Deep Freeze vs. GamePinned: which one is right for your gaming cafe?

Faronics Deep Freeze has been the default answer for gaming cafe protection for over two decades. It works by taking a snapshot of your drive and reverting to it on every reboot. Anything a customer changes, including uninstalling games, disappears the moment the PC restarts.

GamePinned takes a different approach. Instead of reverting the entire drive, it blocks game deletion at the file system level, in real time, without needing a reboot.

Both solve the same problem. They do it differently, and for gaming cafes specifically, those differences matter a lot in daily operation.

How Deep Freeze works

Deep Freeze installs a low-level system driver that intercepts all writes to the protected drive. During a frozen session, any change a user makes (installing software, modifying settings, deleting a game) is written to a temporary area, not to the real disk. On reboot, that temporary area is discarded. The drive returns to the exact state it was when you froze it.

For a gaming cafe, this means customers can do anything they want during their session. The next reboot resets everything. It's a clean, complete rollback every time.

The cost

Deep Freeze Standard is $45.88 per workstation for a perpetual license (confirmed pricing from CDW as of 2026). Enterprise Edition, which adds centralized remote management, is not publicly priced and requires a quote from Faronics or their resellers.

Annual maintenance (which covers updates) runs approximately 20% of the license cost per year. For a 20-PC cafe, that's roughly $917 upfront for Standard licenses, plus around $183 per year to stay current.

The thaw problem for gaming cafes

Deep Freeze works well for environments where the goal is a static, unchanging system: school computer labs, library terminals, kiosk machines. Gaming cafes are not that environment.

Games update constantly. CS2, Valorant, and League of Legends push patches every week or two. Fortnite updates even more frequently. Each update means game files on disk need to change. In Deep Freeze, "files on disk need to change" means a full thaw cycle:

1. Enter the admin password and restart the PC into thawed mode
2. Wait for the game to update (could be several GB)
3. Restart again into frozen mode
4. Repeat on every single machine

Verified Deep Freeze users describe this in reviews:

"Ease of changing the computer means you have to thaw the Deep Freeze client so changes can be made. It is a somewhat time consuming process to wait for PC restarts."

Capterra, verified review

"I wish Deep Freeze would allow for regular Windows updates without unthawing. Really, this is a minor complaint. To update the computer, you 'unthaw' by restarting, and then you can update any software."

G2, verified review

For a school lab that updates software once a semester, this is a minor inconvenience. For a gaming cafe with 20 PCs where CS2 patches weekly, this is a recurring operational cost. Each patch cycle requires 20 thaw cycles, 20 updates, 20 re-freeze reboots, on machines that should be earning revenue.

Other alternatives worth knowing

Deep Freeze is not the only reboot-to-restore tool. A few others come up in cafe operator discussions:

• Reboot Restore Rx by Horizon DataSys: free for basic use, $25/PC for Pro. Same reboot-to-restore model as Deep Freeze. Same update problem.
• Shadow Defender: around $35/PC. Runs in "Shadow Mode" where changes are redirected to a virtual layer. Same fundamental issue with game updates; shadow data fills disk space over long sessions.
• SmartShield: used in schools and libraries, requires a quote. No game-specific management.

All reboot-to-restore tools share the same tradeoff: complete rollback protection in exchange for a manual maintenance cycle on every change. For gaming cafes that live on constant updates, the tradeoff is steep. SENET's diskless system takes this approach further by combining it with cafe management software. See the SENET vs Antamedia vs ggLeap comparison for how each handles game protection.

How GamePinned works differently

GamePinned does not touch the drive at a system level. It does not use a kernel driver. It does not revert anything on reboot.

Instead, it uses Windows file system permissions to make specific game folders undeletable for customer accounts. The protection exists at the folder level, not the drive level. Everything else on the PC (browser downloads, settings, saved games, temp files) works without restriction.

When a customer tries to uninstall a protected game, Windows itself blocks the deletion. The operating system rejects the request before it reaches the disk. No delete means no uninstall. The game stays in the library. No reboot required.

Game updates still work because updates write and modify files. They do not delete the game folder. The permission that blocks deletion does not block writes. A CS2 patch downloads and applies normally. When the patch is done, the protection is still in place.

Side by side

When Deep Freeze is the right choice

You need to protect more than just games

If customers routinely corrupt system settings, install malware, or modify Windows configurations that take time to fix, Deep Freeze is the right tool. It resets everything, not just game files. GamePinned only protects game folders.

Your session workflow already includes reboots

Some operators reset machines between every customer by policy, for hygiene, security, or billing reasons. If the PC is rebooting after every session anyway, Deep Freeze's revert-on-reboot model adds no overhead. The reboot handles both cleanup and protection reset in one step.

When GamePinned is the right choice

Your game library updates regularly

CS2 patches weekly. Valorant patches roughly every two weeks. League of Legends follows a similar cycle. If you're running a competitive cafe where customers expect the current version of these games, you're patching constantly. With Deep Freeze, every patch is a thaw cycle on every PC. With GamePinned, patches apply normally and protection remains active throughout.

You want games protected during the session

With Deep Freeze, a customer who uninstalls a game during their session has effectively removed that game for all subsequent customers until the next reboot. The game is gone from the library. With GamePinned, the uninstall attempt fails immediately. The game stays in the library for the next customer, and the one after that, without any reboot. For a detailed breakdown of how this works per launcher, see preventing Steam uninstalls and preventing Epic Games uninstalls.

You're adding new games regularly

Installing a new game under Deep Freeze requires thawing the drive, installing, and re-freezing. For a 20-PC cafe, that's 40 additional reboots per new title plus the installation time on every machine. GamePinned requires installing the game normally and clicking Lock in the dashboard.

You want to keep costs down

For a 20-PC cafe, Deep Freeze Standard licenses run $917 upfront, plus $183 per year to stay current. GamePinned's Pro plan at $1.99/month per PC works out to $29.80/month for a 20-PC cafe with volume pricing, with no upfront cost, no separate maintenance fee, and all future platform support included.

The practical verdict

For cafes where the main concern is customers uninstalling games, not corrupting system settings, GamePinned is the more practical tool. There's no thaw cycle, no reboot overhead, no per-update maintenance. Games update normally. Protection stays on. New installs take one click to lock.

For cafes where customers cause broader system damage that requires a clean slate on every session, Deep Freeze or a similar reboot-to-restore tool handles that scope. Just plan for the update maintenance overhead as a recurring operational cost.

If you're currently using Deep Freeze primarily to stop game uninstalls and finding the weekly patch cycles expensive, GamePinned solves the same specific problem without the thaw cycle cost.