August 2014 - The KioskSimple Blog

Blocking Websites on Your Kiosk with KioskSimple

If you’re using a kiosk to display a website(s) then chances are you don’t want your users to be able to browse wherever they please. You want to keep your website on the kiosk at all times so that you control exactly what your customers see while using your kiosk. We’ve made this easy with KioskSimple and no coding or nerd degree is required.

KioskSimple uses a hybrid whitelist (websites that are allowed) and blacklist (websites that are blocked) for maximum security and flexibility. In order for a website to be displayed on your kiosk it must be both included in the whitelist and not include in the blacklist. I’ll do an example below so you can see just how easy this is. Continue reading “Blocking Websites on Your Kiosk with KioskSimple”

Disabling Windows Sleep and Hibernation From Your Kiosk Application

In this article I’ll explain how to disable the Windows Sleep and Hibernation Power Options directly from your kiosk application. Imagine the scenario where your kiosk goes to sleep and potential customers see nothing but a black screen. Many customers will assume the kiosk is out of order and keep right on walking. To make matter worse, when the user touches the screen they’ll be greeted by a Windows login prompt and chances are they won’t know the password. Continue reading “Disabling Windows Sleep and Hibernation From Your Kiosk Application”

Blocking Popup Windows on your Kiosk with KioskSimple

The Windows operating system regularly pops up dialog windows which could interrupt your kiosk users or worse compromise the security of your kiosk. KioskSimple enables you to configure which popup windows should be allowed to display (if any) and which should be automatically closed. By blocking popup windows you eliminate potential distractions to your kiosk users and help ensure that their experience on your kiosk goes smoothly. Continue reading “Blocking Popup Windows on your Kiosk with KioskSimple”

Disabling the Windows Screen Saver From Your Kiosk Application

In this article I’ll explain how to temporarily disable the built in Windows screen saver from your kiosk application. If you’ve created a native Windows application (i.e. .NET WPF) to run on your self-service kiosk you probably don’t want it to be interrupted by the Windows screen saver. Sure you could go to the screen saver settings and disable the screen saver completely but then you’d have to do that on ever single kiosk. It would be more convenient to temporarily disable the screen saver only while your kiosk application is running. Continue reading “Disabling the Windows Screen Saver From Your Kiosk Application”

8 Signs of an Amateur Touchscreen Kiosk Application

Have you ever been using a self-service kiosk and thought to yourself “that’s obviously not right?” Anyone who uses kiosks on a regular basis has at some point interacted with a kiosk that was less than professional. As a kiosk software company we’ve had the privilege of developing kiosk applications deployed across the US and I’ve compiled a list of signs of an amateur kiosk application so you can avoid these same mistakes.

1. The artwork on the kiosk screens looks like generic clipart or is inconsistent

Usually this happens because the kiosk designer doesn’t have access to a graphic artist or the client has their own ideas on what’s “acceptable” artwork. Fortunately we have an excellent graphic designer on staff but we’ve experienced the latter where clients will send us generic clipart for buttons and ask to have them put on the kiosk. We try our best to talk them out of this but sometimes to no avail. If you’ve seen our website KioskSimple.com you’ll notice we use a lot of hand drawn artwork that all meshes together nicely to give a consistent and professional theme with the occasional clipart thrown in for humor. Continue reading “8 Signs of an Amateur Touchscreen Kiosk Application”

Blocking Ctrl-Alt-Del and Other Windows Shortcuts on Your Kiosk

Preventing malicious users from tampering with the Windows operating system on your kiosk necessitates that system keystrokes like Ctrl-Alt-Del be blocked. This can be surprisingly difficult since Windows doesn’t give you a built in method for doing this. The next logical step would be to have your kiosk application filter out these keystrokes which turns out to be a problem since your kiosk application is running in user move not kernel mode (see user mode vs. kernel mode explanation).

This leaves you with three options:

Create a kernel mode upper filter driver that listens for system keystrokes and discards them before they reach the operating system.
Use a 3rd party kiosk lockdown software that filters keystrokes for you.
Replace the physical keyboard with a touchscreen keyboard that does not include any modifier keys (i.e. Ctrl, Alt, Shift, Windows Key, etc…)

Continue reading “Blocking Ctrl-Alt-Del and Other Windows Shortcuts on Your Kiosk”

6 Reasons to Develop Your Kiosk Application as a Native Windows Application

In a previous article I briefly covered my thoughts on the pros and cons of developing a kiosk application as a website. In this article I’ll be exploring the pros and cons of developing your kiosk application as a native Windows application (i.e. a .NET WPF kiosk application). It boils down to a case of client-side vs. server-side and deciding which approach best fits your needs. My goal for this 2-part series is to define the pros and cons of each approach to better help kiosk application developers make an informed decision. Continue reading “6 Reasons to Develop Your Kiosk Application as a Native Windows Application”

Integrating a Webcam Into Your Kiosk Application

Integrate popular webcams into your kiosk application with KioskSimple — Add support for modern webcams to your kiosk application

Adding a webcam to your kiosk application can go a long way to improve the security of your kiosk. In the case of disputed credit card charges (i.e. chargebacks) it can help to have a picture of the customer swiping the card in question. One of our main goals with KioskSimple was to make it really easy for kiosk application developers to integrate popular kiosk devices, like webcams, into their kiosks. The KioskSimple developer API supports integrating a webcam into your website and we have code examples to get you started. Continue reading “Integrating a Webcam Into Your Kiosk Application”

Getting Started Developing Kiosk Software – Part 3 Avoiding The Pitfalls Of Payment Kiosks

This is my third and final article in a series titled “A Beginners Guide to Developing Kiosk Software.”

In this article I’m not even going to attempt to delve into the specifics of developing support for accepting payments because there is a huge variation between payment devices and their interfaces.

What I am going to cover is the decision making process you as a developer or business owner need to carefully step through when you decide to make your kiosk accept payments.

If you have any questions about a specific payment device please shoot me a message on one of my social media channels listed at the end of this article. Continue reading “Getting Started Developing Kiosk Software – Part 3 Avoiding The Pitfalls Of Payment Kiosks”

5 Reasons to Develop Your Kiosk Application as a Website

In a previous article on getting started developing kiosk software I briefly covered my thoughts on the pros and cons of developing kiosk applications as a website vs. a native Windows application.

It boils down to a case of client-side vs. server-side and deciding which approach best fits your needs.

My goal for this 2-part series is to define the pros and cons of each approach to better help kiosk application developers make an informed decision. Continue reading “5 Reasons to Develop Your Kiosk Application as a Website”