Wherein I am Foiled by a Deep Freeze Thaw

Image courtesy of OpenClipArt.org user valessiobrito

Earlier this week one of the circ staff told me she went to check her email on one of the public PCs during her break but ended up looking at a patron’s email. It seems that even though Deep Freeze was turned on, the last time it had been thawed a patron was logged on. Since Gmail by default checks that Stay Signed In box by default, when the PC was re-frozen that person’s email account was saved.

Deep Freeze is a fantastic tool. It saves me so much trouble by essentially rebooted into a last known good configuration every time a patron logs off. However, it’s not without its challenges. The one that came into play here was my having to thaw the PCs in order to apply security patches. Fortunately, browsers have a setting that I can leverage to watch my back on this. Since I only have Chrome, FireFox, and Internet Explorer (I know, I know) I can only speak to those. If you happen to know the settings for Safari and/or Opera (does anyone use this one anymore?) please share.

Chrome (Version 37.0.2062.124 m)

The 3 Bars Icon  > Settings > Show Advanced Settings > Content Settings (under Privacy) > Keep local data until you quite your browser > Done.

FireFox (Version 32.0.2)

The 3 Bars Icon > Options > Privacy > Use custom settings for history (in the FireFox Will: drop-down box of the history section) > Always use private browsing mode > OK (when the Restart FireFox button pops up).

If you go back into the Privacy tab of the the Options menu, you’ll see the FireFox Will: drop-down box saying Never Remember History. That’s normal (if odd).

Internet Explorer (Version 11)

The Gear Icon > Internet Options > Delete browsing history on exit (in the Browsing history section) > OK

I was surprised that Internet Explorer was the most simple change. Microsoft doesn’t strike me as too concerned with privacy.