Resurrect your old PC as a public kiosk for fun and profit

Leaving your old PC in a public space may seem like a sure-fire way to make it someone else’s old PC. But if you take the time to secure it properly, you can get a lot of mileage out of turning it into a dedicated public-access machine. Setting up an old PC for public use is an easy way to give aging hardware a second life. And putting a PC in the common area of your home, your local school, or your place of business provides convenient Internet access for visitors and gives you a great tool for sharing media, accepting job applications at the office, or helping customers share information with your business.

But before you get carried away with the idea of bringing free computer access to the people, you need to take some security measures to protect both the device and your private network. You need ensure that people who use your kiosk can’t monkey with system settings, add or remove applications, or download malware. You should also help protect your users from themselves, by preventing them from accidentally saving documents, browser passwords, or personal information to your public PC.

SOURCE: pcworld.com