SteadyState is one of my favorite free utilities from Microsoft. Now, however, it appears as though the sun is setting on SteadyState: Microsoft has announced that support will be ending on June 30th, 2011.
That, of course, simply means that actual support for SteadyState will come to an end -- don't expect to get answers to your inquiries or receive updates. InfoWorld sort of pulls the panic button in their post, suggesting that organizations currently using SteadyState who need support look to Faronics' DeepFreeze or HDGUARD at about $40 per PC, but I'm not sure why. SteadyState won't cease to function on June 30th -- it's just the end of official support.
That's not a major problem in my book. SteadyState just works, and it's incredibly simple to use. There's a help file built in and plenty of resources on the Web which can assist, so if you're using SteadyState now to, say, lock down computers in your library -- keep on using it.
The only real bad news here is that this means there will definitely never be a version of SteadyState which supports x64 systems. On the other hand, it's entirely possible that Microsoft is looking to incorporate the code into another app -- say Live Family Safety or Security Essentials. Either one would be a good match, and they both carry the same price tag.
The official Microsoft
download for SteadyState will only be available until December 31st of this year, so grab it and file it away somewhere.
Tags: download, eol, free, sandbox, security, steadystate, windows
