondary storage drive, but that becomes reflex in time.
One nice side benefit is that you can run (or try) new software on your frozen machine and if you don’t like it, no need to uninstall or worry about extra stuff left behind to slow down your computer. Just reboot.
Here are some additional suggestions:
On my primary (frozen) drive, I have also installed “Total Uninstall” (www.martau.com). This is a GREAT program. Whenever you install a program permanently (in unfrozen mode), this program will track every single change made and log the change. Then, you can easily remove every trace of a program. This is in case you make a mistake or regret having a program on your otherwise clean Deepfreeze system. I would say this program is easily the best uninstaller available (most similar programs just look for fragments after the fact, whereas this one actually observes the data as it is being placed, and records it, so as not to miss anything).
For secondary storage drives, I no longer use external standalone drives. Instead, I bought one of these:
http://geekstuff4u.com/product_info.php?manufacturers_id=&products_id=847
It allows you to use any sata INTERNAL drive just like a cartridge. Why is this great? Because internal drives are very compact, and are much cheaper than complete external drives. Where I live you can sometimes get a 1 terrabyte internal drive for about $170 on sale, and the price will get better. I have five 1 TB internal drives all stacked up in less space than a single bulky external drive with without lots of extra cables and power supplies.
There are a few stores in the states that sell a single drive version of the above (USB only), but I ordered the one above because it supports 2 drives (great for copying from one to another) and also esata, which is MUCH faster. (You may need to add a simple esata port card to your computer if you want to use the esata feature, but you can get that locally for only about $20). Or you can use it as a USB drive. Your choice.
As Marcus suggested, it is best to implement Deep Freeze on your computer in a clean state, with your core applications. And I recommend first installing the Total Uninstall program FIRST, then use it to install all the subsequent applications.
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I recommend using recovery card hardware for security of our PC. In my place the brand are PC Armour. It can destroy all attacks including virus, spyware, trojan and all of them, with just pressing “reset” button. Just need to reboot, the threats will dissapear.
But the best is using deep freeze with recovery card. -
I think this is a great software to install because we never know if the site we visit these days contain viruses or spyware but saving all data now becomes very important.
But if your computer hang, what happens to your your documents? Are they auto-saved?
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Deep freeze is pretty good for a software, but we have to make sure there are no virus, spyware or etc before freeze our disk.
I don’t use deep freeze because I found some virus infected in my pc, I’m too lazy to format it since its still can run quite good.
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Interesting tips here. And a couple observations…
@ Timbury: I do not love Windows, I need it. There’s too many Windows software that I need but either don’t have as a Mac (or Linux) version, or that is not available for them.
@ Rich: Great tips, thank you! I took a look and the external solution looks promising. Will take a kook at it again once I have a need for more than one external hard drive. (I just love that cute little Seagate baby too much. ;-)
@ Jeflin: Re-read the above article. The how-to is explained.
@ Stefen: Of course, the best option is to run Deep Freeze on a fresh installation. That’s what I did. But since you say you would be too lazy to do that, you’ll live with the viruses that you currently have and will get (knowingly and unknowingly). ;-)
Take care!
~Marcus
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formerly, i always using deep freeze for all computers in my office. but since get crash and i can’t recover it, i never using deep freeze. not only 1, but some computer. i read on error messege it caused deep freeze. sorry, i can’t explain because my English is bad. but if you can translate my language i will tell you hehehe.
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Noel (1 comments) says: How do u ensure that downloaded files, pdfs etc. are virus-free since you do not now have antivirus software (right?)?
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@ Chodirin: Thanks for the explanation. Again, I’ve never heard of that before.
@ Noel: You could check those using online virus scanners.
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I’ve been using a similar product from Microsoft called SteadyState. It’s similar to Deep Freeze except it is free to download and use and is only designed to work with Windows XP. I’ve had a good experience with it so far as it locks down your system just like Deep Freeze. It also allows you to create multiple user accounts and set-up each one to either retain all changes or delete all changes every time you restart your system.
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Now that is a program worth checking out. I could see that rebooting into the different modes would become annoying but if the problems could wait a bit, a good list of things to change would come in handy. After a while I imagine things would smooth out.
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srsly they work..I also tried few of them and get good results now I’ll try the others too…
thnks -
Clean Slate does the same thing as Deep Freeze but with different technology. Everything is cached. Nothing is actually written to the Hard Drive or Registry so passwords and such are safe. Any virus you get before you log off and log back in (that’s all it takes for a reset) will simply be cached along with everything else that will be discarded. As for a trojan horse or the like, configuring Windows advanced firewall should catch any unauthorized outbound transmissions.
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Steve (4 comments) says: I also use Clean Slate to protect my computers. It works just as well as Deep Freeze but without the annoying reboots. I can also configure my software to perform exactly as I want. And if I want to save a favorite, I simply go to Commit files in Clean Slate and tell it to permanently save. Takes 2 seconds. Oh, and did I mention that Clean Slate is cheaper? Check it out at http://WWW.FortresGrand.com
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Jason Y. (1 comments) says: Hey:
Does ‘Deep Freeze’ harm the hard disk in anyway? What is its mechanism?
I saw in one property of the hard disk ‘class upper filters’ = DeepFrz
and I also noticed it device driver of hard disk has a deepfrz.sys fileDoes “deep freeze’ harm ? Anybody has any idea?
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DJ (1 comments) says: Where can I get a freeware copy?
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please can someone tell me how ca i delete deep freeze because I dont want it no more please tell ok thanks
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Nice Post to protect your computer from antivirus. There are lot of websites that could harm your computer easily. Like when we visit some crack website or sex website. Deep Freeze seems to me good option to protect your computer from these unknown threat. Deep Freeze is little bit complicated to handle or understand, but once you understand its functions, you protect yourself from all threat.
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vuthy (1 comments) says: Dear sir/madam
DeepFreeze is the best application for keeping computers safety from error or viruses attack.
I have used this application since so long. But one day, I want to disable this application I can not type the passwords. And on the title bar wrote “Application not respond”. As the result I can not disable the application. On the other hand, sometime the icon also not view that cause I can not Shift Click on it.
Can you give me a solution beside of format window?
Your Faithfully
Vuthy Bun
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Open up the file that you used to install Deep Freeze. It will give you the option to uninstall it.
~Marcus
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I’ve never heard about DeepFreeze before I read this article. And my first impression was – no, that’s not for me. And this is why.
(1) Windows keeps all valuable data on C:, all updated data, registry, everything – obviously, C: gets frozen, so no more changes to Windows even as tiny as a new shortcut to a desktop.
(2) No more new program installations – I can’t live without it.
(3) No more Windows updates – how the bugs are going to be fixed?
(4) No more changes to user interface – I’m stuck with the same for the near future.
(5) No more Firefox etc history, downloads, bookmarks, plugins and so on.
Marcus, honestly and from my heart, I don’t know how you live with that – you obviously explained, but as a computer guy I still don’t understand. If that helps you and you’re happy, good luck, but this thing is not for me.
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George,
Who said you cannot make changes; you can always make changes. Simply put your computer temporarily into the “Thawed state,” make the changes, and restart to the frozen state. So your “no more” points are all invalid. ;-)
Although… I wouldn’t care about “Windows bug fixes” anymore. My computer is running bug-free since I installed Deep Freeze — that alone saves me a whole bunch of valuable time. ;-)
And regarding saving bookmarks and files, simply map these to a Thawed (unprotected) partition or drive and you’re able to store all that data, while still enjoying the total system consistency. Besides this, I use an external hard drive for the most critical files so I can quickly and flawlessly move from the PC to the laptop if needed.
~Marcus
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Victor (1 comments) says: Marcus, I was all set to install this myself – a friend told me about it – and I’ve been telling others. Tonight I went looking for the Faronics website and found this first: http://forums.techarena.in/networking-security/1061081.htm
Better have a look!
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Hi Victor,
It’s good to know, but it does not apply to my case. I do not rent the temporary use of my “so many” computers to strangers.
I have just three, I and my wife use them personally, and Deep Freeze protects them wonderfully, plus the computers run as smooth as on their first day.
~Marcus
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cheann (1 comments) says: dear sir,
I am using deepfreeze for 2 months now but its icon do not display on the desktop that i cannnot shift to unfrozen state im using windows vista, what will i do i can save data and even change my screen saver! hope you can help me tnx.
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timothy (1 comments) says: press CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+F6 to open the password dialog if u cant click the tray icon
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thanos (1 comments) says: press simuleniasly CTRL-ALT-SHIFT-F6…
the password welcome screen will apear
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Hi, Marcus. For my case, I firstly installed deep freeze where I configured to freeze my primary C drive. Then the PC reboot and everything is fine. Now, I would like to freeze my other partition such as E and F drive. May I know how and where I can configure it? I had been trying pressing SHIFT + Double click the deep freeze button but I can only see 2 tab bar (status and password) but don’t see the option to freeze my other partition. Please advise. Thank you for your time.
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Restart your computer in the thawed state, uninstall Deep Freeze (by running the Deep Freeze installation file that you used when you installed Deep Freeze in the first place), and then install it again. And when you install it again you choose the hard drives and partitions you want to protect from now on.
~Marcus
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Thanks Marcus. So, does it means that we only can configure the hard drives and partitions we want to protect in the beginning of installation and not later?
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FelixTheCat (2 comments) says: I have been using Deep Freeze for many years now and it has saved my a great deal of time not having to always fix up the computer after “no-one” does anything to break it.
Anyways before installing I recommend a partitioned hard-drive (or multiple drives)(as suggested above) and a clean install of the OS and all important programs.
The next step can be tricky but saves a lot of time and annoyances (and would fix most of the complaints above); firstly you need to determine what files you do want to update even when the computer is in a frozen state.
A personal choice (and a requirement for the other computer uses) was for the My Documents folder, internet browser (bookmarks etc), and the selected email client to be “unfrozen”. Therefore these need to be saved on your unfrozen drive/partitionThe My Documents location can be changed by right clicking it; using Firefox you can easily change the location of the browsing profile and after some tweaks (might need to edit the registry here? can’t remember) the profile and emails for Mozilla Thunderbird can also be moved.
For people who want the desktop and other common places to update a program like TweakUI can be used to change the location of the Shared Documents folder and even the location of the Desktop so that any file there will stay even after a restart.
So if you do a little research you should be able to relocate most of those files that you want to remain dynamic.As my computer is now, everything that is convenient and required to update does so perfectly. It allows me to test a program not having to worry about all the junk that it puts on my machine. And a more permanent change is a restart away.
Although some effort was put in to achieve this it was thoroughly worth it; Marcus Hochstadt is giving 100% brilliant advise.
Thanks
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FelixTheCat (2 comments) says:
Another thing I forgot to add is to allow the user to change the system clock (if wanted). This should be done during installation and is something I always forget to do.
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Deepfreeze is a great piece of software. We used it at my previous job. Great for locking down student pc’s at school. They can wipe the hard drive if they like and on next reboot it’s back to normal… awesome.
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This was a great title for a post. I saw the word “deep freeze” and wondered if I was actually going to be putting my computer in a frozen state….lol. Sometimes I feel that way. Anyway,I’ve now read your post and understand what it is and may try it out. Thanks for sharing!
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flowingbass (1 comments) says: While deep freeze protects your system bigtime, when it fails, it fails catastrophically same thing that a virus infection will leave you with, which might be formatting your system.
dont get me wrong deep freeze is a breeze to use, installs in less than a minute restarts your system automatically, set up your password and you are good to go. thaw when you need to change something then freeze when you’re done. no complicated knowledge required to use and maintain.
I had deepfreeze for around a month installed with a year old vista business 32bit installation. got it working fine. till i had the constant inconvinience need to thaw and freeze cycle for my antivirus, windows updates and other programs that need updating frequently to install permanently. You need to restart everytime you need to thaw, then restart again to freeze. that can be a real pain. specially if you use a lot of programs at the same time needing to close and open them everytime you need to do some changes to your system. only if deep freeze had an instant freeze and thaw without restarting.
And very recently (the day before i wrote this), after installing some programs and updating some old ones, i restarted to freeze the system then i got the BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH! when my pc got back on with an error indicating “deepfreeze.sys xxxx00xxxerrorcodexxx -timestamp xxsomethingsomethingxx”.
It seemed that deep freeze had an invalid time stamp or snapshot of my system that made my system go to blue screen. first time ever i had with my one year old installation vista. Or something else.
I did nothing wrong with updating my virus definitions and installing some windows defender definitions (which is also regarded as a windows update). and updated my flash player. i just simply did a routine update of my system when the blue screen appeared that was caused by deep freeze. i was completely taken aback by that.
if you were a noob using deep freeze and you encounter this you definitely freak out about what to do, specially that the blue screen appears right before windows loads up leaving you with no obvious options to remedy the problem.
Luckily, a simple press of F8 and a choice of “last known good configuration” fixed the problem. windows loads and deepfreeze seems to be working. unless you restart again then the blue screen appears again.
Even if you choose to thaw the next restart the blue screen still appears.
so i uninstalled deep freeze using its own installer and installed it back again (risking my main vista pc). so far no problems arised after i reinstalled and several restarts thawed or freezed just to check.
So im really not sure what caused deep freeze to cause a blue screen with my vista business 32bit pc. i really dont have a clue! so far its working right now with deep freeze activated.
and thats one experience i have with deep freeze. nothing more to come i hope.
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I’m wondering why you’re still using junky antivirus and defender software when DeepFreeze makes its usage dispensable? That could have been the cause.
Also, once you installed something remember to restart your computer once again before putting it back into the frozen state, even if a certain installation doesn’t require a restart.
~Marcus
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draude (1 comments) says: men this such a great help for me… i own a small computer shop and everyday i hate to see some of the settings, file, desktop are changed. thanks men for ur help, i owe you one for that…. thanks men!
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Bobby (1 comments) says: I work for a school who uses Deep Freeze on the computers in our labs. I worked with this school before we started using Deep Freeze and what a fiasco it would be to try and keep the systems even somwhat similar. With Deep Freeze we do use antivirus software which gets all updates when booting in the thatwed state. With Deep Freeze we are able to do Windows updates from a Windows SUS server because Deep Freeze will boot the computer in Maintenance Mode in order for the computer to connect to the SUS Server in order to update. I have seen a few issues with Deep Freeze but for the most part it has been a product for us over the 6 o 7 years we have used it.
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