Auto logoff by GPO?

[contink]

One of the problems I have with staff at my school is that they tend to leave the computer logged in and more often than not someone will walk in, start using it and potentially do a lot of damage.

 

So I was wondering if there's a way to set an autologoff after a certain time limit and set it in the GPO?

 

Any ideas?

[plexer]

You could a logoff screensaver and set it up for a specific time of inactivity but I think you are going to really wind your users up doing this. Why not just set them up with the windows screensaver so that it requires a password this locks the pc after the time you have specified.

 

This still winds up teachers when they use an IWB a lot as they display something and leave it up there only for the pc to lock every 5 minutes.

 

Ben

[Geoff]

You can set a screensaver (avalible in the resource kit) that logs off as soon as it's activated. More info here:

 

http://windowsxp.mvps.org/winexit.htm

 

Beware, setting this on teachers PC's that are used with whiteboards leads to tears.

[contink]

You can set a screensaver (avalible in the resource kit) that logs off as soon as it's activated. More info here:

 

http://windowsxp.mvps.org/winexit.htm

 

Beware, setting this on teachers PC's that are used with whiteboards leads to tears.

Hadn't considered the teacher + whiteboard aspect of things so I appreciate that little added nugget of intel.

 

Luckily I know exactly which PCs are used in that way so I can avoid that issue with a little judicious filtering.

 

Thanks for that lot folks... and have a good weekend..

[Richie1972]

We've just gone down the road of implementing auto logoff just on classroom whiteboard machines purely because of staff leaving them logged in.

We're using the winexit screensaver that gives the user 3 mins to cancel log off.

There may well be tears, but tough as security is more of a concern than forgetful teachers

[Norphy]

We had (and still have) a lot of teachers spitting feathers when we implemented an automatic lock after ten minutes. I'd hate to think what would happen if we made the machines log out.

[Richie1972]

Unfortunately as security is a prime concern and just locking a workstation is a pain for the next teacher who comes to use the machine, there is no alternative to the logout.

They may well complain, but if i point out that someone could come along and delete months/years of work they might see sense.

[phil_thebeans]

Had a couple of persistent offenders who left machines logged on in pupil areas (library etc) so I moved the contents of their network folder and waited until they came running. after explaining that this could very well happen for real they saw sense and no longer do it. Harsh but fair.

[contink]

Finally came back to this now that I have some time and found a few things to make life easier...

 

1. The WinExit.scr with reg settings as part of a deployable MSI..

http://www.jordanmills.com/deploy/winexit.msi

 

2. A custom ADM file found here:

http://blog.case.edu/djc6/2005/03/09/automatically_log_off_users

 

... I've rewritten the ADM file to include the customisation of the warning time limit so it's included below:

 

;; Remember in GPMC to go View->Filtering
;; and uncheck "Only show policy settings that can be fully managed"
;;
;; David Carlin ([email protected]) 2/25/2005
;;
;; WINEXIT.SCR is located in the Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit

CLASS USER

CATEGORY  !!Screen_Saver_Policy

POLICY !!TERMINATE_APPS
	KEYNAME "Control Panel\Screen Saver.Logoff"
	VALUENAME ForceLogoff
	VALUEON "1" VALUEOFF "0"
END POLICY

POLICY !!COUNTDOWN_TIMEOUT
	KEYNAME "Control Panel\Screen Saver.Logoff"
	PART !!CountDownTimerFreqSpin NUMERIC
		VALUENAME "CountDownTimer"
		MIN 0 
		MAX 599940
		TXTCONVERT
		DEFAULT 300
		SPIN 15
	END PART
END POLICY

POLICY !!ENTER_DIALOG_MESSAGE
	KEYNAME "Control Panel\Screen Saver.Logoff"
	PART !!ENTER_DIALOG_MESSAGE
		EDITTEXT
		DEFAULT !!DEFAULT_MESSAGE
		VALUENAME DialogMessage
	END PART
END POLICY

END CATEGORY

[strings]
Screen_Saver_Policy="Winexit.scr Policy settings"
TERMINATE_APPS="Terminate running applications"
COUNTDOWN_TIMEOUT="Enable 5 minute warning logoff notice"
ENTER_DIALOG_MESSAGE="Warning message about being logged off"
DEFAULT_MESSAGE="You are about to be logged out.  Press the cancel button to stop this process."
CountDownTimerFreqSpin="Time to Shutdown in seconds"