Kiosk software

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Kiosk software is the system and user interface software designed for a kiosk or Internet kiosk. Kiosk software locks down the application in order to protect the kiosk from users. Kiosk software may offer remote monitoring to manage multiple kiosks from another location. Email or text alerts may be automatically sent from the kiosk for daily activity reports or generated in response to problems detected by the software. Other features allow for remote updates of the kiosk's content and the ability to upload data such as kiosk usage statistics. Kiosk software is used to manage a touchscreen, allowing users to touch the monitor screen to make selections. A virtual keyboard eliminates the need for a computer keyboard.

[edit] Security

Kiosk system software addresses security by deterring users from maliciously attacking or hacking into the kiosk. Kiosk software must be able to prevent misuse of the provided features.

It is critical that the kiosk software prevent the user from ever reaching the desktop or file system. This type of security can be difficult because standard print dialogs allow the content to be printed to a file and enable the user access to the file system. The same is true for many email links that load the default email tool and allows the email to be saved to a file.

If the kiosk includes a keyboard, the kiosk software must also disable all problematic specialty keys and keystroke sequences such as Control-Alt-Delete.

With browser-based or Internet kiosks, the standard browser menus must be disabled because these provide too much configuration control to the user. It is important to prevent the user from accessing URLs not applicable to the function of the kiosk. This can be accomplished by hiding the address bar and incorporating domain and page blocking into the kiosk system software or browser lockdown software.

Kiosk software is also an option for projects that may not even be using kiosk hardware. PCs can be configured to run in “kiosk mode”, which prevents users from accessing certain system functions. This may not be appropriate for all uses, since running in kiosk mode may not give deployers the amount of control they need for their final end product configuration. Additional kiosk system software can be used to secure the kiosk or PC instead.

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