Cricksoft - Clicker 6 - (special needs word processor)

[beancole]

Hi All,

 

I don't know if many people have heard of clicker 6 but its a special needs word processor. We are a special school and its a must have. However the way it is licensed is pre historic.

 

We install all software in an image because then i anything goes wrong re image 15 minutes and its back up and running. However if you install this software in an image as soon as its deployed its un-activated (which is understandable.) but then wont reactivate without a start-up script.

 

They make you write a start-up script with your licence details but it requires an administrator username and password saved unencrypted in the script. As far as I am concerned this isn't happening. Virus protection is good but all it takes is one to get through and scan files for terms like admin and pass.

 

[b]"%ProgramFiles%\Crick Software\Clicker 6\CrickActivate.exe" -online -serial "X1234 12345 12345 12345" -silent -proxy "10.0.0.254" -user "myusername" –pass "mypassword"[/b]

Why they cant just take the processor ID and then stop activations when quotas are hit I don't know.

 

Anyone else know a way around this? or am I logging in every time I re-image a machine.

[stevenlong1985]

Hi @bencole

I have the same issue. Did you ever find a fix for this?

 

Steve

[LeMarchand]

I guess they've stepped up security since Clicker 5 then - can't remember having that problem and I think the program does see some use here.

 

What about either removing from the image and installing from the network via GPO post image (adds time), or using something like RunasSpc to encrypt the script?

 

Just noticed the latter only free for private use (I'm sure it used to be OK for schools...) a couple of other untested options here.

[beancole]

I never found a solution to this. I have basically just been activating it as it comes up, shows how teachers can talk rubbish 'the most important piece of software , I use it everyday' well you haven't used it for 3 months LOL!

 

Basically what I will be doing now is re image over the holidays and add the script to netlogon, after the holidays remove the script. the likelihood is kids would never see it but I'm not ever running the risk.

 

If anyone ever finds a better solution it would be nice.

[MordyT]

I turn all my scripts containing passwords into exe's

[morganw]

The username and password are used for proxy authentication, you don't need to be putting your administrator credentials in here to activate the software.

[beancole]

Got the solution I was looking for.

 

Apologies for the confusion you don't need an admin account, but you do need an account. So if you store the script in NETLOGON for example kids have read only access so while unlikely they could see the username, they could use said username to surf the web and it not be logged to them. So its a safeguarding issue, a very minor one but still.

 

So what I did was I dropped the proxy part of the script and added an authentication exception in our smoothwall firewall system to allow http://activate.cricksoft.com/activate.ashx I then ran the script as a start up script.