Question: I have switched most of the locking options and I locked my computer, now I can no longer get back to my PC. Is it possible to get my PC back?
Answer: I should start by saying that there are no specially embedded back doors or other security hacks that are known to the developers, but are hidden from the public. We did not embed any into our program and we do not plan on doing it in the future.
If you have locked yourself out, there are a few possible options, depending on how did you lock it and what options you specified.
Question: I have switched most of the locking options and I locked my computer, now I can no longer get back to my PC. Is it possible to get my PC back?
Answer: I should start by saying that there are no specially embedded back doors or other security hacks that are known to the developers, but are hidden from the public. We did not embed any into our program and we do not plan on doing it in the future.
If you have locked yourself out, there are a few possible options, depending on how did you lock it and what options you specified.
This program is definitely a security software, it is intended for locking your computer, so if you go ahead and select all possible options that this program has at the same time, you will invariably lock your computer, so that you will loose access to it
Since the combinations of options users can select are endless, it is simply not possible for us to foresee them all and try to limit the user on what he can and cannot select.
Here is what you can do depending on the situation:
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If you disabled application bar, but most of the buttons are active
you can try using a default key combination for bringing the administration menu. This is the menu, from which you can unlock or reboot your workstation. Unless you changed the default key combination on this screen
you can access it by pressing Ctrl + Alt + M
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If you did disable buttons like Ctrl or Alt like in this example below
you can try holding both shift buttons together during the entire boot sequence from the beginning of boot, to the end. This should take you to the standard Windows login screen, where you can enter your usual Windows user name and password (your administrator credentials) and log in as usual. Then you can reconfigure kiosk from there. -
If you have at least the shift buttons enabled and you did not switch on “Disable double shift boot” options
you can reboot your computer, press and hold both shift buttons during entire boot sequence (please hold both of them at the same time during entire boot sequence without releasing). You will be taken to the regular Windows login screen and you will be able to login normally as a Windows user
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If previous items didn’t help, you can try using a safe boot by pressing F8 button in the beginning of the boot sequence and then, when you see the boot menu, please choose “Safe mode”.
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Another way is to log in from the same screen as above into the command prompt. Then do cd C:\FKeyKiosk\ and then manually editing the kiosk.ini file to set AppBarLocation=2. This will show the application bar on the next reboot and you will be able to control your application.
(Thanks goes to Taylor, for suggesting this technique) -
If none of these work, you can try creating a special Preinstalled Environment CD with Windows installed on it. You can then boot from this CD and have access to your hard drive. This way you can change the kiosk configuration file to set any options you like. It is located in C:\FKeyKiosk\kiosk.ini
You can also rename our executable KioskRunner.exe so that it does not run during boot.
