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In a classroom setting with ten to fifteen desktop PCs (MS Windows clients) what are the options to allow students to sit and work on either client and have their personal logins and files?

The obvious solution that comes to my mind is using MS Windows Server, create a domain, let the clients join the domain and create users at server level. This solution is beyond our budget (server + windows server license + admin who would set this up).

The dumbest solution that I can think of is setting up ten desktop PCs with two users on each machine (admin plus a user with no password). And let each student sit and work on any machine with the user without password. But this way users won't have their personal settings on the PC. (I could add a NAS file server to the network so that students save their files on their personal space).

What other options are there? Are there Virtualization solutions? Anything else?

In case of the second solution I would have to restore settings every time the PC is restarted (so that a base setting is ensured for every student).

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    Windows cost nothing for school, check your local ms rep for info (osbl). They even give o365 account if you are a OSBL.
    – yagmoth555
    Aug 23, 2016 at 22:40
  • This is going to be a company that will offer marketing courses. But I thought our use-case should be similar to that of classes, that's why I compared it to classrooms.
    – Ugur
    Aug 23, 2016 at 22:46
  • You have to spend money to make money. Starting a business such as this requires a capital investment. If you don't have the money perhaps you should look for investors. With a Windows AD domain you could easily configure roaming profiles and folder redirection for the Documents folder to achieve this.
    – joeqwerty
    Aug 23, 2016 at 23:25

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You don't have to pay for software

If you are capable, the solution is simple. Use a Linux server w/Samba and run your domain like you initially planned.

Maybe look into this for something easier if you are uncomfortable managing a standard Linux distribution (it has a GUI):

https://www.turnkeylinux.org/domain-controller

Domain Controller - free Active Directory server

A Samba4-based Active Directory-compatible domain controller that supports printing services and centralized Netlogon authentication for Windows systems, without requiring Windows Server. Since 1992, Samba has provided a secure and stable free software re-implementation of standard Windows services and protocols (SMB/CIFS).

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  • I already set up samba shares several times. But I thought of it as a file server solution, not an active directory / domain controller solution
    – Ugur
    Aug 24, 2016 at 4:48

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