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People in kiosk industry are aware of the threats a Windows PC in the kiosk can face. It doesn't matter if the PC is manned or unmanned. But, a machine that is used as a public kiosk terminal is always exposed to various threats such as theft and damage. Besides, other dangers, such as hacking, are also possible with such machines. However, with tools like the free FrontFace Lockdown Tool, kiosk machines can be protected effectively. While you can always set up Windows 10 in Kiosk Mode using Assigned Access, this free tool for Windows PCs make things easy.
Need of a lockdown software for kiosk PC
As mentioned before, a PC in the kiosk is exposed to physical as well as electronic threats. In fact, a white paper published by McAfee mentions that a kiosk machine can be highly vulnerable to hacking; as a hacker can use this PC to access the control panel and possibly steal important information about your business.
For avoiding such events, it is necessary to install some sort of lockdown software that can protect the PC. Such software limits the security access and permissions for users. This way, your kiosk and digital signage machines remain safe.
FrontFace Lockdown Tool
Recently we stumbled upon this simple, yet helpful lockdown software for kiosk machines; which is FrontFace Lockdown Tool by Mirabyte. The noticeable features of this software are, it's a small size software (just 2MB), and it is a free utility for Windows based PCs. This tool is designed for the system administrators that need to prepare and lock down Windows-based PCs for use as public kiosk terminals or digital signage applications.
The FrontFace Lockdown software is exclusively designed for Windows PCs; because Windows based machines are more frequently used as kiosk terminals or digital signages than any other OS. Even some special-use PCs such as public kiosk terminals or embedded PCs that are typically used for digital signage applications.
Some of the notable features of FrontFace Lockdown are:
- Automatic login without password entry at boot time as well as
- Starting a dedicated application instead of the normal Windows Explorer / Desktop shell
- Deactivation of the Ctrl+Alt+Del shortcut and the Windows Task Manager
- Screen saver and power management settings
- Various security and protection options that can be easily configured within the graphical user interface of the FrontFace Lockdown Tool.
The FrontFace Lockdown Tool does not require an installation. Simply download it from its website and you can run it directly from a USB drive. This feature of FrontFace Lockdown makes it the perfect tool for system administrators.
Your firewall or antivirus program on your PC may detect this tool as a threat. You can safely change the settings of the firewall or antivirus program to download the FrontFace Lockdown Tool from its official homepage.
The FrontFace Lockdown Tool is quite flexible. The custom configuration profiles of the tool can also be exported and reused on different PCs; so the efficient preparation of multiple, identical PCs in a row is no problem. The tool offers a 'Kiosk Mode' that protects public-facing PCs against unauthorized access.
You can also configure Windows PCs for 24/7 unattended and continuous operation. Some of the features for 24/7 continuous operation mode are:
- Activation of the high-performance energy profile (disables standby mode)
- Disabling the “turn screen black” feature
- Disabling the screensaver
- Disabling automatic Windows Updates
- Setting the background color of the Desktop to black
- Disable Autorun/Autoplay
- Disable WPF hardware acceleration
- Mute any audio output
- Mute any Windows system sounds
- Disable Windows Error reporting
The features that FrontFace Lockdown provides for protection and lockdown of the Windows Operating System are as follows:
- Enabling the Windows Firewall
- Locking the Windows, task manager
- Preventing that a user can change the password
- Disabling common features such as “lock”, “shutdown”, “Log off”, “reboot” or changing the current user
- Disabling the Windows system tray
- Disabling the Windows key on the keyboard as well as the Ctrl+Alt+Del keyboard shortcut
You can download it from the Mirabyte website. It is available for Windows 10, Windows 8 and Windows 7.
