Released: EduGeek AUP Informant

[bizzel]

One more from the labs. This little app is like the windows logon message but on steroids - great for managing your acceptable usage policies and getting responses from staff and students. Notable features include email notifications, automatic logoff, html page display and serving multiple policies depending on usertype.

After you deploy it to workstations, it will load each time a student logs in. If they have accepted the policy, it won't show. If they've yet to accept or decline it, it will appear and prompt them to choose. Their response is saved as a hidden file in their user area. You can then refer to this if you need to prove or disprove that they accepted the policy after catching them doing something naughty. You can choose to be notifed via email if a user declines the policy. To show the policy again, simply delete the "aup.ini" files it creates using Windows search.

Security-wise, it's totally student-proof. That's a bold claim but we let some of our more technical students try and get rid of it. Not one of them managed it. It sticks on top of all other windows; you can't move it, resize it, alt+f4 it or minimise it. In fact, so long as your students don't have task manager, they can't kill it.

Since version 1.3.0, you can modify the program's settings outside of the source code. That means it should be 100% ready to package and use on your network without needing compiling, though full source is available under the GPL 2.0 so you can edit as much as you like. Enjoy and email me at wordpress[{at}]paulbeesley.com if you need.

For packaging instructions, refer to the readme file that comes with the download. Creating a CC3 package is easy and I'm working on a standalone installer. You should also be able to run it from a sysvol share. The only reason I don't have a 'ready-to-go' CC3 package is because you will need to modify a config file before deployment.

See this thread for downloads: Project Page and Download Here

[Ryan]

Woof, awesome Report back once you've rolled it out fully.

[Edu-IT]

This looks great! Perhaps it could be tied in with that admin bar thing? (Sorry!)

[Ryan]

A little thought: Many companies (if not all) will declare anything you produce on their time is their property, and as such they'll retain any intellectual property rights and the right to exploit or sell whatever produced as they see fit.

Did you do this on company time? Are they aware of, and ok with, you distributing it? I'd hate to see it bite you in the arse later.

[DaveP]

Hi bizzel,

Your website mentions CC3 packages, but are there any special instructions for non RM networks? [Viglen Classlink7 here ]

[Gatt]

Now this looks like its worth a try!
Cheers..

[bizzel]

Phew! Finally got all the new information very quickly put together in the first post. I realise that when I first posted a link it wasn't ready to package at all. Hopefully I've sorted that out and you can quickly adapt it for your network.

If you've downloaded the package kit or the source before the time of this message, please re-download it. No bugs have been fixed but the instructions are much better.

DaveP: I don't know anything about Classlink, I'm afraid. Does it come with its own package creation tools?

[Edu-IT]

DaveP: I don't know anything about Classlink, I'm afraid. Does it come with its own package creation tools?

No it doesn't. I think the only way to do it would be to manually install it on each machine.

[Jackd]

Could you not use WinInstall LE to make a package out of it in .msi format then distribute via GPO's. Or you could make a simple script in auto it to copy the directory and write the registry key

[bizzel]

Edit: Downloads are back up and the version has been updated to 1.3.1.

What's changed in 1.3.1?

Fixed a bug that could cause the wrong policy url to be loaded
Fixed a bug that could wrongly identify a user as not having responded when they had
Reduced memory usage slightly
Optimised startup speed
Made it easier to switch between staff and student policies
Better code comments and documentation

Several of those bugs were caused by switching from hard-coded settings to the config file. They should all be sorted out now.

[sidewinder]

Looks excellent, thank you...my NM is very pleased with it
Ill soon find out when I try later, but is it possible to just put the files on a server and have the exe run on logon? Rather than worrying about an MSI

Also, does it defeat the point a bit if they are able to log back on after declining it? Surely then they could get up to all sorts and because they havent accepted the AUP we cant do anything?

[bizzel]

Looks excellent, thank you...my NM is very pleased with it
Ill soon find out when I try later, but is it possible to just put the files on a server and have the exe run on logon? Rather than worrying about an MSI

Also, does it defeat the point a bit if they are able to log back on after declining it? Surely then they could get up to all sorts and because they havent accepted the AUP we cant do anything?

I'm glad you like it. If you want to have it run from a server, you can. Grab the package kit and follow the instructions I just added on my site. Let me know if that works, it's probably a lot simpler than packages for most people.

As for logging off students just the once, that's sort of a best-effort on my part. Since the student user won't have the necessary permissions to disable accounts in AD, I can't do it from my app. If you have an accessible smtp server you can set the app to send you email notifications when someone declines the policy but I agree, automatic disabling of the account would be better. If anyone knows of a way to do this, let me know!

[sidewinder]

Ah, fair point, yes, hadnt thought about that

In that case, in the future would it be possible to add an option that doesn't write to the file if they click decline, so it would keep showing on logon? Im thinking something that can be turned on and off in the config file, since Im sure many find it useful the way it is currently

Im being fussy though, it works perfectly for now, and like you say I can weed out people who have declined via the emails. I suspect the vast majority of 'rebels' will change their mind as soon as they get the warning about being logged off when clicking decline anyway

[spc-rocket]

Hi there,

Great app, looks great. Does this get displayed at every logon? and how does it know has logged on i.e. staff, student or are these settings customisable?

Thanks!

Ash.

[plexer]

Anyway you could use something like we do with self service password reset and that is to impersonate a user with higher priveleges when you need to in our case changing passwords but for you it would be to disable the account.

But if you disable the account how do they then get it enabled come see you to accept the policy so you can enable their account, or disable it for a period of time.

Ben