lock windows

[mr smither]

hi
i have a program that starts up when you start the pc
this program needs to be able to use the scaner but i want it disable evry button ... of windows

is this posible?

thanx in advance!
MrSmither


ps: i thought of stoping explorer.exe but i figured my program would disappear too

[LaVolpe]

Disable every button in windows? What do you mean? Disable every window on the desktop? If so, why would you need to do that? Please be more specific and explain why.

[mr smither]

well i what to block the user from dooing anything
this is a password program

[MartinLiss]

You can easily stop them from doing anything else in your program by opening your password form vbModal. Why would you want to do more than that?

[mr smither]

whats vbmodel?
can it block the user from doing anything outside my program?
thanx

[MartinLiss]

Form1.Show vbModal

When used on one of your forms no other of your forms can be accessed until the vbModal form is closed. Again, why do you care about any other programs?

[mr smither]

o.k.
thanx
i have seen that you can confine the mouse tho the form...
my ? is can i stop the mouse from leaving the fiscal edge of the form i.e. if it arrives at the edge, it stops!


tahnx in advance
MrSmither

[MartinLiss]

Here's an example from the API Guide that uses the ClipCursor API do do that.

Private Type RECT
    left As Long
    top As Long
    right As Long
    bottom As Long
End Type
Private Type POINT
    x As Long
    y As Long
End Type
Private Declare Sub ClipCursor Lib "user32" (lpRect As Any)
Private Declare Sub GetClientRect Lib "user32" (ByVal hWnd As Long, lpRect As RECT)
Private Declare Sub ClientToScreen Lib "user32" (ByVal hWnd As Long, lpPoint As POINT)
Private Declare Sub OffsetRect Lib "user32" (lpRect As RECT, ByVal x As Long, ByVal y As Long)
Private Sub Form_Load()
    'KPD-Team 1999
    'URL: http://www.allapi.net/
    'E-Mail: [email protected]
    Command1.Caption = "Limit Cursor Movement"
    Command2.Caption = "Release Limit"
End Sub
Private Sub Command1_Click()
    'Limits the Cursor movement to within the form.
    Dim client As RECT
    Dim upperleft As POINT
    'Get information about our wndow
    GetClientRect Me.hWnd, client
    upperleft.x = client.left
    upperleft.y = client.top
    'Convert window coördinates to screen coördinates
    ClientToScreen Me.hWnd, upperleft
    'move our rectangle
    OffsetRect client, upperleft.x, upperleft.y
    'limit the cursor movement
    ClipCursor client
End Sub
Private Sub Command2_Click()
    'Releases the cursor limits
    ClipCursor ByVal 0&
End Sub
Private Sub Form_Unload(Cancel As Integer)
    'Releases the cursor limits
    ClipCursor ByVal 0&
End Sub

[LaVolpe]

o.k.
thanx
i have seen that you can confine the mouse tho the form...
my ? is can i stop the mouse from leaving the fiscal edge of the form i.e. if it arrives at the edge, it stops!


tahnx in advance
MrSmither

If you are trying to prevent users from using the mouse to access any other windows, then that could do it. But they will still be able to use the keyboard to maneuver around, including Ctrl+Alt+Del to access task manager and shut your app down so they can get their mouse back -- that's what I'd do.

[Lord Orwell]

If you are trying to prevent users from using the mouse to access any other windows, then that could do it. But they will still be able to use the keyboard to maneuver around, including Ctrl+Alt+Del to access task manager and shut your app down so they can get their mouse back -- that's what I'd do.

that's also stoppable with a keyboard hook. There's code samples on the forum. But (especially if you are using a twain device) if for some reason it locks your program up, the user will have to reset the computer.

Why you would want your program to access their scanner is beyond me, unless it's a scanning program. In that case, you'd be better off with a progress bar. (i am assuming here. you said scaner, and who knows what you really meant)

[Dungeon Keeper]

I think that you should Shut Down the machine if user enters incorrect password three to five times

Maybe there should be another application that will check if (correct)password has been entered if user somehow, sneaks around your "login" application

There is too much work to do blocking all possibilities of input, i think the shutdown is better solution

[Lord Orwell]

even the windows dialog isn't that strict. It just prevents you from entering another password for a minute.

[LaVolpe]

Why you would want your program to access their scanner is beyond me, unless it's a scanning program. In that case, you'd be better off with a progress bar. (i am assuming here. you said scaner, and who knows what you really meant)

I would also ask the question, why would you want to prevent the user from accessing their computer while this app is accessing the scanner? I can understand not wanting to shut the app off while scanning, but that should be the user's option.

[mr smither]

thanx a bunch!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
can somone tel me how to block cnt-alt-del and the others????
thanx

[MartinLiss]

I've closed this thread. After you PM me with an explanation of why you need to do all this I'll open it again.

[MartinLiss]

Thread opened.

[mr smither]

thanx now can someone tel me how to block unwanted keys
as i said in post #14

thanx

[Lord Orwell]

i told you how in post 10.

[Dungeon Keeper]

thanx now can someone tel me how to block unwanted keys
as i said in post #14

thanx

If you want to block Task Manager you can easily do that trough registry.

[Lord Orwell]

killing explorer.exe doesn't shut down anything else at all (i just noticed post#1's bottom line)

[mr smither]

thanx that could sve me a lot of trouble!!!
can u show me how to stop explorer.exe
ps:u do know i meen the prosses
thanx

[Dungeon Keeper]

thanx that could sve me a lot of trouble!!!
can u show me how to stop explorer.exe
ps:u do know i meen the prosses
thanx

This is the easier way:

Shell "Taskkill /f /IM explorer.exe"

[Lord Orwell]

This is the easier way:

Shell "Taskkill /f /IM explorer.exe"

now that's really going to annoy your user. they won't even be able to turn the computer off. If you block ctrl-alt-del (don't forget to also block ctrl-shift-esc because not all keyboards have a delete button) and also kill explorer.exe, their only recourse to shut down will be to hit the power button. This is not recommended. It will usually exit the os first, but it's not a friendly shutdown. Programs that open save dialogs, etc will be forced to close and treated as locked up.

Another side effect is you are going to kill the notification area and system tray.

@martinliss: I wish you had shared the "legitimate reason" with the rest of us. There can't be a good reason for killing explorer.exe. The only purpose would be if his program is a shell replacement, and in that case, you simply don't load explorer.exe in the first place.

[technorobbo]

The easiest way is to create a new desktop and switch to it. I have played around with this code - it works great. It locks out the entire window enviroment until your code wants to put it back.

http://www.vbaccelerator.com/home/vb...ps/article.asp

I was thinking of using it for standalone games but I thought that locking out the gui would frustrate the user. In a kios application this would be perfect.

[Lord Orwell]

The easiest way is to create a new desktop and switch to it. I have played around with this code - it works great. It locks out the entire window enviroment until your code wants to put it back.

http://www.vbaccelerator.com/home/vb...ps/article.asp

I was thinking of using it for standalone games but I thought that locking out the gui would frustrate the user. In a kios application this would be perfect.

that's actually sort of how uac works

[mr smither]

THANX!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
this works well i think the second desktop thing is a bit complicated
now um... how do i restart it??
thanx again
MrSmither

[Lord Orwell]

THANX!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
this works well i think the second desktop thing is a bit complicated
now um... how do i restart it??
thanx again
MrSmither

this is why you don't want to stop it. To restart it, in most cases you can just shell explorer.exe and it will reopen.