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Message Manager Deluxe

Message Manager Deluxe v3.03  - Shareware

Implementation Example #4

Name: Michael Howk
Position: District Techical Coordinator
District Size:28 schools, 50,000 patrons
Network: Windows 2003

Purpose:
Adhere to the School District's demand for the growing issue of district computers being used for non-school purposes.

Task:
Need to display a Computer and Network Usage Policy on every computer in each of the schools in the district. Special considerations had to be in place to track which patrons accepted the agreement, as well as the computer it was on and when it occured.

Result:
Michael created a district-wide message that would be stored on the WAN that all patrons of the district are authenticated into. He also created several stand alone messages for any district computers that were off the network and mobile take-home laptops.

Computer and Network Usage Policy message
Michael created a Computer and Network Usage Policy message that conformed to the district legal standards and displayed it in an RTF formatted message. He configured the message to have an I AGREE and I DISAGREE buttons. He understood that students are computer-savvy and would always find ways around everything so he added some extra security options. He used the option "Show X in upper right corner" so the patron could not close the message, checked the option for disabling moving the message, hid the Windows Desktop, hid the Windows Taskbar and also disabled CTRL-ALT-DEL. These options prevent the patrons from closing the message without choosing an option. When users clicked the I DISAGREE button he configured it to perform a system logoff (some machines were configured to shutdown). The I AGREE button allowed them to login and continue using the system.

There was a large concern about tracking which patrons agreed and which patrons did not. Michael used the Logging feature to track the username, computer name, date, time and which button was clicked. He then imported the log files into Excel and sorted by the button that was clicked. Those patrons who chose I DISAGREE were logged for a later date and follow up.

Example Message