Internet Explorer as Windows Shell
This weekend coming I travel to (Disneyland) Paris to help support the kiosk-mode application I've been working on and talking about for a while now. The customers are Sandeye ltd, who supply value added service for conferences.
They've given me permission to talk more about the application here, so I'll share some screengrabs and information later in the week. For now, we have one more problem we'd like to take care of: hack-proofing the application. We'd like your help if possible.
Does anybody know much about Windows Policies? What about using Internet Explorer as Windows' default shell program? It's a long-shot, but if any of you have done this please get in touch.
What we want to do is have IE (and nothing else) launch when Windows starts. Ideally there'll be no taskbar or desktop icons. If IE shuts down it should restart, still in kiosk mode. When running IE's behaviour should be restricted - for example, users should not be able to shut down the main window using Ctrl+W or Alt+F4.
I'll share whatever I find. For now I am off to hack my (spare) laptop's registry to an imminent death.
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Jake - we have something similar and we used a HTA to launch the app check out
{Link}
there is some stuff being talked about in this article {Link}
Jake,
Don't know if you can set the shell via policies but you can experiment with the policies on your local computer.
Just type mmc in start > run
In the opened window goto File > Add/Remove SnapIn click on the add button and choose Local Computer Policy from the list.
Now policies can be defined for your local computer, on a network they must be defined in the Active Directory of the domain controller. These look the same, but it can be a lot more on the server compared to the local policies.
one more thing policies must be refreshed by a reboot/relogin or via the command line command 'secedit' for win2k and 'gpupdate' for WinXP
Jake,
you might check that (french) browser based on IE which is dedicated to kiosks :
{Link}
It has a virtual keyboard, specific pop-ups management, etc.
Thanks guys. I'm playing with Group Policy settings and having some luck. Well, it worked, then it stopped and I don't know why. You'd think this would be a lot simpler. It's not uncommon to see kiosk terminals in hotel receptions and the like. There must be a way....
What version of windows?
{Link}
Jeff. Windows XP with IE6.
Best I could find was this post
{Link}
Ctrl-F for "From: cpdohert-ga"
He gives alot more deail on the solution with alot of external references. You probably found most of this stuff already.....
Thanks Jeff. I just did a skim-read and it looks promising. Off to play now...
Isn't this a better sollution?
Using it a while, works perfect. Can be expanded with billing system etc.
{Link}
Why not create your own browser using VB.
Add a web control to the form, turn off all menu bars, controlbox etc. Add code to:-
1.Keep form on top
2.capture all of the keystrokes you want captured (hints here {Link}
I just tested it and it works pretty well. This was a quick 10 minute app so you may find it doesn't when you've had time to try it 'properly' but worth looking into.
Hi
Just did this with about 10 minutes of research
set up your administrator account and a guest account
use this page as reference and write a regfile to lock the windows keys, ctrl keys, alt keys, etc out
http://www.northcode.com/blog.php/2007/07/25/Securing-Windows-For-Use-As-A-Kiosk
also write a registry file to undo the changes and store these on your admins desktop or somewhere else thats secure but convenient.
set the guest account to run IE in kiosk mode on startup (run key in its user account is best place for this)
iexplore.exe -k www.desiredurl.com
to activate security login to admin acct and run the reg file
reboot the pc and login to the guest account
nice and secure.
to undo press power button to shutdown pc and login to admin acct and run the undo file you made.
reboot, do what u need to, then resecure the keys and reboot.
a bit of rebooting required but a really easy way to secure a kiosk PC
Cheers
Greg