Valware   -  Mar 03, 2013

Dear Hawkee,
Do you think people would use software in a client that basically does the same as a library computer. I'll tell you what I mean.
When it's loaded up, it mimimizes the client to the taskbar tray, it kills explorer.exe (Stopping Windows-Key functions like minimize and also gets rid of the taskbar etc), stopping you from being able to open the client and edit any of the scripts.
It then edits the registry to disable the use of the Task Manager (so you can't kill the process).
After that, it brings up a full size "default background" image (that you cannot exit) and gives you a logon prompt. Once logged in as a user, you have a "Start Menu" at the top, you can load (and ONLY load) the options that are displayed (Which you can add your own things or delete things as admin). You can also change your wallpaper and access your own documents.
When logged in as admin, you can edit what a user sees as well as be able to do all the functions a standard user can. You can also have use of Task Manager and if you want, edit the Windows registry manually. Only when logged in as an admin can you exit the process and restart explorer.exe.
Any ideas welcome!

Note: FOXHOUND is an organisation within my favourite game, Metal Gear Solid, I'm using it as a temp name just now, all rights to Metal Gear Solid.

EDIT: This code is coded in the mIRC client

SReject  -  Mar 05, 2013

No offense, but this, all around seems fishy. Most modern operating systems are able to lock out non-authorized users. And killing explorer.exe also stops users from being able to access the filesystem under windows. So you'd have to recreate your own version of explorer.exe for users to be able to view the files they DO have access to.

This also applies to creating/saving files. Most software uses an OS's API for writing to the file system. For windows, the most commonly used program to do as such is - you guessed it - explorer.exe.

AND if you allow for creating/saving of say, text files, then opening/closing of such files, will lead to an issue:

fixit.bat:

explorer.exe

and now explorer is opened again

I mean, if you give someone the ability to create and open a text file, then it becomes quite easy to undo everything you are trying to stop, especially if a knowledgeable user has access to any of the various scripting languages that come with windows... PowerShell, vbscript, jscript, - or one of the more likely to be installed: java, php, actionscript(flash)

Valware  -  Mar 05, 2013

@SReject I have considered a lot of possibilities.
I have created dialogs that allow a user to access their own folder in the mIRC directory. It allows them to snoop around in only their folder.
As for text files, I've created a dialog that can be used in replacing notepad, and again, uses a custom save/open dialog to allow access only to the users files.
When opening anything, the script will check for any vbscripts or javascript etc and halt it. Without windows.exe, I am, have, and will be continuing to create my own dialogs that handle things for a user.
Again, this script allows you to add/delete your own menu items, so the security really lies down to the person who uses it.
I plan on recreating a lot of applications in mIRC dialog script.
At the moment, it is very basic (there's no right-click options for anything, things look boring).
Also, to clarify, you can't use a USB with it without express admin permission. Obviously explorer.exe has the runs th autoplay, and this is one of the advantages of disabling it.

Sorasyn  -  Mar 06, 2013

This is a project that is way outside the scope of mIRC. It's much too restrictive, and high level, to provide any of this functionality out of the box, without DLL support, or other means. Even if this is achieved, mIRC would still need to be up, and the script would have to be ran through mIRC, and would take a huge performance hit.

I would suggest doing such a project in any Windows specific language, or perhaps Java. All of which will be enormously easier, and run much more efficiently.

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