What general Windows utilities are available to improve system stability and ease Player deployment?
Short answer: Disable services, remove software, drivers, icons, &
fonts not absolutely needed for the computer to function in the
environment in which it is placed.
Helpful tips for either OS
We can recommend the use of a disk duplicating tool when attempting
to deploy a number of systems. With this, you can set up one system
once and have all the other systems be cloned from this one drive
image. This is a huge time saver and will seriously increase your
network reliability (since all PCs are configured identically) and
reduce human error in setting up multiple systems each from scratch.
This assumes that you have 100% identical hardware, which is highly
desirable from a technical support point of view. Although you can't
always maintain the same hardware configuration over many years, it
should be possible to keep the same hardware configuration for 1-2
years. Some vendors of consumer PCs have trouble keeping the save
version for 1-2 weeks, much less 1-2 years. Ask your PC vendor before
you begin. See the "make versus buy" page for more
information.
If the same customer requires multiple different configurations,
you might consider keeping nearly identical hardware configurations
(maybe RAM and hard drive size are the only differences) and use
different user accounts to create different start menus and even
separate .bat files in the startup folder that copies over various
differences in the IC3/Config directory.
Regular "defragging" of hard drives should be a part of any Scala
system. You may wish to consider a "runs in the background" product
such as "Diskeeper" from Executive Software. ( http://www.execsoft.com )
Software System Tools and Tweaks.
Xteq Systems X-Setup http://www.xteq.com/ A good "Tweak the system tool"--Auto logon, startup bitmaps, etc. Version 5.6 or later.
WinVNC - The Windows VNC server http://www.tightvnc.com/
Yet another good "free" tool to install on an IC Player system. This is a "remote control" tool that works fine with Scala!!!
