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How-To: Custom Desktop

A friend of mine has little kid. Big enough to use the computer.
He created a kid user with restricted user account for his kid but he would
like to remove the confusing start menu, etc.... with a simple, home made,
kiosk style, fullscreen GUI interface.

Which could just launch a bunch of game and logout/shutdown.

And he ask how to do that.
But I don't know!

It's why.. ahum.. I'm asking you, how to (or what's the best way to) write a
"kiosk style, fullscreen GUI" which lauch at the start of the session and
prevent the WINDOWS, WINDOWS+E, WINDOWS+M and ALT+TAB keys to work, or that
sort of things...

Any tip or link?
Oct 15 '06 #1
13 1276

"Lloyd Dupont" <net.galador@ldwrote in message
news:uX****************@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
>A friend of mine has little kid. Big enough to use the computer.
He created a kid user with restricted user account for his kid but he
would like to remove the confusing start menu, etc.... with a simple, home
made, kiosk style, fullscreen GUI interface.
Not a gdi problem.
Oct 15 '06 #2
Hi Lloyd,

You can write an HTML application (.hta), which supports a full-screen kiosk mode, renders a web page-style interface and can
execute JavaScript to run programs, etc. Unfortunately, you won't be able to prevent ALT+TAB (and probably the Windows keys too)
from being activated. You can run this program (or any program) at startup by dropping a shortcut in the Start-->Program
Files-->Startup folder for the user.

Introduction to HTML Applications on MSDN:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/de...taoverview.asp

If you're more comfortable using .NET or would just like more control then you can use an HTA as the shell and write a custom
WinForms UserControl to supply the interface (using the <objecttag in your HTA).

Hosting WinForms UserControl in IE (MSDN):
http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/is...2/01/UserCtrl/

Technically, you could also write the entire application in managed code if you want but you'll have to figure out how to hide the
task bar. Create a WinForms application and add a startup Form. Hide all border chrome and set the Form's WindowState to
Maximized. Add a shortcut to your .exe in the Startup folder just like you would with an HTA.

I believe Windows supports a kiosk mode that you might be able to use; however, it might only be available on a Windows XP Embedded,
although I'm not really sure of that either.

Anyway, I think HTA is your best option if you have any experience writing web pages already and little experience writing managed
code. HTA supports a true kiosk mode and you can also embed .NET controls to render a GUI, or an MDX (managed DirextX) GUI, if you
want. However, no matter your choice it's not going to be possible to disable certain key combinations such as ALT+TAB and
CTRL+ALT+DEL.

GL

--
Dave Sexton

"Lloyd Dupont" <net.galador@ldwrote in message news:uX****************@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
>A friend of mine has little kid. Big enough to use the computer.
He created a kid user with restricted user account for his kid but he would like to remove the confusing start menu, etc.... with
a simple, home made, kiosk style, fullscreen GUI interface.

Which could just launch a bunch of game and logout/shutdown.

And he ask how to do that.
But I don't know!

It's why.. ahum.. I'm asking you, how to (or what's the best way to) write a "kiosk style, fullscreen GUI" which lauch at the
start of the session and prevent the WINDOWS, WINDOWS+E, WINDOWS+M and ALT+TAB keys to work, or that sort of things...

Any tip or link?

Oct 15 '06 #3
Lloyd Dupont wrote:
A friend of mine has little kid. Big enough to use the computer.
He created a kid user with restricted user account for his kid but he would
like to remove the confusing start menu, etc.... with a simple, home made,
kiosk style, fullscreen GUI interface.

Which could just launch a bunch of game and logout/shutdown.

And he ask how to do that.
But I don't know!

It's why.. ahum.. I'm asking you, how to (or what's the best way to) write a
"kiosk style, fullscreen GUI" which lauch at the start of the session and
prevent the WINDOWS, WINDOWS+E, WINDOWS+M and ALT+TAB keys to work, or that
sort of things...

Any tip or link?
Sounds like you need to replace the shell, from explorer to something other/simpler. ALT+TAB and windows key shortcuts will remain. However you can easily disable the windows keys (or any other) by a proper registry entries. There is such thing like scandcode map, though I'm not sure if it can be defined for each user individually.

--
Grzegorz Wróbel
http://www.4neurons.com/
677265676F727940346E6575726F6E732E636F6D
Oct 15 '06 #4
Loyd

Just drag and drop and than using the righ button on the start menu you can
remove all the settings from the start menu. Be aware that you have to do as
well all All Users settings.

Cor

"Lloyd Dupont" <net.galador@ldschreef in bericht
news:uX****************@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
>A friend of mine has little kid. Big enough to use the computer.
He created a kid user with restricted user account for his kid but he
would like to remove the confusing start menu, etc.... with a simple, home
made, kiosk style, fullscreen GUI interface.

Which could just launch a bunch of game and logout/shutdown.

And he ask how to do that.
But I don't know!

It's why.. ahum.. I'm asking you, how to (or what's the best way to) write
a "kiosk style, fullscreen GUI" which lauch at the start of the session
and prevent the WINDOWS, WINDOWS+E, WINDOWS+M and ALT+TAB keys to work, or
that sort of things...

Any tip or link?

Oct 15 '06 #5
hihi...
Truth to be told, I have much better experience writting .NET application
than HTML pages....
Although HTML pages are not that difficult :-)

"Dave Sexton" <dave@jwa[remove.this]online.comwrote in message
news:OB*************@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
Hi Lloyd,

You can write an HTML application (.hta), which supports a full-screen
kiosk mode, renders a web page-style interface and can execute JavaScript
to run programs, etc. Unfortunately, you won't be able to prevent ALT+TAB
(and probably the Windows keys too) from being activated. You can run
this program (or any program) at startup by dropping a shortcut in the
Start-->Program Files-->Startup folder for the user.

Introduction to HTML Applications on MSDN:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/de...taoverview.asp

If you're more comfortable using .NET or would just like more control then
you can use an HTA as the shell and write a custom WinForms UserControl to
supply the interface (using the <objecttag in your HTA).

Hosting WinForms UserControl in IE (MSDN):
http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/is...2/01/UserCtrl/

Technically, you could also write the entire application in managed code
if you want but you'll have to figure out how to hide the task bar.
Create a WinForms application and add a startup Form. Hide all border
chrome and set the Form's WindowState to Maximized. Add a shortcut to
your .exe in the Startup folder just like you would with an HTA.

I believe Windows supports a kiosk mode that you might be able to use;
however, it might only be available on a Windows XP Embedded, although I'm
not really sure of that either.

Anyway, I think HTA is your best option if you have any experience writing
web pages already and little experience writing managed code. HTA
supports a true kiosk mode and you can also embed .NET controls to render
a GUI, or an MDX (managed DirextX) GUI, if you want. However, no matter
your choice it's not going to be possible to disable certain key
combinations such as ALT+TAB and CTRL+ALT+DEL.

GL

--
Dave Sexton

"Lloyd Dupont" <net.galador@ldwrote in message
news:uX****************@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
>>A friend of mine has little kid. Big enough to use the computer.
He created a kid user with restricted user account for his kid but he
would like to remove the confusing start menu, etc.... with a simple,
home made, kiosk style, fullscreen GUI interface.

Which could just launch a bunch of game and logout/shutdown.

And he ask how to do that.
But I don't know!

It's why.. ahum.. I'm asking you, how to (or what's the best way to)
write a "kiosk style, fullscreen GUI" which lauch at the start of the
session and prevent the WINDOWS, WINDOWS+E, WINDOWS+M and ALT+TAB keys to
work, or that sort of things...

Any tip or link?


Oct 15 '06 #6
Thanks!

"Grzegorz Wróbel" </dev/nu**@localhost.localdomainwrote in message
news:eg**********@nemesis.news.tpi.pl...
Lloyd Dupont wrote:
>A friend of mine has little kid. Big enough to use the computer.
He created a kid user with restricted user account for his kid but he
would like to remove the confusing start menu, etc.... with a simple,
home made, kiosk style, fullscreen GUI interface.

Which could just launch a bunch of game and logout/shutdown.

And he ask how to do that.
But I don't know!

It's why.. ahum.. I'm asking you, how to (or what's the best way to)
write a "kiosk style, fullscreen GUI" which lauch at the start of the
session and prevent the WINDOWS, WINDOWS+E, WINDOWS+M and ALT+TAB keys to
work, or that sort of things...

Any tip or link?

Sounds like you need to replace the shell, from explorer to something
other/simpler. ALT+TAB and windows key shortcuts will remain. However you
can easily disable the windows keys (or any other) by a proper registry
entries. There is such thing like scandcode map, though I'm not sure if it
can be defined for each user individually.

--
Grzegorz Wróbel
http://www.4neurons.com/
677265676F727940346E6575726F6E732E636F6D

Oct 15 '06 #7
Lloyd Dupont wrote:
A friend of mine has little kid. Big enough to use the computer.
He created a kid user with restricted user account for his kid but he would
like to remove the confusing start menu, etc.... with a simple, home made,
kiosk style, fullscreen GUI interface.

Which could just launch a bunch of game and logout/shutdown.

And he ask how to do that.
But I don't know!

It's why.. ahum.. I'm asking you, how to (or what's the best way to) write a
"kiosk style, fullscreen GUI" which lauch at the start of the session and
prevent the WINDOWS, WINDOWS+E, WINDOWS+M and ALT+TAB keys to work, or that
sort of things...

Any tip or link?

I'm reading stuff about seperate shells, using html pages.. what ever
happened to just using the policies? Give the kid a separate login and
with the policy manager remove all rights except that what you allow.
--
Rinze van Huizen
C-Services Holland b.v
Oct 16 '06 #8
Lloyd Dupont wrote:
It's why.. ahum.. I'm asking you, how to (or what's the best way to) write a
"kiosk style, fullscreen GUI" which lauch at the start of the session and
prevent the WINDOWS, WINDOWS+E, WINDOWS+M and ALT+TAB keys to work, or that
sort of things...
I can strongly recommend KCSDK from Meliora Software, which does exactly
what you want. I have very good experience with it (with a kiosk
application that we developed). It can disable any key combination
(Ctrl+Esc, Ctrl+Alt+Del, Alt+Tab):

http://www.meliorasoft.com/kits/keyboard/index.php

It's not free, but it's not likely that you can develop such a solution
on your own. You'd have to replace the keyboard driver as well as the
logon manager. Do yourself a favor, and get a tested, reliable solution
like KCSDK.

Tom
Oct 16 '06 #9
Hi Lloyd,

The purpose of the HTA is not necessarily to write the entire interface in HTML, but to act as the fullscreen shell that will
completely cover the desktop, task bar and any docked tools windows.

You really don't need to know much about html. The link I gave you supplies all of the information that you need (and links to
other references as well) to get started.

You just need a single web page with an .hta extension. This will serve as the program file and it should contain the HTA header
that specifies the fullscreen setting, and an object tag that points to a WinForms UserControl that supplies the interface. The
html required is really quite small if you want to host a managed control as the interface.

Once you have a blank, fullscreen UserControl to work with the possibilities are endless. Add a TabControl if you want for
navigation. One of the tabs could even host a WebBrowser control for internet access.

HTH

--
Dave Sexton

"Lloyd Dupont" <net.galador@ldwrote in message news:uR**************@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
hihi...
Truth to be told, I have much better experience writting .NET application than HTML pages....
Although HTML pages are not that difficult :-)

"Dave Sexton" <dave@jwa[remove.this]online.comwrote in message news:OB*************@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
>Hi Lloyd,

You can write an HTML application (.hta), which supports a full-screen kiosk mode, renders a web page-style interface and can
execute JavaScript to run programs, etc. Unfortunately, you won't be able to prevent ALT+TAB (and probably the Windows keys too)
from being activated. You can run this program (or any program) at startup by dropping a shortcut in the Start-->Program
Files-->Startup folder for the user.

Introduction to HTML Applications on MSDN:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/de...taoverview.asp

If you're more comfortable using .NET or would just like more control then you can use an HTA as the shell and write a custom
WinForms UserControl to supply the interface (using the <objecttag in your HTA).

Hosting WinForms UserControl in IE (MSDN):
http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/is...2/01/UserCtrl/

Technically, you could also write the entire application in managed code if you want but you'll have to figure out how to hide
the task bar. Create a WinForms application and add a startup Form. Hide all border chrome and set the Form's WindowState to
Maximized. Add a shortcut to your .exe in the Startup folder just like you would with an HTA.

I believe Windows supports a kiosk mode that you might be able to use; however, it might only be available on a Windows XP
Embedded, although I'm not really sure of that either.

Anyway, I think HTA is your best option if you have any experience writing web pages already and little experience writing
managed code. HTA supports a true kiosk mode and you can also embed .NET controls to render a GUI, or an MDX (managed DirextX)
GUI, if you want. However, no matter your choice it's not going to be possible to disable certain key combinations such as
ALT+TAB and CTRL+ALT+DEL.

GL

--
Dave Sexton

"Lloyd Dupont" <net.galador@ldwrote in message news:uX****************@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
>>>A friend of mine has little kid. Big enough to use the computer.
He created a kid user with restricted user account for his kid but he would like to remove the confusing start menu, etc....
with a simple, home made, kiosk style, fullscreen GUI interface.

Which could just launch a bunch of game and logout/shutdown.

And he ask how to do that.
But I don't know!

It's why.. ahum.. I'm asking you, how to (or what's the best way to) write a "kiosk style, fullscreen GUI" which lauch at the
start of the session and prevent the WINDOWS, WINDOWS+E, WINDOWS+M and ALT+TAB keys to work, or that sort of things...

Any tip or link?



Oct 17 '06 #10
What is this policy manager you talking about?
I have XP Home edition, I looked into the Control Panel and into the
Accessories, but I didn't find it...

"C-Services Holland b.v." <cs*@DELTHIScsh4.nlwrote in message
news:e7******************************@zeelandnet.n l...
Lloyd Dupont wrote:
>A friend of mine has little kid. Big enough to use the computer.
He created a kid user with restricted user account for his kid but he
would like to remove the confusing start menu, etc.... with a simple,
home made, kiosk style, fullscreen GUI interface.

Which could just launch a bunch of game and logout/shutdown.

And he ask how to do that.
But I don't know!

It's why.. ahum.. I'm asking you, how to (or what's the best way to)
write a "kiosk style, fullscreen GUI" which lauch at the start of the
session and prevent the WINDOWS, WINDOWS+E, WINDOWS+M and ALT+TAB keys to
work, or that sort of things...

Any tip or link?

I'm reading stuff about seperate shells, using html pages.. what ever
happened to just using the policies? Give the kid a separate login and
with the policy manager remove all rights except that what you allow.
--
Rinze van Huizen
C-Services Holland b.v

Oct 17 '06 #11
Welll, I think I won't disable CTRL+ALT+SUPPR.
I don't want to replace any DLL!!!

"Sivakumar R" <rn*********@hotmail.comwrote in message
news:%2****************@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
Hi,
Look at the following link:
http://www.codeproject.com/win32/Ant...select=1578843

The last approach in this article is good and it is working. For disabling
the Alt + Tab, I used keyboard hooks (global hook). For disabling
Ctrl+Alt+Dll I used GINA.

Regards,
Sivakumar R
"Lloyd Dupont" <net.galador@ldwrote in message
news:uX****************@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
>>A friend of mine has little kid. Big enough to use the computer.
He created a kid user with restricted user account for his kid but he
would like to remove the confusing start menu, etc.... with a simple,
home made, kiosk style, fullscreen GUI interface.

Which could just launch a bunch of game and logout/shutdown.

And he ask how to do that.
But I don't know!

It's why.. ahum.. I'm asking you, how to (or what's the best way to)
write a "kiosk style, fullscreen GUI" which lauch at the start of the
session and prevent the WINDOWS, WINDOWS+E, WINDOWS+M and ALT+TAB keys to
work, or that sort of things...

Any tip or link?


Oct 21 '06 #12
great li9nk BTW.
Thanks!

"Sivakumar R" <rn*********@hotmail.comwrote in message
news:%2****************@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
Hi,
Look at the following link:
http://www.codeproject.com/win32/Ant...select=1578843

The last approach in this article is good and it is working. For disabling
the Alt + Tab, I used keyboard hooks (global hook). For disabling
Ctrl+Alt+Dll I used GINA.

Regards,
Sivakumar R
"Lloyd Dupont" <net.galador@ldwrote in message
news:uX****************@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
>>A friend of mine has little kid. Big enough to use the computer.
He created a kid user with restricted user account for his kid but he
would like to remove the confusing start menu, etc.... with a simple,
home made, kiosk style, fullscreen GUI interface.

Which could just launch a bunch of game and logout/shutdown.

And he ask how to do that.
But I don't know!

It's why.. ahum.. I'm asking you, how to (or what's the best way to)
write a "kiosk style, fullscreen GUI" which lauch at the start of the
session and prevent the WINDOWS, WINDOWS+E, WINDOWS+M and ALT+TAB keys to
work, or that sort of things...

Any tip or link?


Oct 21 '06 #13
Lloyd Dupont wrote:
What is this policy manager you talking about?
I have XP Home edition, I looked into the Control Panel and into the
Accessories, but I didn't find it...
Ah ok, that's not available in XP Home.

--
Rinze van Huizen
C-Services Holland b.v
Oct 23 '06 #14

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