Few days ago I had a mail from a reader of my blog, asking me tips on how to maintain & manage a Cyber Cafe PC. He saw my Lowest cost PC article & it made me think that I didn’t write an accompanying article for the software part. I guess it’s time. This guide is made keeping in mind not to use Pirated software.

1) Use Windows Vista home basic which is sufficient. If you have expertise in Linux then use that instead, however, in that case this blog post is irrelevant. Users won’t miss Aero, Flip3D etc in a Cyber Cafe PC which they come to use for 1 or 2 hours only.

2) Make sure you have UAC enabled & install all the latest updates & service packs.

3) Make a new “Standard user”. Using parental control, disable all application except for some which a cyber cafe will need. The biggest headache in a Cyber Cafe is when users change the settings & install applications at there own. By doing this the user will not be able to install application or make critical system changes.

5) Firefox is a good browser but it is also a geeky browser. For a Power User Firefox is a dream come true but in a Cyber Cafe its better either to use Internet Explorer 8 or Google Chrome. You can customize Google Chrome by following a guide I wrote. I prefer Chrome in Cyber Cafe more then IE 8 because Chrome is faster overall compared to IE 8 & has a simple & easy to use Interface. Frequently used sites are shown automatically & you can add some sites like Orkut, Facebook etc in the Bookmarks bar for easy access. These are the sites people come to visit the most in a cyber cafe.

6) On the desktop use an application like RocketDock & place shortcuts for IE, Firefox, Yahoo Messenger, Google talk, Windows Live Messenger, AIM, ICQ & Windows Media Player. These are all the applications people come in a cyber cafe to use anyway.

7) Install Vista Codec Pack, Quicktime Alternative & Real Alternative in Windows so that all the files play in WMP automatically. Do not install multiple media players, WMP is enough.

8) People come to use Cyber Cafe PCs sometime to do there office or project work, Install Openoffice 3 which is sufficient for such needs of a cyber cafe.

9) People download all sorts of stuff in a cyber cafe. Using Group policy you can setup the Nodes in such a way that the browser will download only to a particular folder. Since parental control is on, users will not be able to install a new application. If they need something, they should inform the administrator who will do it for them as required.

10) Install jZip which is enough for all archiving needs of customers. All customers will do is either make or extract a zip file, jZip is enough.

11) Give headphones + mic. They don’t cost much anyway & no audiophile comes to a cyber cafe expecting Bose Quality Audio. There are many cheap but good alternatives like Intex or Frontech. This is good for people who voice chat.

12) I recommend installing a webcam. Frontech Webcams are available for as low as Rs 500 & they do the work fine for communication.

13) Install a free Antivirus is all the Nodes. AVG Free 8.0 is good. Also install Windows Defender or Super Anti Spyware to do a full system scan once a week.

14) Disable all USB Ports from BIOS & set a BIOS Password. No pen drive should be allowed in Nodes. If the user wants to copy something then he should go to the admin who will copy the files from his PC to the nodes over LAN. This will save from the headache of those Nasty virus which propagates through Flash Drives. This will also prevent kids from downloading big files in a cyber cafe & taking them in a pen drive secretly.

15)  Make a folder named “Download“ in D:\ drive of each node which should be shared over LAN. All files go to this folder only whether they are downloaded or copied over LAN. Nothing goes beyond this folder. A user usually doesn’t come to a cyber cafe to permanently save his files so suppose if he has to work in a Spreadsheet then he can simply download it to this folder, work on it & save it back to his E-Mail etc.

16) Inform users about free services using Simple Printed Banner Ads in cyber cafe with big letters about these rules etc. Tell them that they can use Rapidshare or Windows Live Skydrive to share big files over the internet if they are unable to mail so big files. Or tell them about Microsoft Office Live & Google Docs to share there documents online.

17) Users are using Bluetooth based phones a lot & they like to mail there pictures or upload there videos to others. A Bluetooth adapter costs Rs 150 only these days so install one in the Admin PC. I have seen users coming with there Mobile phone to a Cyber Cafe because they want to mail there pics to there parents.

18) Install a good Color printer & a monochrome laser printer. Users need all kind of text prints so Laser printer reduces the cost a lot. Setup variable cost of colored prints. It isn’t justified charging Rs 20 for a print with 80% text & 20 color in form of some logo etc. Stop overcharging the customer.

19) Pay attention to the space. No one likes to sit in a small cabin where there is barely enough space to stretch your legs. The LCD Monitor should be at a distance from the user & the keyboard & mouse should also be at a proper distance. I don’t recommend using a CRT Monitor due to its size. A 17” LG LCD Monitor costs Rs 7,000 & will live for a long time.

20) Make sure you are updating Windows regularly.

21) You can use Squid to accelerate Web access. I haven’t used it though.

This article was written in a hurry so I may have missed some points, You can add them in the comments section & I will include it in the article.