DeepFreeze, by Faronics, is an application available for the Microsoft
Windows, Mac OS X, and SUSE Linux operating systems which allows system
administrators to protect the core operating system and configuration files on
a workstation or server by restoring a computer back to its original
configuration each time the computer restarts.
OPERATION
Deep Freeze
is a kernel-level driver that protects hard drive integrity by redirecting
information being written to the hard drive or partition, leaving the original
data intact. This redirected information is no longer referenced once the
computer is restarted, thus restoring the system to its original state at the disk
sector level. This allows users to make 'virtual' changes to the system, giving
them the appearance that they can modify core files or even delete them, and
even make the system unusable to themselves, but upon reboot the originally
configured 'frozen' state of the operating system is restored.
To make
changes, a system administrator must 'thaw' the protected partition by
disabling Deep Freeze, make any needed changes, and then 'freeze' it again by
re-enabling Deep Freeze. These changes become part of the protected partition
and will be maintained after restarts. 'Freezing' and 'thawing' can be done at
the workstation level or remotely via either the Faronics Core management
platform or the Deep Freeze Enterprise Console. Users of the Enterprise version
can also create virtual partitions called ThawSpaces (of up to 1 TB on an NTFS-formatted
drive) to retain data on "frozen" hard drives after restarts.
Deep Freeze
can also protect a computer from harmful malware, since it automatically
deletes (or rather, no longer "sees") downloaded files when the
computer is restarted. The advantage of using an application such as Deep
Freeze antivirus / antimalware is that it uses almost no system resources, and
does not slow your computer significantly. The disadvantage is that it does not
provide real-time protection, therefore an infected computer would have to be
restarted in order to remove malware.