SecureGroup - Protect your Program Manager (c) 1993-95 by Andreas Furrer ================================================= This is version 1.15 of SecureGroup. SecureGroup lets you protect your program manager by protecting the program manager groups with passwords and setting restrictions to the functions of the program manager. SecureGroup requires Windows 3.1. This file is also available in German. Please see SECGRP.TXG. With SecureGroup you choose which program manager group you want to protect with passwords. If you want to open a protected group you have to enter a password. The administrator of the system sets up as many user groups as he likes. Each user group has a password, and for each user group the administrator assigns which program manager group a member of the user group may open. If a member of a user group opens a protected program manager group he has to enter the group password, and if his user group has the right to open the program manager group he can access the program items in this group. The password of the administrator opens any program manager group. To prevent a user from running a program with the RUN command of the Program Manager or changing the properties of a program item, SecureGroup allows you to set restrictions to your program manager. There are several levels of restrictions: 1) Disable 'Run' command on the 'File' menu: The Run command will appear dimmed on the File menu and the user will not be able to run applications from Program Manager unless the applications are set up as icons in a group. 2) Remove the 'File' menu: All of the commands on that menu will be unavailable. Users can start the applications in groups by selecting them and pressing ENTER, or by double-clicking the icon. Unless you have also disabled the Exit Windows command, users can still quit Windows by using the Control menu or ALT+F4. 3) Disable the 'Save Settings on Exit' command on the 'Options' menu: The Save Settings command will appear dimmed on the Options menu and any changes that the user makes to the arrangement of windows and icons will not be saved when Windows is restarted. 4) Disable 'Exit Windows: command on the File menu. Users will not be able to quit Program Manager through the File Menu or the Control menu (the Exit Windows and Close commands will be dimmed), or by using ALT+F4. 5) Restrictions for modifying groups 1) No creating, deleting, or renaming of groups: prevents the user from creating, deleting, or renaming groups. If you specify this setting, the New, Move, Copy, and Delete commands on the File menu are not available when a group is selected. 2) + no creating or deleting of program items: sets all restrictions of 1), plus prevents the user from creating or deleting program items. If you specify this setting, the New, Move, Copy, and Delete commands on the File menu are not available at all. 3) + no changing command lines for program items: sets all restrictions of 2), plus prevents the user from changing command lines for program items. If you specify this setting, the text in the Command Line box in the Properties dialog box cannot be changed. 4) + no changing any program item information: sets all restrictions of 3), plus prevents the user from changing any program item information. If you specify this setting, none of the areas in the Properties dialog box can be modified. The user can view the dialog box, but all of the areas are dimmed. If you want to prevent a user from starting an application, you have to set the restrictions 1) and 4.1) to 4.4). You can also have a log file for events. SecureGroup is invisible. If you want to change the settings or want to end SecureGroup, you have to start it a second time. But you have to enter the password of the administrator to see the configuration dialog. During startup SecureGroup tries to detect if your Windows is configured for German language or not. If it senses it, SecureGroup will use German language and if not SecureGroup uses English language. If you want to ignore the default language you can add the following parameters to the call of SecureGroup: SECGRP.EXE /D : German language SECGRP.EXE /E : English language The first time you start SecureGroup, you will see the a dialog with some instructions. Configuration of SecureGroup: ============================= In the configuration dialog of SecureGroup you will see: - a listbox on the left side: In this listbox you will see all user groups. - a listbox on the right side: Here you see all protected program manager groups. - a button to add a new user group: With this button you create a new user group. Each user group has a unique name and a password. - a button to change the selected user group: You can change the name and the password of the selected user group. - a button to delete the selected user group: With this button you can delete the selected user group - a button to show a dialog for log file options: With this dialog you can select which events will be logged. You can also enter the log file and the option to have the file attributes hidden and system set for your log file. If you don't enter a log file, no events are logged. - a button to show the administrator dialog: In the administrator dialog you will see a list with all program manager groups. Selected groups will be password protected. You can also set a timeout for opened protected program manager groups. After this time (in seconds) an opened protected group will automatically be closed. Here you can also set the restrictions for the program manager and you can change the administrator password. With the option 'Use different icon for protected groups' you can choose if you want to see a different icon for protected program manager groups. You can also set an option so you can only exit Windows by entering the password of the administrator. - a button to exit Windows If you select a user group in the left listbox, all program manager groups that are in this group and are allowed to open are marked in the right list. You can change this by selecting or deselecting the entries in the right listbox. Installation of SecureGroup: ============================ - Copy all files into the Windows directory - Add SECGRP.EXE to the line LOAD= in your WIN.INI. Note: It is recommended to start SecureGroup with the load command and not by adding an item to your Startup group, because you can disable the execution of this group if you hold down 'SHIFT' when you start Windows. Freeware-Note ============= You can use and distribute SecureGroup free, as long as the following files are not changed and you distribute all files together - secgrp.exe - secgrp.txt - secgrp.txg - secgrph.dll I am programming SecureGroup for fun, and not to make any profit. That's why SecureGroup is free and you don't have to pay more or less high registration charges. I think it is a bad habit, that more and more program authors want to have money even for the smallest program. For informations about my other FREE Windows tools see the file SOFTWARE.TXT (or the German version SOFTWARE.TXG). Long live the Freeware! If you have problems, comments, suggestions or you detect one error, please E-Mail to s_furrer@ira.uka.de (c) 1993-95 by Andreas Furrer Version history ================= 1.15: - Added a new option to the administrator dialog so you can only exit Windows after entering the administrator password. - Bug fixed: Rewritten the code for drawing the icons if the option for having a different icon for protected groups is enabled. 1.14: - Added the option to the administrator dialog to have a different icon for protected groups. 1.13: - Changed the english documentation - Thanks to Daniel Hochstein for correcting my errors. 1.12: - Changed the closing of groups so SecureGroup will work with Progman-Groups 1.4 - Another nice utility that lets you have groups in groups in the program manager 1.11: - Changed the timeout function: Now the timeout for a group will begin when the group is opened and not when the password dialog for the group appears - Bug fixed: Characters with an ANSI code>250 were not stored correctly if they appeared in any input - Changed the layout of the dialogs Configuration and Administrator 1.10: - New: Timeout for opened protected program manager groups. - New: Log file for events. - New: Button in configuration dialog to exit Windows - Bug fixed: The meaning of two program manager restrictions were swapped 1.00: First version of SecureGroup.