At Ease
At Ease was an alternative to the Macintosh desktop developed by Apple Computer in the early 1990s. It provided a simple environment for new Macintosh users to help them to work without supervision. At Ease sits on top of the Finder desktop, providing a simple tab panel oriented graphical user interface in which applications and documents are represented by icons on large buttons. Aside from its security features, its interface and basic functionality is very similar to the Packard Bell Navigator.
At Ease for Workgroups allows users to log on to a server from any workstation that has the At Ease software installed. At Ease for Workgroups introduced a number of network-specific features not found in the original At Ease. The workgroup version enabled client configuration, network access and restrictions on how the client's computer can be used. In addition to the beige-colored Applications "folder" and the blue-colored Documents "folder" that each user had in his or her account, the workgroup version of the software also would allow for easier access to removable media: a pink-colored folder would appear in the user's profile for any CD-ROM inserted into the computer and a green-colored folder would appear for a floppy disk. These features were controlled for each user by the administrator. At Ease for Workgroups also included an Administration program that can add users and workgroups to the network.
-Wikipedia
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UPDATE Sep/06/2009
this file includes the Updates and Patch that came in the Mac OS 8.1 CD,
-from "Read me" File:
At Ease 3 CDROM Prefs Patch
The At Ease 3 CDROM Prefs Patch is a system extension that corrects a problem in At Ease versions 3.0 and later and At Ease for Workgroups versions 3.0 through 3.0.3. This patch does not affect versions of At Ease earlier than 3.0, or At Ease for Workgroups version 4.0.
Problem Description
This patch corrects a problem with the CD-ROM Preferences command in the At Ease setup application. When you display the settings for a CD-ROM disc listed in the CD-ROM Preferences dialog box, the settings for a different CD-ROM disc may appear. If your CD-ROM settings have been corrupted, you should delete your CD-ROM Preferences file...
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UPDATE Dec/31/2009 from Sheepmyshaver123
Now in disk images with some additions. Some of them are taken from Apple Applications Recovery CD, available in ISO download on macgeek417's website. Includes the following disk images inside the archive:
- At Ease 1.0
- At Ease 2.0.3
- At Ease OT Update
- At Ease for Workgroups 2.0.3
- At Ease 2.0.3 Update
- At Ease 3.0
- At Ease 3.0 CDROM Prefs Patch
- At Ease for Workgroups 3.0
- At Ease IDE-Util Disk
- At Ease 3.0.3 Update
Architecture: 68k PPC
Minimum Requirements:
for At Ease 3.0
Macintosh Plus
4 MB RAM
Hard Drive
Mac OS 7.0
Comments
Review & comment from contemporary magazine (MacFormat March 1995) added.
Anyone got At Ease 5.0.2? All we need is that & this page will be complete.
Heh. Man does this bring back some memories. I got banned from my elementary school's computers for a while for hitting the programmer switch, typing "g finder" to kill At Ease and then proceeding to disable and uninstall it from the computer. Oh, and when that failed there was SM 0 A9F4 -> G 0, almost forgot about that one.
I did this on about a dozen computers (including every single one in the library) before they figured out who was doing it, and I still wonder if they ever figured out how I was.
Dude! I remember this! The "Why Back Up" icon was especially memorable, and possibly what happens to the "Helpful Tips" Mac. Zap!
That reminds from my previous post on December, your old upload can be found here:
http://s3.amazonaws.com/macgarden/At_Ease_Setup.sit
But it's not original and taken directly from your Performa 6500 CD-ROM.
I remember At Ease from my primary school years! Definitely made computers much easier to use. I still have so many good memories (of computers) from those days...
> no, schools used it to lock down computers.
'At Peace' was a small utility that allowed one to bypass it. I'll upload it if I ever find it.
I've updated this to replace the bulk to the disk images version.
Oh, OK.
no, schools used it to lock down computers.
It simply wasn't provided for free with computers after Mac OS 7.x; instead, you had to go and buy it.
There are parents on educational institutions?
@MacWise: I've seen At Ease (of some form or another) running on OS 8 Macs. It was usually provided only to educational institutions or such.
1000x Thanks for uploading it!
Thanks for the Update link, MacWise,
Even though I barely use this App since I've always been the only user of my Computers,
I've tested At Ease several times and I agree with you as to how useful and simple this application is,
and yes i did notice that it didn't come in OS 8.1, but Not just this, also a lot of good Apps
were missing in OS 8, but were included in my Performa Restore CD 7.5.5,
other App that I like so much that came in the same Performa CD is the Apple Address Book,
and a few Internet Apps.
and still I consider 8.1 the best Mac OS.
You don't know how many times I wished in the late nineties that Apple brought At Ease back. Before Mac OS X this was the only way of having a multiple-user environment on the Mac. Sure Apple introduced the Multiple Users extension/control panel with Mac OS 9, but it was too little too late. With At Ease installed you could share your Mac with your computer-challenged family and not worry about it. Everything was simple and secure and sensitive parts of the system were out of reach to anyone but the administrator. It's a shame they discontinued it, but then again, most of the cool stuff Apple did on those days was left to rot without explanation.