Is it possible for a Windows service to force a user to login from the windows user login screen? I've seen where LogMeIn can do it. This is assuming, of course, that I have both the username and password for the user.
Is LogMeIn using an actual method (non-automated), or are they simply quickly automating the task of logging in my selecting the username and password fields and typing it in?
You should create a WindowStation, and a Desktop inside that. Your service would create the WindowStation and connect that to the user you want to log in, then I suppose you would periodically take a screenshot of the created desktop to present somewhere else.
You may want to start reading the documentation at https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms687105%28v=vs.85%29.aspx and linked pages, then ask a more specific question.
I don't know if this method can be used to log in at the Console (the window station attached to the physical video card/keyboard of the computer), but if this has to happen automatically I'd avoid using the Console, but a separate Window Station.
EDIT: as it happens to say on the very page I linked (my bad), if a session for the user exists and the service tries to connect to it, it is opened; if it does not exist then it is created anew, and a desktop (named "default") is attached to it. If your service only has to log the interactive user in you should use the auto-login feature of windows instead.
Yes, you can auto login using Windows.
You didn't specify OS but for Windows 7/8 read this, and for Server 2003/2008 (and possibly 2012, but I haven't checked)
check out this Microsoft article.
Related
this time I'm stuck with my AutoIt program. It works quite well not running as a service, but as a service there are some problems, and I wonder if I can fix em.
To my program: It uses the Tooltip-function of AutoIt to show current temperature on screen. It requieres read / write permissions.
About the service:
The service is created by using svrany.exe as Host. It connects as a local administrator, so it has full write / read permissions as needed.
The only problem is: It cannot show any tooltip, but write it to a file. Is there any way to let the user at least decide if he wants to see that message? Like Windows asks, if you want to see what it shows, while using "local system"-account.
Have a look here. I guess there is no way without interacting with another process through the service.
https://www.autoitscript.com/forum/topic/80201-_service_udf-v4-build-your-own-service-with-autoit-code/
I need to write a little windows service that should detect when a user is attempting to log in and deny access according to certain criteria, like the hour.
So, I researched the way the Windows Family Safety works when a child has hour restriction, and I noticed that the message received by the user(child) is similar or identical to the one received when a restriction is set using
net user User /time:etc, etc.
so I suspect that's what the Family Safety use.
However, I would like to interact with the "net" command programatically, and besides that I would like to know if there's an event to watch for when a user is attempting to login, or the user has just logged in.
Which Windows API should I look for to get this functionality?
The "net user" commands are available programmatically through the Network Management API. As an example, you can use the NetUserSetInfo function along with the USER_INFO_1020 structure to set the times during which a user can log on.
In windows 7, is there a way to have every login go to the same user session. So when a person is met with the login screen, they login and can continue working on that same user session. I am asking this because each user has their own login, but on this machine I need a program to be running across all user sessions. Since that doesn't seem feasible, I was just going to have them all login to the same user session.
Is this possible?
The appropriate way to solve this would be to have the program run as a service, and have a client UI that loads on startup 'hook' into the service process. Loading multiple users to the same session space would effectively violate the entire windows security model.
So, you either need to use a shared user for this, or a shared process (either local as a service, or remote as a server)
So, there's one possible way you might be able to get this to work, and that's to set this up as an interactive service. Definitely not a secure way to keep your system, but if you are able to make it work, it should work for your purposes:
Interactive services (in particular, read 'using an interactive service'):
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms683502(v=vs.85).aspx
Making srvany.exe (to run non-services as a service) on Windows7/Windows 2008:
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/winserverMigration/thread/98a97aee-c62b-4683-94ab-3777899cf7de/
Please let me know how do I run the app under current logged in user from the service.
To give you background, I have a VB.NET Windows service whose sole functionality is to run a Winform App at a specified time. Apart from that it also sets a system wakeup timer so that the system can be woken up at the specified time, if it goes into standby/sleep, to run the app. This service has to cater to XP/Vista/Win7 desktops on our network. This service won't run on servers and laptops.
The Winform App shows a UI for the user to provide some inputs. If the user does not provide the input within 15 minutes, then it defaults the value and then goes into system tray icon. The user can click on the icon and change the values later (within in a specified time frame and that too only twice).
There is absolutely no interaction between the service and the winform app apart from the service starting the app. It also monitors if the app has been killed by the user/crashed. If it has been killed/crashed, then a new instance is run after 30 mins from previous run.
If there is no user logged on, then also I want the app to be run at the specified time. As I said before, the app has a default timer. So if some user has just logged off from the system, then defaults would be set by the winform app.
Now coming to why I am stuck with this design - I cannot use TaskScheduler because it has been disabled on all machines and security team is not willing to change it. TaskScheduler had the option to wakeup the machine from sleep and other things. So basically I ended up creating a service which is acting like task scheduler.
Currently when I run the app.exe via process.start() within the service, its running under SYSTEM account as the service is also running under LOCAL SYSTEM. So basically I am not getting any UI. Is there anyway to run it under the current logged in user? I am not worried about multiple user login as we wont be running it on servers and switch user is not enabled on our desktops. Even if somebody has done a remote login via mstsc, then also I need the run the app and show the UI to the user.
Please let me know how do I run the app under current logged in user from the service.
Thanks
askids
There were some additional comments that I posted. But I somehow cannot see it :(
Coming back to the original question. I was able to figure it out after several trial and errors. I will put it in detail.
With Vista and above, services run in isolation from other user sessions. They run in session 0. User sessions run in 1 and above. So basically you need to emulate the process as current logged in user.
Use WTSEnumerateSessions and
get of sessions. Check if the sesion
state is active. This will be
current logged on user session. If
there are no active sessions, it
means there is no logged on user. In
my case, there will be only 1 logged
on user. So I need not figure out
the active session (like others may
need to do).
Use WTSQueryUserToken to get the user token in the active session.
Create a primary user token using DuplicateTokenEx
Create an environment using CreateEnvironmentBlock
Use the information above in the CreateProcessAsUser
The reason why it was working in XP and not in Vista was because it looks like the startup default information is different. After I set wShowWindow flag of the startupinfo structure, the GUI would start appearing.
Dim StartupInfo As New STARTUPINFO()
StartupInfo.cb = Marshal.SizeOf(StartupInfo)
StartupInfo.dwFlags = STARTF_USESHOWWINDOW
StartupInfo.wShowWindow = WINDOW_STATUS.SW_SHOWNORMAL
One more additional info. I was trying to set the default desktop using
StartupInfo.lpDesktop = "WinSta0\\Default"
because of which the application would crash upon launch. So I commented it out.
I still have one final issue. The launched app is not in focus. The GUI appears, but in background. But I am thinking, it will once again have to do with some parameters like above. Once I figure it out, I will add in the details.
I have an application that can list the opened windows of the current session. It uses the EnumWindows method from the user32.dll.
I would like to run this code from a windows service, but as the service is not attached to a user session, it returns nothing obviously.
So the question is, how can I enumerate the open windows of another user session (e.g. with a specific logon user)?
Similarly to EnumWindows, I also would like to get the foreground window of the user session as well (like GetForegroundWindow works for the current user).
As far as I'm aware, you can't access the windows of one session from another. It's also worth noting that there's not really any such thing as "the current session" - there may be multiple users logged on through terminal services, or XP's fast user switching.
One approach to this would be to add a program to each user's profile with no UI that just communicates with your service. You'd still have to cope with the fact that there could be multiple active sessions, though.
According to this document you can create a process in an other user's logon session using CreateProcessAsUser, and could enumerate the windows there. You will still need some IPC mechanism to communicate with the service.
The accepted answer is not correct.
So the question is, how can I enumerate the open windows of another user session?
You can enumerate the open windows of any session if you're running as a service running as the local System account.
To do this first enumerate the sessions with WTSEnumerateSessions. Then enumerate the window stations inside each session with EnumWindowStations. Then enumerate the desktops for each Window Station with EnumDesktops. Finally you an enumerate the Windows in those Desktops with EnumWindows.
(e.g. with a specific logon user)
There can be many concurrent logged on users via Terminal services or fast user switching.
Similarly to EnumWindows, I also would like to get the foreground window of the user session as well (like GetForegroundWindow works for the current user).
This can be done by launching an app with a found user token in the Session, Window Station, and Desktop. From there you can call any Win32 API like GetForegroundWindow and report the info back to your parent process.
You can learn more about how Sessions, Window Stations, and Desktops work here.