Access Services Interest Group

  • 1.  Managing Circulating Laptops

    Posted Apr 24, 2025 10:38 AM

    Hi Everyone,

    We have a small collection of laptops that the library circulates at my institution.  Historically these were prepared in partnership with our institutional IT department, who utilized Faronics Deepfreeze to ensure no personal information was retained on the laptops in between users checking out the devices.

    We've been having an issue recently with system and program updates getting wiped from our machines when they power cycle, because these are being wiped by Deepfreeze when they attempt to install.  Our IT department is undergoing some restructuring, and has said that troubleshooting issues and providing support for the laptops is a very low priority item for them, and they would like our Access Services team to take over those responsibilities.  

    I'm hoping to get an idea of what other Access Services departments do to maintain computer equipment that you circulate to your students, and ensure software is up to date and functional.  Are there other software products beyond deepfreeze that you've used or heard of?  Are there general processes that you've found useful?



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    Timothy Hayes
    Circulation Supervisor
    Gustave and Janet Levy Library - Icahn School of Medicine At Mount Sinai
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  • 2.  RE: Managing Circulating Laptops

    Posted May 06, 2025 11:57 AM

    Hi Timothy, 

    This is from our Library IT department:

    We manage a number of lending laptops utilizing deep freeze as well (currently, we have Deep Freeze version 9 deployed although 10 has been released) and experience some of the same issues you are referring to. 
    In an effort to minimize the issues with updates, we use the feature of managing updates via deep freeze rather than windows.  This is supposed to prevent windows from installing updates while the device is frozen causing the issue you referenced.  Although, we have found that this is a bit inconsistent as far as reliability is concerned.  With that said, we schedule updates to be pushed weekly to the devices at 4:00 AM on Saturdays.
    Unfortunately, as you can imagine, many of our devices are offline at that time so they do not receive the updates promptly.  As a result, we also have a process in place whereby we update Windows Patches, as well as the Software/Applications and Drivers, at the end of each semester via a semi-automated process whereby we thaw the laptops and run a windows/drivers update script and then update the applications/software manually as needed and refreeze the device.  Keep in mind that we do not have many applications on our lending laptops so updating is not a significant issue.
    In addition to the aforementioned process, we typically update the OS version to the H2 version via a reimage process using Full Flash Update (FFU) imaging with the latest version and cumulative updates rather than running the windows update on the devices.  This is usually completed after the fall semester when the H2 version is released.  We chose this option due to the speed with which an FFU image can be applied, which is typically 30 minutes start to finish, versus the much longer timeframe Windows takes to run a version upgrade within windows.
    Obviously, this is all somewhat time-consuming for our techs however, there is the option to set the Windows Update Task in Deep Freeze to occur as frequently as wanted is available so updates could be nightly if desired and lessen the need for mass updating at the end of a semester.
    - Nathan Neuschwander & Scott Goodwin
    I hope it helps! 
    Holly Kouns 
    Coordinator of Public Services 
    Missouri State University - Springfield 



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    Holly Kouns
    Coordinator of Public Services
    Missouri State University
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