anyone think a system loocker would be a good idea? yah know so if your usin portable apps somewhere public (like school or the ofice) noone could mess around with what your doing. request is out \(oo)/
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If you mean that you want to leave something on the system that you don't want others to have access to, you could use encryption. However, the owner of said system can easily delete your archive(s).
Vintage!
something more like a screensaver so you would need a password to do anything.
"There is a computer disease that anybody who works with computers knows about. It's a very serious disease and it interferes completely with the work. The trouble with computers is that you 'play' with them!" - Richard Feynman
"What about Love?" - "Overrated. Biochemically no different than eating large quantities of chocolate." - Al Pacino in The Devils Advocate
This request is a good idea. But there is no software which can look the desktop like screensaver / windows logon screen. I found some expensive shareware programms, but them did not work very well. If you strg + alt + entf and you`re fast you could execute commands anyway so this software has no point. Neither there is any secure or free software.
a computer system locker. something that when initiated would lock out all computer actions untuill the correct password was entered. if anyone has yahoo widgets, look up system locker and use it, this is basicly what i want but the widjet doesent block computer actions or ask for a password. thogh i do like that you can choose the pic is displays when locked.(supportd animated Gif pictures!)
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Zoop
Bottom line is that you can not do this. Unless you know the password to Windows and use a system-level lock. Any 'system locker' you use can very easily be overridden.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Well, sure he can restart the comp, boot from a boot cd and remove it. But stop, restarting the comp is all I want. Because
- all truecrypt containers are dismounted
- all active and unsaved work is lost.
If you use this, a bios password and a full disk encryption aswell too it`s a good protection.
This request is "just" if you are away for 5 min and can`t/don`t want to dismount all container / save all active work and so on. You want the windows logon screen in poratble mode, nothing more secure or magical. And there is no (free) programm which can provide this function.
You can very easily bring up the windows logon window by locking a PC. Just hit WINDOWS-L and it'll lock your current session waiting for a password. This is built into Windows and doesn't require an app.
But, if you don't know the Windows password for the PC, which you won't with a public PC... you could try and bring up an app that pretended to lock it... but that could very easily be worked around. That's what I'm saying.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
I guess at least admin rights would be needed for such a program. But if you have admin rights, it should be possible to make such a look program? (only workarround restart)
A programm runs foreground, alt + tab, windows key, alt + strg + entf, tasklist, all is disabeld. What could be a workarround which could not be stopped by the program?
Just hit WINDOWS-L. That's it. And your workstation is locked. All your stuff is still running. No muss. No fuss. Why on earth would you need a program to do this? It's built into Windows.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Just hit WINDOWS-L. That's it. And your workstation is locked. All your stuff is still running.
And this is a problem. At my university one can log in as a guest and send e-mails from the logged-in account.
"Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do." Asimov
Windows + L only works in XP (and later?). Not in W2K.
Also, what if the user and password are publicly known (guest guest)?
I think that an old (W9x) style screensaver could be useful, not as a real, tight, uncrackable, security measure, but as a privacy helper, just to keep prying eyes away from your screen while you get up five mins to the toilet.
Just a program running full screen, stay on top, and capturing all key and mouse events until you type the correct password. I guess some key combinations will be rather hard to catch but well...
I wouldn't put it top of the list, but perhaps I wouldn't discard it so fast.
Anybody knows of any old screen saver that's open source and in Delphi????
If you have admin rights, you have the password, and you can do what john says win+L. If you don't have admin rights, what you are asking for is not possible. Either way you see it, there's no need for such an app.
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"I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand." -- Confucius
"Sometimes I worry about being a success in a mediocre world." -- Lily Tomlin
"In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on." -- Robert Frost
"In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: baby ain't mine." -- Adam Holguin
Go get that Auto Theme thing, which'll change you backgrounf, remove the desktop icons, and then you can go hide the taskbar, and set your background as a screenshot of the logon screen.
Can you even take screenshots of that?
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I felt so different without a signature.
...because it`s the point of portable apps not to change the anything on the host system. To reconfigure all his accounts to set a secure password everywhere and undo these changes is not a good idea.
I was just kidding cause it's a really shoddy way.
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I felt so different without a signature.
god you guys are wierd. it runs as a normal program, and when you click lock or hit a hot key, it locks out task manager, blacks out the screen and then it gives you a SEPERATE LOGIN known only by the locker prog. i can post a link to the installer later when i have it. then surf around to see that you dont have to have admin rights or the windows login because it is a totaly seperate program.
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Zoop
In Windows 9x, when the screen saver starts, nothing happens with the user session. The session is not locked in any way. It is just the screen saver (which is a normal .exe with it's name changed to .scr) running full screen. When you do anything with the keyboard or the mouse, as the screen saver is on top of all other windows, it's got the focus, and gets the first chance to catch those events and it doesn't let any of them through, it just shows a dialogue box asking for the password. (Only true for good quality ones. Some of the cheap ones would not catch Ctrl + Alt + Del, and the list of tasks showed, and you could kill them).
Notice that in those times, the password for the screen saver was a separate password from the user's login password.
So if you manage to get an old screen saver, or one that's not so old but still fit for W9x, you have your problem solved.
Well... actually, you're still going to have to google for the switches and prepare different icons with different command line options. For instance: if you say: "screensaver.scr /c" you get the settings panel for the screen saver, if you say "screensaver.scr /p ######" you get the preview version of the screen saver (###### should be the handle of the preview window, which is the screen of the little display on the "pick your screensaver" dialoge, so only Windows is going to use that one), and if you say "screensaver.scr /s, it runs full screen (This is the one you should use when you get up to go to the toilet). I believe there are a couple more switches, specifically one to set the password....
If you find any nice, free, screensaver that will handle all this right, please post a link.
you guys sereously dont get it do you? go and look up EGT system locker and use it!! here are the details. no screensaver, seperate screen that the prog projects, uses seperate program sets to initiate a lock that will stop all input unless the password is inserted into the program and NOT windows, it is persistant through shutdowns and crashes as well as power outages because as it locks, it writes a code to the hard drive so restarting will only load the code and lock the system, you dont need admin rights to use it. (windows lock: XP= winkey=L PRO= ctrl+alt+del+lock in menu that pops up.)
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Zoop
Wences has the idea. (spot on!) \(^^)/
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Zoop
That EGT software you describe sounds interesting but (3 buts):
a) I couldn't find it. Perhaps it doesn't rank so well in Google, perhaps it was just my own stupidity...
b) Can it really do all that without admin rights? Wow! Windows security sucks even worse than I thought if you can lock a computer like that without having admin privileges! (just think of a virus doing that... Not funny!)
c) Not portable by definition, that is: unless it gives a way to block the computer only for this time, untilthe USB drive is unplugged. Portable means all your settings go with you and your USB drive, the ones you'll need, the ones you won't need, even the ones that prevent your programs from working the way you'd like... and that "go" means both things: that they go with you, and that they must be gone from the computer, so taking the USB drive and leaving behind a computer that is locked waiting for your password isn't "portable" in this strict sense (nor friendly towards other people who might need that computer). Of course, if it can be set to NOT lock the computer so much, then it could be portable.
Any luck looking for an old screen saver?
but only on Warez-sites so I wouldn't trust it too much.
"There is a computer disease that anybody who works with computers knows about. It's a very serious disease and it interferes completely with the work. The trouble with computers is that you 'play' with them!" - Richard Feynman
"What about Love?" - "Overrated. Biochemically no different than eating large quantities of chocolate." - Al Pacino in The Devils Advocate
ive got a clean copy so if someone will host it......
and i dont think that it is currently portable, but i will se if i install it onto a flash, and see if it will work. oh. and if you look up the EGT system locker site, then it will pull up a page directly linked to the download.('s how i got mine!)
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Zoop
A couple weeks back you said you wanted a portable versionof Chip's Challenge. Well, if you go to the Beta Testing forums, and look for Tile World Portable, I made a portable version of Tile World which is a clone of Chip's Challenge. It's the next best thing. Go check it out I thot you should know just cause it looks like you haven't seen it.
P.S. I can host it for you maybe.
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I felt so different without a signature.
thanks for the update, i'll check it out. (BTW, is it like an exact clone or are some things changed from MS's prog?)
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Zoop
thanks for the update, i'll check it out. (BTW, is it like an exact clone or are some things changed from MS's prog?)
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Zoop
i accedently double posted!
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Zoop
It has its own level set and im pretty sure there are other sets available. Also, if you have the chips.dat file from the original MS game, you can import that level set as well
The developer formerly known as ZGitRDun8705
shweet!
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Zoop
sorry for the double post
The developer formerly known as ZGitRDun8705
i was the one who double posted!
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Zoop
i did too...it posted my comment about level sets twice, so i just edited the last one to say sorry for the double post
The developer formerly known as ZGitRDun8705
ahhh! ok, the smoke has cleared!
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Zoop
That's exactly what I can't find! I can't seem to find EGT's home page, unless they have changed the company name and are no longer EGTsoft but sowsoft?
a page that has it. i have checked it out and it is clean. here is the link: http://freeline.ws/e.phtml?page=12 this should give you a download for it, otherwise, if someone will host it than i may be able to give the installer. i also might be able to put it on my msn page. i will have to reactivate the page thogh.
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Zoop
turns out that EGT system locker is www.sowsoft.com 's Active System Locker! they also have a free download. dont try it yet! ill check it out to see if it is the same and check back in a few hours.
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Zoop
the link sowsoft link will take you to the homepage and then scroll down to the Active System Locker, and that is the one that i was talking about. when installed it says EGTsystem locker. the download is free! and the sowsoft page is the original page so i am confirming that that is the page with the download.
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Zoop
did anyone check this out?
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Zoop
Is it open source?
Why can't you just press Windows+L?
He wants to lock a system that's not his that he's not supposed to be locking (a system at his school). Everyone knows the passwords so Windows-L won't be helpful.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Oh right. Maybe he should reconsider why he want's to lock it... At university some people used to lock the computers then go and have lunch - very selfish and annoying for other users.
Good job you can just power off and on again.
IT policies in public areas aren't just made up on a whim, they are there for the good of everyone who uses them.
five mins to take a pee, without having to hide whatever private matters you might be handling?
Granted: this could create a lot of chances for abuse... but it would also have some legitimate uses.
What about if you are in your office in a PC you have to share with another of colleague and with other 6 that will not use your PC but certainly can access it, you plug your drive to send and receive mails automatically and let it alone to do the field work (Veterinarians in a Zoo)... nobody will take away your drive but surely the can access it... isn't that a legitimate use?
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If a packet hits a pocket on a socket on a port,
and the bus is interrupted as a very last resort,
and the address of the memory makes your floppy disk abort,
then the socket packet pocket has an error to report
Just take the monitor power cable.
Or the keyboard.
“Science is the belief in the ignorance of the experts” - Richard P. Feynman
"What about Love?" - "Overrated. Biochemically no different than eating large quantities of chocolate." - Al Pacino in The Devils Advocate
the monitor itself.
Vintage!
Oh no, thats called a laptop.
“Science is the belief in the ignorance of the experts” - Richard P. Feynman
"What about Love?" - "Overrated. Biochemically no different than eating large quantities of chocolate." - Al Pacino in The Devils Advocate
When you minimize Keepass and restore it, Keepass ask for a password again... so what about some utility (maybe a convey plugin? that do same in all our portable apps running from our portables???
I don't know, just trying to find a solution to this request...
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Should I have a signature?
If a packet hits a pocket on a socket on a port,
and the bus is interrupted as a very last resort,
and the address of the memory makes your floppy disk abort,
then the socket packet pocket has an error to report
if that ended up being a feature, then I'd suggest making it an optional one. I personally would find it really annoying to have to enter a password every time I want to run a program off my drive.
...but we are hijacking the thread here.
Regarding locking a public computer, I doubt that many system administrators would be stupid enough to allow a program running on a removable disk to take control of one of their computers to that extent. If you search around on these forums, some people have even encountered computers that won't let something as benign as FFP run on them. Allowing a program to lock (aka take control of) a public computer, at least in my eyes, would be a huge security risk.
I'd bring up another question. Why do you want to lock a public computer at all? If you walk away, and leave your stick in the computer, anyone can walk up, yank it, and head off with your data. If you don't leave your stick in the computer, and lock it, then you are being a jerk, making a public computer (which you are not currently using) useless to anyone but you.
__
chris
It is not your audience's responsibility to puzzle out what you intended to say; it is your responsibility to express yourself so clearly that no one with a modicum of intelligence and good will could possibly mistake your meaning.
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chris
It is not your audience's responsibility to puzzle out what you intended to say; it is your responsibility to express yourself so clearly that no one with a modicum of intelligence and good will could possibly mistake your meaning.
Well, it's already been stated that this stuff works just temporarily, there are ways to get around it. But, for a 5 minute bathroom break it will work. There are two options on sourceforge. They are MikeBrother and WinKeyLock. Being that they are on sourceforge, I'm guessing they are 100% free and free. I tried out both of them and here are my thoughts. MikeBrother is 1.0Beta, it has a "toolbar" on top of the screen, on top of all windows. It does have an option to minimize to tray. You choose your password to unlock the computer. When you lock the PC, the toolbar is visible on top again, until you unlock it. WinKeyLock alwyas sits on the tray, but you cannot assign a password, its only combinations of shift-alt-ctrl plus any other key, which in my opinion is good enough. Both save their settings in an INI file, and I'm 95% sure that WinKeyLock is portable, not sure about MikeBrother. Well, there it is, you guy decide what to do now.
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"I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand." -- Confucius
"Sometimes I worry about being a success in a mediocre world." -- Lily Tomlin
"In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on." -- Robert Frost
"In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: baby ain't mine." -- Adam Holguin
the EGT system locker writes a code to the hard drive so powering off after it has been locked is usless. and you lock it because you have info on there that youdont want people getting at or changing or you would like to keep your information. and winkey+l only works in XP home. and i unfortunately just figured out that it is only a trial and you have to buy the system locker prog. it would be nice if someone could make a launcher thogh.
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Zoop
If it affects the system even when powered off, then it ain't a portable app. So it would have no business being here.
I suggest letting this topic go. If you want to violate school policies, you shouldn't be asking people here to help you do so.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
+ you have to pay for it so that is all the more reason why i am stoping this topic. (BTW this is my first topic that i started to have more than one page. (self accomplishment))
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Zoop
when i was at school i always got annoyed when people messed with my system when I walked awawy for a second or two. So when i started college I started teaching myself the basics of programming, and i've so far managed to make a small portable system lock using Visual Basic 6 (Only programming language i know :P).
I don't know how easy it would be for experts to break, but the rest of my classs mates can't break it at least, and most of them use my program and find it useful.
the program isnt quite finished yet, but its quite customizible with passwords, pictures, autologoff if you wish, and quite a few other things.
the finished version will be done in the next few weeks, i still test it quite alot searching for bugs
but if anyone is interested in the program, they can email me at aztectrev - [whirlpool] - hotmail - [spot] - com
[obfuscated e-mail - moderator PP]
i feel the need to make some annotations, too.
First (the serious one): @aztectrev just post your app here, when it´s been finished, I´d really like to take a look on it..
Second: @wences https://portableapps.com/node/6631#comment-35448 . There´s always a good reason for locking up the public PC - imagine you stumbling through the corridors in desperate search for a public lavatory not being locked up by someone else, just for recurrent personal usage and keeping privacy, of course ..
Third (senseless one): @ the OP
WARNING!!! 
There´s a simple nontech method of locking a system, a "secret weapon" highly developed by us, the German tourists, for locking public beach or pool equipment just for personal use.Inhabitants and employees of mediterranean tourist centers/hotels will know: the "German Towel"
Instructions: stand up early in the morning and place your towel on the selected
equipment. Thus prevent it from being used by others than yourself.Why secret..?
Other nation´s tourist won´t take notice of it because they wouldn´t be back in hotel that early...;)
Now this has been highly improved by our IT scientists and is called:
the worn out "Sticky Towel" - in use 24/7, at least for six months ( no washing, tumbling or drying!)
Instructions aka above, but..
Don´t try this at home!
Extensive usage might compromise both your PC and personal relationships!
Not recommended for minors and adults aged 99 or below !
So, if this was useful, i´d feel like coming back here next week..
...with our most recently developped and very promising tool for keeping your unguarded Flashdrive/HDD safe - the "Sticky socks" (you know in use 24/7, at least for six months - no washing....)- link will be posted
"Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisici elit, sed eiusmod tempor incidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis .." Friday Next -
"May The Schwartz be with You!" Yogurt the Yoda
Maybe Don't Panic! Portable will do the trick
Insert original signature here with Greasemonkey Script.
since you guys revived this topic, i have revised what i was thinking. i know that older screensavers from the Winx / 95 era could have a password applied to them as a seperate thing, meaning if you set a password to that specifiv screensaver and then put it on a floppy and used it off of the floppy on another comp, it would have the same password. so i was thinking, why not just do that? thoes older screensavers work on all systems and would be an effective way of locking the comp without writing anything to the hard drive and the screensaver itself would not effect the comp at all meaning it will completely leave your comp alone. i was wondering if someone could code one of these older screensavers for use with the PAM and to fix the Ctrl + Alt + Del override problem, if you could, one could launch the screensaver from the PAM and protect his session without effcting the comp!
Zoop
It would not be perfectly secure but still very useful imho.
If someone removes power and restarts the truecrypt containers are dismounted and I don`t need to shut down everything. And cold boot attacks are not fashion yet (happens in very limited cases).
and if you sued the screensaver solution that i mantioned in my previous post, it would be no different than running portable firefox in the way that it would not interact with the computer itself even the slightest bit.
if you wanted to turn off the comp, you would have no problems.
Zoop
The entire point of the ctrl-alt-delete keysequence is that it is not possible to trap it in software - you can always guarantee that the operating system gets it and handles it, overriding any and every running application. Otherwise you could write an app that looked like a login screen that ran when you hit the combo, and happily harvested people's login details from them.
So, any time you see an old screensaver running, you will always be able to three-finger your way out of it.
well with that aside, the idea of a screensaver to use as a computer lock is a great idea. and even with the ability to "Three finger" my way out of it, that just makes it more like a portable "App" instead of a screensaver.
Zoop
What if you forget the password, or the host who owns the PC has to use it while your gone? This would not make the host happy. And even if you could get a program to lock the PC, just unplug the flashdrive, and they have access to the PC.
Simplifying daily life through technology
well if you forget the password, there is the whole Ctrl+Alt+Del thing as well as the fact that you can just restart the comp. and the program would be loaded into RAM so even if you unplugged the flashdrive, the program would still be running just like if you ran portable firefox and unplugged the drive, it still works without the drive. and the program would be more like a "Privacy" lock versus a "Security" lock, it would be like this: "Hm, i want to use the computer! (Wiggles mouse) Woah, someone is using this, i'll wait, if he doesent come back for a while i can just manually exit the proggy!"
Zoop
Wouldn`t it be possible for such a lock application to disable the windows hotkeys (ex. 3 finger)? Or are admin rights needed to disable them?
since it is only a screensaver, that couldent happen. and even if someone found a way to code a screensaver to disable the "Three finger", it would require admin rights which throws that out.
Zoop
It is an Operating System override that can and will interrupt any application program, whether that program has admin level rights or not.
It is called a Secure Attention Key (SAK). Part of the design behind it is that you can always be certain that you are talking to the real windows OS, not so some lookalike application, after you press it. If it brings up a password prompt, you can be sure that is is the windows one, not somebody farming your password. If there was any way to override that by disabling it and trapping it for yourself, it would bypass a key security component in Windows, would be classed as a critical security bug, and would be patch by Microsoft (eventually...). The wiki article about this is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_attention_key
So, no, it is never going to be possible.
and if you read my posts, you would know that that is what i just said. in any case, the idea of the locking screensaver is a good idea because it would lock the computer but allow the lock to be disabled in the situation where the password cannot be acuired. the lock would serve ad a deturrant and not a security lock.
Zoop
The locking program I am working on, cannot disable the ctrl alt delete command.
Basically what my program does is:
Create a maximized window
Sets this window to stay on top
Starts a timer that kills the taskmanager process every 10th of a second
Other combinations used to exit programs have been disabled such as Alt f4 or alt tab, and all Windows key combinations
stays locked until you use the password you set, or you insert your flash drive with the key file on it
It has an autologoff function (This would be used if the current user doesnt return to the computer) that when activated will end the lock program, and logout to the windows logon dialog so none of the files can be accessed (all other program would have to be exited before the program is running, as it will force logout). This method would not give anyone time to stop the logoff process, and the users files would be safe.
>>Starts a timer that kills the taskmanager process every 10th of a second
Don`t do it time based. Event based would be better, if possible. If not, why not try every 1 ms? If this won`t hurt cpu or so.
I have read about something like windows message queue. You can kick out windows there, you won`t even see a flash.
Should be also possible to disable the 3-finger or windows key and such. Just by hooking somewhere in the system and intercepting it. Maybe admin rights are needed, so do this only if you have admin rights. (Xp is still on 90 % of all computers and most of them are always admin.)