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Locking a Win95 workstation Clock

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I know there are utilities that will allow you to sync workstation clocks to an NT Server, but is there a way to disable the clock so that the user cannot adjust it. We are going to a timeclock that punches in from the PC. If someone knows how to change their clock, they can alter their punch in time.

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Locking a Win95 workstation Clock

In reply to Locking a Win95 workstation Clock

Aside from syncing system clocks to your server, set up system policies and disable access to it from there, the properties sheet for the taskbar allows you to remove the clock from displaying completly, however this does mean no time is displayed and the system calander would not be accessible through clicking on the clock.

Locking a Win95 workstation Clock

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Locking a Win95 workstation Clock

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Setup the program so that it accesses your severs clock.

Locking a Win95 workstation Clock

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Locking a Win95 workstation Clock

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Another place to watch for is the system BIOS. If you think any user knows how to change the time there you’ll want to password protect the BIOS. I’d do it anyway.

Locking a Win95 workstation Clock

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Locking a Win95 workstation Clock

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As long as a (minimally educated, potentially malicious) user knows how to access the BIOS at bootstrap — F1, ESC, etc. — you have no defense. I recommend abandoning the strategy, post haste, rather than wasting additional time/resources. Instead, contract a specialist who can configure a secure time-management software system.

Happy hunting!

‘zoid

Locking a Win95 workstation Clock

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Locking a Win95 workstation Clock

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On the Window CD in the apptools folder which is in the admin folder is a folder called poledit. copy it to your local hard drive and run the poledit.exe. This is a great little utility that you can use restrict access to the control panel and desktop plus much more. Also as mentioned previously password protect the bios setup.

Locking a Win95 workstation Clock

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Locking a Win95 workstation Clock

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Poledit is your best bet for locking down the workstation from the User. Be sure to remove poledit from the PC after you use it. Keep a copy on floppy. You will also need to password protect your BIOS. Set up your login script to pull the date and time from the server when the User logs in. After trying this you will still want to go to the DOS prompt and make sure that you can’t change the date or time with the simple “DATE” enter or “TIME” enter.

Locking a Win95 workstation Clock

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Locking a Win95 workstation Clock

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I thought about this more after writing the above answer. If your timecard database is residing on the server which is probably the case, you should not have to worry about illegal punches. The software should pull the date from the server when entering it into the database or a history file. If you have descrepancies in the time of the punch and the time in your history file then there are some employees that need a new job. If the software pulls the time only from the workstation then I would get a new vendor because the security is lousy.

Locking a Win95 workstation Clock

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Locking a Win95 workstation Clock

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You CANNOT simply lock the clock with Poledit. The only thing you can do is to remove it from the system tray, set a system policy with Poledit to restrict the user from access to modify the Taskbar settings, and add the line “Timedate.cpl”=no to the [don’t load] section of the Control.INI file You could also just delete the Timedate Cpl file from the Windows\System directory and put it on a Network share that only admins have access to.

Locking a Win95 workstation Clock

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Locking a Win95 workstation Clock

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Create a system policy profile that turns off the user from edit the time and date.

Locking a Win95 workstation Clock

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