Locking down XP for WMP-only usage

[dsmcd]

Hello...

I'll be running XP machines in retail environment for
customers to use. The stations will ONLY run a skinned
Windows Media Player. Only music CDs will be played - no
DVDs or non-music files from any CD.

I need to lock these stations down as much as possible to
avoid un-graceful behaviour from 'unexpected' events.

There's 2 things I'm looking for:
1) Nothing except music files responded to by XP or WMP. If
a DVD, or a software disk or anything else is inserted by
mistake, I don't want XP or WMP to do anything at all.
2) An XP setup that will prevent all unexpected prompts,
balloons and reminders, etc., from XP and WMP.

I'm familiar with the registry and group policies and
utilities such as Tweak Manager and Tweaking Toolbox XP,
but I'm pretty sure there are some events not covered by
anything I've found so far.

Particularly troublesome is preventing a response when a
music CD has features such as shockwave or movie files, or
when a movie DVD or software disk is inserted by mistake. I
need XP and WMP to only respond to music files.

Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance,
D.

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

What is the reasoning behind using a computer which will be solely
used for playing musical CDs? Why not use a conventional CD player?

Visit the "Official" Windows Media Player Newsgroup:
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.windowsmedia.player

Windows Media Player FAQ
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/9series/player/faq.aspx

Windows Media Player: WMP mini FAQ (Excellent Site!)
http://www.nwlink.com/~zachd/pss/pss.html

Windows Media Player Support Center
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=FH;[LN];wmp

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User

Be Smart! Protect your PC!
http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/

--------------------------------------------------------------------------


| Hello...
|
| I'll be running XP machines in retail environment for
| customers to use. The stations will ONLY run a skinned
| Windows Media Player. Only music CDs will be played - no
| DVDs or non-music files from any CD.
|
| I need to lock these stations down as much as possible to
| avoid un-graceful behaviour from 'unexpected' events.
|
| There's 2 things I'm looking for:
| 1) Nothing except music files responded to by XP or WMP. If
| a DVD, or a software disk or anything else is inserted by
| mistake, I don't want XP or WMP to do anything at all.
| 2) An XP setup that will prevent all unexpected prompts,
| balloons and reminders, etc., from XP and WMP.
|
| I'm familiar with the registry and group policies and
| utilities such as Tweak Manager and Tweaking Toolbox XP,
| but I'm pretty sure there are some events not covered by
| anything I've found so far.
|
| Particularly troublesome is preventing a response when a
| music CD has features such as shockwave or movie files, or
| when a movie DVD or software disk is inserted by mistake. I
| need XP and WMP to only respond to music files.
|
| Any suggestions?
|
| Thanks in advance,
| D.
|

 

[SteveL]

open my computer, right click the cd player, left click th
e properties tab, click the autoplay tab and choose each
function for the player to do. Now to prevent any user
from changing these options you will have to setup
security not to allow the security group that the user is
in to change any options.

I hope this helps

 

[dsmcd]

Hello...

The skin gets us album art, track listings, large
user-friendly controls, customized graphics, etc. And,
maybe a fun easter egg or two.

Thank you for the links. They look very useful.

Any suggestions for retail-hardening the XP operating
system itself?

Thx,
D.

 

[dsmcd]

open my computer, right click the cd player, left click th
e properties tab, click the autoplay tab and choose each
function for the player to do.

Looks good. Appreciate it.

Now to prevent any user
from changing these options you will have to setup
security not to allow the security group that the user is
in to change any options.

Got that part covered. Thanks.

I hope this helps

It does. Thanks again,
D.

-----Original Message-----
What is the reasoning behind using a computer which will be solely
used for playing musical CDs? Why not use a conventional CD player?

Visit the "Official" Windows Media Player Newsgroup:
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.windowsmedia. player

Windows Media Player FAQ
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/9series/play er/faq.aspx

Windows Media Player: WMP mini FAQ (Excellent Site!)
http://www.nwlink.com/~zachd/pss/pss.html

Windows Media Player Support Center
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=FH;[LN];wmp

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User

Be Smart! Protect your PC!
http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/

---------------------------------------------------------- ----------------


| Hello...
|
| I'll be running XP machines in retail environment for
| customers to use. The stations will ONLY run a skinned
| Windows Media Player. Only music CDs will be played - no
| DVDs or non-music files from any CD.
|
| I need to lock these stations down as much as possible to
| avoid un-graceful behaviour from 'unexpected' events.
|
| There's 2 things I'm looking for:
| 1) Nothing except music files responded to by XP or WMP. If
| a DVD, or a software disk or anything else is inserted by
| mistake, I don't want XP or WMP to do anything at all.
| 2) An XP setup that will prevent all unexpected prompts,
| balloons and reminders, etc., from XP and WMP.
|
| I'm familiar with the registry and group policies and
| utilities such as Tweak Manager and Tweaking Toolbox XP,
| but I'm pretty sure there are some events not covered by
| anything I've found so far.
|
| Particularly troublesome is preventing a response when a
| music CD has features such as shockwave or movie files, or
| when a movie DVD or software disk is inserted by mistake. I
| need XP and WMP to only respond to music files.
|
| Any suggestions?
|
| Thanks in advance,
| D.
|
.

 

[Alex Nichol]

There's 2 things I'm looking for:
1) Nothing except music files responded to by XP or WMP. If
a DVD, or a software disk or anything else is inserted by
mistake, I don't want XP or WMP to do anything at all.
2) An XP setup that will prevent all unexpected prompts,
balloons and reminders, etc., from XP and WMP.

I'm familiar with the registry and group policies and
utilities such as Tweak Manager and Tweaking Toolbox XP,
but I'm pretty sure there are some events not covered by
anything I've found so far.

Particularly troublesome is preventing a response when a
music CD has features such as shockwave or movie files, or
when a movie DVD or software disk is inserted by mistake. I
need XP and WMP to only respond to music files.

Two levels. First the Autoplay

First in My Computer, right click the CD or DVD drive used, take
Properties. On the Autoplay page select Music CD (not Music Files),
click on Select Action, then highlight the Windows Media player and
Apply. For *all* the other types, including Music Files (which would
cover, for example a disk of MP3 files, unless you want that to play)
select 'No Action',

Have WMP set in Maximised and with View selected to Full screen mode,
with Full screen options set to Hide the menu bar.

But beyond that, to get a full scale 'Kiosk mode' you would have to set
to use WMP as the 'shell' instead of Explorer. That needs to be set in
the registry at
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT
\CurrentVersion\Winlogon

as value of Shell. It would not be that easy to unwind if needed ( a
boot to Safe Mode command prompt should do it, using a run of regedit
launched from that. It might be safer, and almost as effective, to boot
normally, launch your WMP, then hit CTL-ALT-DEL to bring up Task
manager, use its Processes page to select explorer.exe and 'end
process'; then close task manager, leaving WMP running

 

[dsmcd]

First in My Computer, right click the CD or DVD drive
used, take
Properties. On the Autoplay page

<snip>

Gotcha. Thanks.

Have WMP set in Maximised and with View selected to Full
screen mode,
with Full screen options set to Hide the menu bar.

This seems to not work. Only 'full mode' can hide menu bar,
and 'full mode' is not 'skin mode' so I can't appear to
hide menu bar in 'skin mode'.

But beyond that, to get a full scale 'Kiosk mode' you
would have to set
to use WMP as the 'shell' instead of Explorer.

<snip>

VERY interesting. Thank you very much for this idea.

Thanks again. Appreciate it,
D.