Well, my school got computers for every student, and virtually every student has either played a game or been on the internet during school. I've been told about how the IT guy can see what youve done and when youve done it and stuff like that, and sometimes they pickup computers to check if you have games and stuff. (I think maybe they catch people who stupidly have a game on their desktop but i wanna be sure and safe) I got the program CCleaner on my USB drive and i run it on the computer. Will this be sufficient enough to remove my "tracks" so they cant see if i once had games on my comp or checked the internet during class?
Thanks!

Hello travicles,

Firstly welcome back. I hope you will be visiting us and posting more often in the future.

The most effective method of covering your tracks is by not doing things you shouldn't be doing. Playing games can slow down the network for everyone. Your school or college's IT dept. can see everything that has and does go on on any computer, and it's possible for them to log every single keystroke - such as your email password, online banking, etc.

__________________
Thanks,
Ash
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i understand what youre saying ash, but I already downloaded aim on my computer on accident. how would i delete any info of me having it

Well, although school is for work and no play etc. But what I used to do, was to install a load of protable applications onto my USB drive. You can get a MSN type program, many games, anti-virus programs the lot.

Fair enough, they still could track your keystrokes etc. But they won't find any of the programs your using...


Jam

__________________

I doubt you will be expelled for downloading AIM. They may have other punishments. I will probably give a long diatribe after work tonight (If I don't just crash on the couch). Basically, though, I believe that they knew things like this would happen. Be ready for a laundry list of questions to help us fully understand the situation (but I think I have a good grasp now)

__________________
I'm here, you may now make your next two wishes.

Beat Me, Whip Me, Make Me Use Windows!!

Every Piece of Electronic Equipment runs on a finite amount of smoke. The systems are normally very efficient at reclaiming the smoke and recycling it, however, should you do something to let the smoke out, your system will become useless.

SAVE THE SMOKE !!

New PC :
New: Phenom 9500 Quad 2.2, 4gb ram XP Pro 64-bit (Sata 0), XP Pro 32 bit (sata 1), 40 eide HDD (music), Pioneer Blu-Ray Burner, HP Multidisk CD-RW/DVD-Rom, 2x250 Seagate HDD's, ATI Radeon 3870, Asus M3A32-MVP Deluxe WiFi-AP

Old PC:
P4 1.5GHz, 768 Ram, hda-80Gb (80Ubuntu), DVD R/RW

im ready for interrogation

if you want to stop them from seeing what your doing....put up a dummy screen the outputs to them and they wont see your games (as easily).
if your worried about them actually looking at the HD, you can hide your files in a remote folder and turn hiding on so that it wont be as easy to find them. also, rename common progs/apps so that if they search aim on ur pc, they wont find it

Can't you just put all your files etc. into a folder, and changet he permissions on it?


Jam

__________________

Okay, I'm back... I crashed on the couch.

A few questions:
1) do you personally OWN the computer (did you pay for it)
2) Is this a portable PC (laptop/notebok)?
3) Do you have Admin rights?
4) Does this computer need to be returned to the school at some point?
5) Are there known spy softwares on the computer (key loggers, website tracking softwares for example)?
6) Did you sign any type of release, or acceptable use form/policy?
7) Is there some acceptable use policy you automatically agree to by using the computer?


Now, Let me start my lecture You will note, I do not tell you how to hide your tracks, not till you answer the questions I asked. I'm not the oldest one here (I think) but I can promise, too, I wasn't born yesterday. So don't lie to me either

If the computer is owned by the school (district), it is more than reasonable to believe that they have an acceptable use policy, and that they have EVERY RIGHT to enforce it.

I believe that the school fully expects you and others to download/use chat programs and other freewares (if it is a laptop). I don't doubt that they expect that you will install games also.

But I also expect that the end user of any computer should not violate any laws in its use (software piracy, copyright violations....). This is not unreasonable. And it is well within the school's right to demand renumeration for damage/legal fees incurred in the defense of any illegal activity. (charge you for the legal fees when RIAA sues because you downloaded music illegally).

I also expect that you did agree to an acceptable use policy whether in writing or not. Otherwise you would not have been assigned a PC.

There are steps that the school can take to ensure you don't do too much to the softwares. This can be managed by software like SteadyState and DeepFreeze, which after a reboot will return a PC to a predetermined software status (deleting any and ALL changes). Additionally, they can set other settings to allow easier monitoring, and expect that any changes you make are knowingly done to bypass their acceptable use, which in turn gives them the right to confiscate the computer from your possession/use.

This is all moot if you paid for the computer yourself, up to a point. If you connect your computer to their network, it is well within their right to enforce the same acceptable use of network resources. (no pornography, pirated music or softwares).

If everything you do is legal, ethical and moral, then you have nothing to fear. So why the guilty conscience? Again, I believe they expected some use of the computers. They may not like it, but it was expected.

Now I will not go into details on how they can track besides what has been mentioned already, but there are many ways. Your network sign-in is one way, the computer's information is another (even with spoofing it can still be determined).

If you are so worried, then turn yourself in. Ask for mercy, and don't do it again. You may learn a bit about your system in the process. Also, read those long boring acceptable use policies. I don't say re-read them, because I highly doubt you read them in the first place. That is human nature. That is why spywares get installed, that is why MS gets away with things like the Genuine advantage fiasco, people don't read what they are agreeing to.

Become Informed!! or as that one-eyed magic user would say... constant vigilance.

__________________
I'm here, you may now make your next two wishes.

Beat Me, Whip Me, Make Me Use Windows!!

Every Piece of Electronic Equipment runs on a finite amount of smoke. The systems are normally very efficient at reclaiming the smoke and recycling it, however, should you do something to let the smoke out, your system will become useless.

SAVE THE SMOKE !!

New PC :
New: Phenom 9500 Quad 2.2, 4gb ram XP Pro 64-bit (Sata 0), XP Pro 32 bit (sata 1), 40 eide HDD (music), Pioneer Blu-Ray Burner, HP Multidisk CD-RW/DVD-Rom, 2x250 Seagate HDD's, ATI Radeon 3870, Asus M3A32-MVP Deluxe WiFi-AP

Old PC:
P4 1.5GHz, 768 Ram, hda-80Gb (80Ubuntu), DVD R/RW

1) do you personally OWN the computer (did you pay for it)
No
2) Is this a portable PC (laptop/notebok)?
Yes
3) Do you have Admin rights?
Yes i think so
4) Does this computer need to be returned to the school at some point?
Yes
5) Are there known spy softwares on the computer (key loggers, website tracking softwares for example)?
I dont think so at this point
6) Did you sign any type of release, or acceptable use form/policy?
maybe, i dont recall though
7) Is there some acceptable use policy you automatically agree to by using the computer?
yeah i guess so

It's what I figured. They expect you to do quite a bit of personalization, so long as you don't do anything illegal.

I wouldn't worry much about hiding where you've been till you are ready to turn it in, then I'd recommend a general cleanup. if they get a machine that is spotless, they will suspect something.

Still, do not a thing illegal or immoral. You should strive to take care of that which does not belong to you even more so than you would your own property.

I still think they expected you would put yahoo chat and google softwares on the PC.

__________________
I'm here, you may now make your next two wishes.

Beat Me, Whip Me, Make Me Use Windows!!

Every Piece of Electronic Equipment runs on a finite amount of smoke. The systems are normally very efficient at reclaiming the smoke and recycling it, however, should you do something to let the smoke out, your system will become useless.

SAVE THE SMOKE !!

New PC :
New: Phenom 9500 Quad 2.2, 4gb ram XP Pro 64-bit (Sata 0), XP Pro 32 bit (sata 1), 40 eide HDD (music), Pioneer Blu-Ray Burner, HP Multidisk CD-RW/DVD-Rom, 2x250 Seagate HDD's, ATI Radeon 3870, Asus M3A32-MVP Deluxe WiFi-AP

Old PC:
P4 1.5GHz, 768 Ram, hda-80Gb (80Ubuntu), DVD R/RW

yeah im gonna try hard not to do anything bad on it now and i better stop running CCleaner =P cause it really cleans out too much

Sounds to me like your problem is not what you use but when you use it. If you're allowed take the machine home with you and use it on your own network, in your own time, then there's no real reason to have to hide what you do.

Apart from not doing whatever work your supposed to be doing in school, there are two other things that can go wrong (much more serious!) - if you're surfing dodgy sites, you might well download something much worse than a game that could wreck your legitimate files - like the project you've spent four weeks researching; similarly, in "cleaning up" after yourself, you might damage some of your ordinary program files. If you've got to explain why the machine is not working anymore, it'll be a heck of lot easier if you can tell the whole truth!!