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I am trying to disable windows start menu key and Ctrl+Esc and Alt-Tab for a Quiz project. Where user cannot press Startmenu. I was successful in disabling Ctrl+Alt+Del and Ctrl+Shift+Esc.
OS is XP.

NIMISHAN
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Yajuvendra Vant
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2 Answers2

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You might want to try this tool from Microsoft, it may save you a lot of work: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=d077a52d-93e9-4b02-bd95-9d770ccdb431&displaylang=en

You can use it to create a kiosk mode in Windows XP. I used a predecessor of this tool myself to create a environment for a quiz.

Hinek
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    I have used SteadyState and have only good to say about it. Saves a lot of work. So if its ok with "yet another install", then I would recommend using ut. – Stefan Jul 22 '10 at 13:39
  • Actually this is a product that we are building, so where ever this software is installed we need to install Steadystate too. I doubt whelther the clients will accept it. – Yajuvendra Vant Jul 23 '10 at 04:45
  • Ok, I thought it was for a single project, not a product. In this case you need code, of course, good luck! – Hinek Jul 26 '10 at 06:52
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    Steadystate was amazing tool i installed in my local machine and tried it. Thanks Hinek for the information. – Yajuvendra Vant Jul 27 '10 at 09:53
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this is one way to kill the Taskbar and Program Menu, just kill the process "explorer.exe". If you have a dedicated computer that only runs your program then it could be a solution.

Tested and worked on my computer:

Sub KillExplorer()

    Dim taskKill As ProcessStartInfo = New ProcessStartInfo("taskkill", "/F /IM explorer.exe")
    taskKill.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden
    Dim Process As Process = New Process()
    Process.StartInfo = taskKill
    Process.Start()
    Process.WaitForExit()

End Sub
Sub RestartExplorer()
    System.Diagnostics.Process.Start("explorer.exe")
End Sub

taskkill.exe is a util that you can find in windows\system32, for more information: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb491009.aspx

You cant kill explorer.exe with process.kill beacuse then it will only restart immediately, thats why I use taskkill instead.

Stefan
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  • hey sorry for the delay. Yes i have tried it and it worked fine. i tried in a sample project i need to move it to main project and check it. Thanks a lot. – Yajuvendra Vant Jul 27 '10 at 09:42
  • Great! Good luck with the project. – Stefan Jul 27 '10 at 09:48
  • Stefan got a problem, Win+u is working, showing utility manager. how to disable it. any suggestions.Thanks. – Yajuvendra Vant Jul 27 '10 at 10:05
  • How did you disable Win+R and Win-E? – Stefan Jul 27 '10 at 13:00
  • Win+R i was able to do by adding "NoRun" to registry->currentuser->software->microsoft->windows->currentversion->policies->Explorer pragrammatically(dont try to add from regedit, may create problem if no idea about regedit) and delete explorer folder from registry when unloading the program. And ur code also disabling run. Now to the issue, win+u is ok because the user cannot access any data. Now the problem is the 'show desktop' in the taskbar is disappearing after exiting from the application. I need to right-click the taskbar and add it again. is there a solution for this. – Yajuvendra Vant Jul 27 '10 at 13:09
  • To recreate the "Show desktop" in the quick launch: Create a file in %userprofile%\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch that has the name "Show desktop.scf", the content of the file should be: [Shell] Command=2 IconFile=explorer.exe,3 [Taskbar] Command=ToggleDesktop – Stefan Jul 27 '10 at 13:41
  • Correction, the showdesktop i mentioned was the quick launch. it was quick launch that is disappearing. – Yajuvendra Vant Jul 28 '10 at 04:31
  • any suggestions to enable quicklaunch. – Yajuvendra Vant Jul 29 '10 at 07:24
  • Try running this : System.Diagnostics.Process.Start("regsvr32 /n /i:U shell32") – Stefan Jul 29 '10 at 10:31
  • I you have more trouble with it I recommend you start a new question about it, its easier to answer and more will see it. – Stefan Jul 29 '10 at 20:33