Re: GINA Doubts

From: Kirk Ferdmann (kirk_ferdmann_at_nospam.hotmail.com)
Date: 09/27/03 

Date: Sat, 27 Sep 2003 13:33:39 -0700

"Gary Chanson" <gchanson@NOSPAM.TheWorld.com> wrote in message
news:ujA%23xQEhDHA.1932@TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...
>
> "Nitin Kapoor" <nitinkapooro@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:178201c383fd$63ba8ac0$a101280a@phx.gbl...
[...]
> > My Application needs to carry on doing the work it was
> > doing after the computer has resumed from standby and
> > this has to displayed to the user(say playing a Windows
> > Media File).Now,The Problem i am encountering is that if
> > the user has checked the button of "Ask for Password
> > after resume from standby" in the Power Management
> > Settings ,the machine will ask for a windows login
> > again , now i want to remove this setting of asking for a
> > password programatically,so i need to know a way of doing
> > this.
> >
> > I was Told by Fellow NewsGroups Memebers that i will Have
> > To Write A " Custom GINA" for it ,i have two doubts.
> >
> > 1.Am i moving in the right direction, is this the only
> > way to do it .
> > 2.if it is the only way,Where can i find pointers to
> > Sample Code For GINA.i could not find any usefull one
> > online.
> >
> > Any Suggestions or Pointers would be of great Help.
>
> My suggestion is don't do it. Be aware that you are attempting to
> circumvent a security feature for what appears to be trivial reasons. If
> the user has configured his machine to require a password when it returns
> from suspend mode, there's probably a good reason for it.

Brrr. And what if user just locks the computer without going through
standby/resume? You want to prevent that too?

Developing GINA is a pain. Constant pain. The interface between GINA and
Winlogon changes over time (sometimes even with service packs) so you'll
have to support multiple versions of the DLL. The related documentation in
MSDN is not 100% complete and you will stumble on 'omitted small detais'. In
order to switch between your version of GINA and the original version (at
least during the debugging phase you will need it) you will have to write a
native app. If you decide to develop your own GINA I'd highly recommend to
sign some sort of NDA with MS.

Instead of defeating the security on the users machine you can redesign your
application. If you have to peform certain tasks when no user is logged on
use NT service for that. Of course you should not put into the service any
UI related tasks. OTOH your UI application can continue with its work while
the computer is locked. User just want be able to see it s/he will observe
the result once s/he unlocks the workstation. But once again user can lock
the workstation without going through standby/resume.

5 yaers ago I found myself with similar (marketing) requirements. I
participated in developing NT based semiconductor equipment and our
marketing manager (not being the smartest person) requested that I should
make our application visible when the computer is locked. I was ambitious to
design my own GINA so I did no object. That was successful but the day I
left the project they scrapped the GINA because nobody wanted to sustain it.
All it took is to (slightly) change the marketing requirements.

-Kirk

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