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Disable certian keyboard keys

Good morning all.

I'm in need of a way to somehow disable two keyboard keys, the ALT and the CTRL key. I'm setting up a customer internet kiosk environment and I do not want customers being able to use certain key combinations. Group Policies can only do so much. :)

Environement
AD
Windows XP SP 1
IE 6.0

Has anyone done this before? I did see some stuff out there, but that would require editing the web page which we do NOT want to do. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

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Answers (4)

Posted by: cdupuis 19 years ago
Third Degree Green Belt
0
It is possible but there is only so much AD will do for you. I would try software to do this.
http://www.bytegems.com/ihatethiskeydeluxe.shtml This software doesn't specify that it disables the Alt or Ctrl keys, but looking at software like this may be a good start.
Posted by: cdupuis 19 years ago
Third Degree Green Belt
0
Another idea would be to use group policy to disable the functions that using those keys performs instead of disbling those keys to begin with.
Posted by: lldan 19 years ago
Senior Yellow Belt
0
Here it is.

I finally found a tool that tells you the registry key(s) that it creates when you change (remap) keys. This freeware tool is called KeyTweak, yes it's free! The cool thing is you don't have to install it on the machine you want to lock down. Use this tool that automatically creates your registry key, then export, import or add into a script. Enjoy!!

URL:
http://webpages.charter.net/krumsick/

Registry key to lock the following keyboard keys. (remap to the F1 key)

Right CTRL
Right Windows
Right ALT

Left CTRL
Left Windows
Left ALT

DO NOT RUN THIS ON A PRODUCTION MACHINE.
'=====================================================

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

'locks left right Windows, CTRL, and ALT keys
'Reboot required

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Keyboard Layout]
"Scancode Map"=hex:00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,08,00,00,00,3b,00,1d,00,3b,00,5b,e0,\
3b,00,38,00,3b,00,38,e0,3b,00,5c,e0,3b,00,5d,e0,3b,00,1d,e0,00,00,00,00

'=====================================================
Posted by: sean_c_roberts 19 years ago
Senior Purple Belt
0
What you want is ABSOLUTELY possible... but it's not really appropriate for an installer/installation...

I'm assuming you want these keys disabled while your software is running.

I have done this in Delphi using what's called a system keyboard hook.

A keyboard hook intercepts all keyboard-generated messages and can cancel/kill any keys you don't want.

I don't know in what software your kiosk app is written, but here's the Delphi code so you can see which API calls they're making and you can get a general idea about how and what they're doing:

TOUCH ME - I'M UNTOUCHABLE
http://delphi.about.com/library/weekly/aa101000a.htm

and also

An introduction to hook procedures
http://delphi.about.com/library/bluc/text/uc063001a.htm

one more thing... if you need to COMPLETELY disable/enable keyboard and mouse input, you can use code I wrote in WiseScript. BE CAREFUL!!! If you disable input, and then your code/script does not reenable input correctly, you will be unable to send ANY commands to your system and will have to reset/reboot.

Go to www.dragonsoftru.com.

Go to the WiseScript section.

Look by author.

Look for Sean Roberts and then look for a script called: Block Keyboard and Mouse Input

Good luck!
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