Dual Boot Laptops

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.security_admin (More info?)

Our management recently made a decision to provide all laptop users with a
dual boot environment - one for our corporate XP Pro image, the other
configured as a Workgroup based system. The Workgroup based boot would be
used by users when they are connected to their home network (also configured
as a Workgroup environment). We have implemented a full locked down
environment for the Corporate image, using GPOs.

I would appreciate any feedback from the XP Security newsgroup as to what
issues we could see with this type of configuration and the potential
security issues with a dual boot configuration. For example, the users can
see both partitions and copy files between them.

Is there a tool and or utility that we could implement to hide the partition
that is not in use? I have asked IBM (our laptop vendor) for such a tool,
although they have not responded with a potential solution. We have also
considered using a separate hard disk, depending on what environment the user
wishes to access. The cost for such a solution on a ThinkPad laptop is
approximately $800 CDN, something that has been deemed unrealistic. We have
also looked at implementing VMWare Workstation as a potential solution,
although this will cost $257 CDN per laptop.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated....

Regards,

CanNear

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.security_admin (More info?)

You might have a usability issue here and a certain amount of dissatisfaction.
Presumably, people will want to read corporate email and work on documents
when they're home -- but they won't be able to if the corporate partition
is inaccessible.

If your corporate image is already locked down, and by that I mean you're:

* not running as local admin
* have installed and enabled a host firewall
* are using continually-updated virus and spyware scanners
* perhaps even considering software restriction policies

then it might not be necessary to deal with a dual-image scenario.

Steve Riley
steriley@microsoft.com



> Our management recently made a decision to provide all laptop users
> with a dual boot environment - one for our corporate XP Pro image, the
> other configured as a Workgroup based system. The Workgroup based
> boot would be used by users when they are connected to their home
> network (also configured as a Workgroup environment). We have
> implemented a full locked down environment for the Corporate image,
> using GPOs.
>
> I would appreciate any feedback from the XP Security newsgroup as to
> what issues we could see with this type of configuration and the
> potential security issues with a dual boot configuration. For
> example, the users can see both partitions and copy files between
> them.
>
> Is there a tool and or utility that we could implement to hide the
> partition that is not in use? I have asked IBM (our laptop vendor)
> for such a tool, although they have not responded with a potential
> solution. We have also considered using a separate hard disk,
> depending on what environment the user wishes to access. The cost for
> such a solution on a ThinkPad laptop is approximately $800 CDN,
> something that has been deemed unrealistic. We have also looked at
> implementing VMWare Workstation as a potential solution, although this
> will cost $257 CDN per laptop.
>
> Any insight would be greatly appreciated....
>
> Regards,
>
> CanNear
>