Resurrect your old PC as a public kiosk for fun and profit

August 23, 2013

Leaving your old PC in a public space may seem like a sure-fire way to make it someone else’s old PC. But if you take the time to secure it properly, you can get a lot of mileage out of turning it into a dedicated public-access machine. Setting up an old PC for public use is an easy way to give aging hardware a second life. And putting a PC in the common area of your home, your local school, or your place of business provides convenient Internet access for visitors and gives you a great tool for sharing media, accepting job applications at the office, or helping customers share information with your business. But before you get carried away with the idea of bringing free computer access to the people, you need to take some security measures to protect both the device and your private network. You need ensure that people who use your kiosk can’t monkey with system settings, add or remove applications, or download malware. You should also help protect your users from themselves, by preventing them from accidentally saving documents, browser passwords, or personal information to your public PC. Repurposing an old desktop system as a public-access PC for the lobby of your business or local school is a great way to put neglected hardware to use. Fortunately, with the right software, setting up a secure public PC is a cinch. Depending on what you want to offer in the kiosk, you may even be able to rely on Windows’ built-in features instead of installing extra software. The trick is to figure out who will be using your public PC and what they’ll be using it for. Assigned Access in Windows 8.1 The free Windows 8.1 update adds an Assigned Access feature to the Pro, Enterprise, and RT editions of Microsoft’s troubled operating system. If you update your PC to Windows 8.1 you can use Assigned Access to lock down your Windows 8 PC or tablet so that public users can access only a particular Windows Store app. If you’re setting up a public PC with a single purpose—say, for browsing the Web with Internet Explorer—or a single app, this is a quick, easy way to secure it and prevent users from accessing other apps and settings. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Link: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2047173/resurrect-your-old-pc-as-a-public-kiosk-for-fun-and-profit.html#tk.rss_howto