Disabling unwanted programs during video projection

[Tomo]

Disabling updates will make your computer more open to viruses etc...

Only if it sees the internet.

And why does a playback machine ever need to see the internet?

 

Everything should come from machines with up-to-date virus scanners which keeps the inbound data as clean as possible.

 

An even better solution is to re-image the HDD before each production - set up the system with all the playback stuff you need, then use Norton Ghost or similar to make a clone of the hard disk.

Then no matter what a client does to the machine, you can *always* get it back to exactly where it was before they saw it.

[Guest minisrule192]

Do you trust everything that needs showing to be virus free?

[Tomo]

No. But I don't care.

If their machine hasn't already died, then it probably won't kill my playback PC very quickly.

If they are corporate, then they will be running up-to-date anti-virus - probably more up-to-date than the one I'd have on a playback machine that spends a lot of time sat in a flightcase.

 

Re-imaging the HDD with my clean Ghost image will always kill any rubbish that came on.

Anti-virus software doesn't catch everything - it's impossible, because A/V is always playing catch-up on virus writers.

 

I would rather trust a machine that isn't running unexpected rubbish, than A/V which is not fully up-to-date.

[Jivemaster]

When loading music on an unprotected lappy I check the disc by "scan this item" in my main, up-to-date A/V home computer, before putting it into the lappy.

[James Remo]

One thing I've had problems with is the Ir ports "chatting" to each other on two adjacent laptops mid show, powerpoint is still overlaid as top "window", but I lost control as the top window is no longer the app being controlled by the keyboard. As all machines had their audio muted it took a while to work out what the issue was. More hardware than software but one to watch out for