# Unique problem with DEEP FREEZE



## jenkins.rules (Aug 6, 2009)

Hi, I'm new to these forums, sorry if I posted in the wrong area

Ok, my unique problem is caused by a program called Deep Freeze. In short, DeepFreeze (when turned on) makes it so that everything you did while logged on is not there the next time you boot up. Yesterday, I was updating my virus protection stuff, and for the first time I updated my Dell PC Tuneup. I did this while DeepFreeze was OFF so that it would accept the changes. I updated, turned DeepFreeze back on and rebooted (you have to reboot for Deepfreeze to be turned on/off) 

Anyways, when I booted up again (this time deepfreeze is on) I guess the updates still had a little ways to go, because the Dell PC Tuneup flashes a message saying it needs to reboot again to "reflect changes." That would be great if not for DeepFreeze being turned ON. So now everytime I turn the laptop on, it needs to reboot because DeepFreeze will not allow for hte "changes be reflected."

I'm pretty computer illiterate, but I know my laptop is Windows Vista, 64 bit.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.


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## jenkins.rules (Aug 6, 2009)

I guess my question would be...

Is there any way to use the F2/F12 at the startup to get directly to the desktop?


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## pat mcgroin (May 1, 2009)

How far do you get on the reboot?
Can you get in far enough to turn deep freeze off and then reboot to let the update finish?


If not can you boot into safe mode where deep freeze wont start?
Most updates will still finish in safe mode.

If nothing else you may be able to set deep freeze to be off on the next boot.

More and more updates require a reboot in order to finish. So in the future try while doing an update to remember to leave deep freeze off until everything works and then turn it back on.


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## jenkins.rules (Aug 6, 2009)

Thanks for the reply.

Yeah, I figured out how to get into safe mode options, but I really dont know what I'm doing. Is it safe mode, safe mode with networking, or safe mode with command prompt?

I'm assuming it's the first, but when I tryed that, the same update went to kept on rebooting to "reflect the changes."


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## pat mcgroin (May 1, 2009)

I found this that may help. The first is the link and the second is what I found that may help.

http://www.faronics.com/whitepapers/DFEnt_PatchManagement.pdf

Disabling Deep Freeze Locally
Use the following steps to put Deep Freeze into a Thawed state from the local computer:
1.
To access the Deep Freeze login dialog, use one of the following methods to log on:
• Press SHIFT and double-click the Deep Freeze icon in the System Tray
• Use the keyboard shortcut CTRL+SHIFT+ALT+F6
2.
The Deep Freeze login dialog appears. Enter your Deep Freeze password. This password would have been configured in the Configuration Administrator prior to creating the workstation installation file, or applied through a configuration update.
3.
Under the Boot Control tab, select Boot Thawed and click OK. When the computer restarts, it is in a Thawed state. At this point any changes made to the computer are permanent.


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## TheOutcaste (Mar 19, 2009)

Have you tried *Last Known Good Configuration* from the Advanced Options menu, instead of Safe Mode? Though Deep Freeze may block that.

Not sure if this would work, as it will depend on how DeepFreeze protects the Registry, and how the Dell PC Tunup setup is being started.

Boot with the Vista DVD
Select language, click *Next*
Click *Repair your Computer*
Let it scan, then select the top option for *Use Recovery Tools...*, then click *Next*
Click *Command Prompt*
Type *regedit*, press *Enter*
Click once on *HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE* to highlight it
Click *File | Load Hive...*
Browse to *Windows\System32\config*
Click on *SOFTWARE* then click *Open*
Name it *@SOFTWARE*
Navigate to:

```
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\@SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Run
```
See if you can find the *Dell PC Tuneup* key that is trying to run. If not here, check these locations:

```
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\@SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\RunOnce
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\@SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\RunOnceEx
```
Once found, you can either copy it down, or export the key to an external drive/USB Flash drive.
Then delete the key.
I'm know there are other locations that are used to process updates during boot, but I can't think of any at the moment.
Navigate back up the tree so that *@SOFTWARE* is highlighted.
Click *File | Unload Hive...*, then click *Yes*
Files that are to be renamed at boot are listed in the SYSTEM tree under this key:
*HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager*
There may be an entry there to start the Dell update. (Load the system Hive using the same method as for the Software Hive, and name it @SYSTEM)
You could also try going here after loading the System Hive:

```
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\@SYSTEM\Select
```
And changing the value of Current to match LastKnownGood. This does the same as choosing *Last Known Good Configuration* from the F8 menu.

If Deep Freeze will allow this change, that should stop the Dell PC Tuneup update from trying to run so you can actually boot into Windows and turn off Deep Freeze. Then restore the key (you'll have to edit the file if you exported it to change *@SOFTWARE* to just *SOFTWARE*, and remove any other keys), reboot, and let the update finish.

I'm not too confident that this will work, but if it does, it means Deep Freeze has a serious security hole:4-thatsba


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## jenkins.rules (Aug 6, 2009)

Hey thanks for the reply. I actually don't have the Vista Disk with me at the moment, someone is supposed to mail it in a couple days. Once I get it, I'll try it out.

Last Known Good Configuration didn't work. On the F8 menu I saw "Repair Computer", clicked it, and it brought me to different options such as "Restore to Previous Point."
I tried restoring it to the earliest I could (Aug 5, day problem showed up) and that didnt work. Then I tried every restore point before that, none worked.

I also tried Dell's Datasafe thing, which is supposed to restore files and bring it back to normal with those files. Didn't work either.

I guess all I have to hope for is that Vista Disk to come...


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## jenkins.rules (Aug 6, 2009)

Oh. I just noticed that with the Vista Disk you use the command prompt. The command prompt is available in the "Repair Computer" section, could I use it there to do the same thing, or is the Vista Disk absolutely needed?


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## TheOutcaste (Mar 19, 2009)

Looks like you have the Recovery Options from the Vista disk already on your system, so use *Command Prompt* from there and give it a try.

I've attached a screenshot of what you see when booting to the disk, I suspect is similar, if not identical.


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## jenkins.rules (Aug 6, 2009)

TheOutcaste said:


> Have you tried *Last Known Good Configuration* from the Advanced Options menu, instead of Safe Mode? Though Deep Freeze may block that.
> 
> Not sure if this would work, as it will depend on how DeepFreeze protects the Registry, and how the Dell PC Tunup setup is being started.
> 
> ...


Oh thats eaxctly it, thanks. 

I have a question before I go for it. You said to click SOFTWARE, but when I went to do just that, I noticed there were 3 SOFTWARES (SOFTWARE (txt doc), SOFTWARE file and SOFTWARE.sav). I'm assuming its the software file but I don't know anything about this and I'd rather ask which one before I did anything stupid. :4-dontkno

Thanks again :sigh:


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## TheOutcaste (Mar 19, 2009)

Right, the one without an extension.


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## jenkins.rules (Aug 6, 2009)

Opening SOFTWARE and naming it @SOFTWARE didnt work, it said 

"The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process."

??


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## TheOutcaste (Mar 19, 2009)

In that case you may have to use the disk. The "Built-in" option may be accessing the local registry, rather than using the one from the RAM drive the DVD's PE image creates


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## pat mcgroin (May 1, 2009)

Did you try the steps I provided in the post above?
It is straight from the deep freeze site.


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## jenkins.rules (Aug 6, 2009)

No I didn't. If I could login in properly, I wouldn't have needed to post in these forums.


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## pat mcgroin (May 1, 2009)

Sorry I read it too fast. I thought it said that would happen before booting to the system.
I did find this and maybe it will be of more help.
http://www.faronics.com/faq/default.asp#7


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## jenkins.rules (Aug 6, 2009)

TheOutcaste 

I have the Vista Boot disk now, and I have followed your directions up to a point. I couldn't find the Dell PC Tuneup file in the registry. In the RUN category there was (default), Apoint, SysTrayApp, and Windows Defender. In the RunOnce category, there was (Default) and *Restore. There was no RunOnceEx. 

No Dell PC Tuneup to be found =(

Any ideas where to find the Dell PC Tuneup key?

Or any other methods that include the Vista Boot Disk?

Thanks a lot


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## TheOutcaste (Mar 19, 2009)

Couple of other places to look:
Load the System hive (named @System).
Check *HKey_Local_Machine\@System\Select* and note the number for the *Current* item.
Then navigate to here:
*HKLM\@System\ControlSet00X\Control\Session Manager*
where *X* is the number you noted for *Current*
Check the *BootExecute* item.
Mine has only *autocheck autochk **
Also check for a subkey under the Session Manager key named *FileRenameOperations* or possibly *PendingFileRenameOperations*, see if the Dell PC Tools is mentioned.
Check the Kmode item under
*HKLM\@System\ControlSet00X\Control\Session Manager\SubSystems*
The default is *\SystemRoot\System32\win32k.sys* (even on 64 bit versions)

Also found the following for an issue with a constant reboot after a Windows Update:
From http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/949358


> Use the System Recovery options to rename the Pending.xml file and edit the registry:
> 
> 1. On the System Recovery Options page, click Command Prompt.
> 2. Type cd C:\windows\winsxs, and then press ENTER.
> ...


Also, from the command prompt, open Notepad by typing *C:\Windows\Notepad* and press enter
Then click *File | Open*, and browse to *C:\Windows* and see if there is a *wininit.ini* file. If so, open it and see if there is any mention of the Dell PC Tools software. All entries in this file use the 8.3 shortnames for files and folders, so it would likely be listed as *C:\PROGRA~1\DELLPC~1*. You can comment out any lines by placing a semicolon( at the start of the line, or rename/delete the wininit.ini file from the command line.

You could also try renaming the Dell PC Tools folder. If you change the folder name, perhaps Windows won't be able to start the updater that is causing the reboot.

And then hope that if you do find something, that Deep Freeze doesn't undo it.

One more thought, does the message that the system needs to reboot occur before the Welcome screen, or after the Desktop appears, but before the Start Menu is available? If it gets to the Desktop, try pressing *CTRL+ALT+DEL* to bring up the Task Manager. Click *File | New Task (Run...)* and then browse to the Deep Freeze folder and see if you can get Deep Freeze to run.


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