Any user can unlock now with this custom GINA

This Article is Now Outdated: Since the introduction of Windows 10, reliable multi-user switching is supported in the business environment. It is retained for historical purposes.

From the folks over at Paralint, there is now a utility to help you with shared computered access. Often you will have a shared computer in an office space, and the problem is that you want each user to have their own username and password, however, that doesn’t always workout so well. Once you add a password locked screen saver, and that user forgets to logoff, that computer is now unusable to any other normal user.

What are your options…. Typically we have be forced into one of the following options:
1) Users know eachothers passwords;
2) Reduce the security by removing the password requirement or granting other users administrator permissions;
3) Users simply power off/on the machine to work around the issue;
4) Or they can use the windows based “winexit.scr” which will effectively forcefully logoff the user when the screen saver kicks on.

However, now with this custom GINA, you can now enable any user to logoff that offending user without requiring administrative permissions or changing your security routine. Aucun is a replacement GINA that wraps Microsoft’s own MSGINA.DLL to allow any given group of users to unlock or force logoff a locked session on a Windows machine, unless the currently loggon on user is a member of a group you specify.

I created this for a friend that needed an unlock feature. By popular demand, I added force logoff and warning display. Here is a more detailed feature list:

  • GUI provided by original MSGINA.DLL (no training of end user required)
  • Allows any member of a given group to force logoff a locked session
  • Allows any member of a given group to unlock a locked session
  • Support a exclusion group (to prevent unlocking administrators by regular users)
  • Allows to display a custom message when the workstation is locked
  • Supports 64 bits versions of Windows
  • Supports international versions of Windows
  • Allows chaining multiple Gina’s together

You can learn more about this and download here: http://www.paralint.com/projects/aucun/