Please note that as part of the protection (28 day trial period validation), the trial version writes to the registry and to the windows folder. When testing the trial version you will need to allow the user sufficient rights to permit this on the workstation otherwise an error will occur. These rights are not necessary when using the full product.

If you have a peer-to-peer network you should also see these extra instructions.

A quick installer that places TerminatorX locally on each workstation is available, but is not recommended for school or corporate networks. Although the method is simple and quick, it is only useful for very small networks because it is not quite as secure or easy to maintain. The installer is available here.

How does TerminatorX work?

TerminatorX operates by scanning the window titles of all the applications that the users have opened on their workstation. The window titles are on the title bar at the top of each application's window - for example, the window shown below has a title of TerminatorX banned list generator. TerminatorX looks at these window titles every few seconds and matches them with a list stored in a secure place on the file server. If a match is found, TerminatorX closes the application down, preventing the student or employee from using it.

 

Instructions

         Note - TerminatorX is invisible while running. To test it, start up one of the banned applications.

Step 1. Choose a set of banned applications for TerminatorX's data file.

• Start the program Xlist Generator.exe.
   
  
   
  This will be used to make TerminatorX's data file - a file called Xlist.txt.
   
  
• Click the boxes to choose the applications that you want to ban.
• Unless you have a slow network, or slow workstations, leave the number of seconds between checks for blocked applications as 1 second, and the number of minutes between list refreshes as 1 minute:
   
  
   
  These settings can be altered later if you want to - as can the list of banned applications.
• Click on to generate the xlist.txt file - it will be saved in the same folder as Xlist Generator.exe.
• Click on to close Xlist Generator.

 

Step 2. Put TerminatorX in a secure folder on the network server.

• Create a folder on the network server that can be mapped as a drive in the user's login/logon script.
• Ensure that the user's access rights to that folder (and any files in it) are restricted so that they can't delete or modify files within it - only read and execute them.
• Copy TXtrial.exe and the xlist.txt data file created in Step 1. into that folder.

 

Step 3. Set up TerminatorX for a user.

• You can use an existing user, or set up a new 'dummy' user for test purposes.
• Place the file msvbvm60.dll into the windows system folder on the user's workstation.

      usually         c:\windows\system in WIN 95, 98, SE and ME
      and              c:\winnt\system32 in 2000, NT and XP

• Check that the user has read/write access rights to the registry and to the windows folder on the workstations.
       The trial version of TerminatorX uses these and an error will occur if reading and writing are not permitted.
• Next we need to alter the user's login/logon script to
  • Map a drive letter to the file containing TXtrial.exe and xlist.txt
  • Run TXtrial.exe
  Examples might be (you will have to use the correct server and folder names):
  
  

  On an NT server network use:		NET   USE   X:  \\SERVER01\SECUREPART start   X:\TXtrial.exe
  On a Novell Netware network use:		MAP   ROOT   X:=\\SERVER1:APPS\TERMX @X:\TXtrial.exe

• Log the user on, start up one of the banned applications and check that it disappears. (Please remember that TerminatorX is invisible while running)

 
Note that it is possible to use the UNC pathway to run TerminatorX rather than map a drive letter. You can then have a single login/logon line to run TerminatorX:
• start    \\SERVER01\SECUREPART\TXtrial.exe on an NT server network
• @\\SERVER1:APPS\TERMX\TXtrial.exe on a Novell Netware server network

 

Step 4. Set up TerminatorX for a group of users on your network

• If TerminatorX operates correctly for one user it should do the same for many.
• Try altering the login script for a group of users - if that facility is available with your Network Operating System.
• Make sure that you place a copy of msvbvm60.dll into the windows system folder on all your workstations.

 

Step 5. Give different groups or types of user an appropriate xlist.txt file.

In an educational establishment you may want to ban MSN messenger for students but leave it available for the teachers. Using this as an example:

• Set up a folder on the network server for staff and antoher for students.
• Place copies of TXtrial.exe and xlist.txt in each folder.
• Use Xlist Generator.exe to alter the list of prohibited applications within each xlist.txt file so that they are appropriate to each group.
• Alter the login scripts of the staff and students to map the drive letter to the appropriate folder. Then TerminatorX runs from that folder and picks up the appropriate list

 

Step 6. Ban future programs as they become a nuisance

• To block further (and future) applications that are not in the list, please see the help screens that come with Xlist generator for a detailed description. However, you merely have to run the offending applications yourself, note their window titles and include them in the Custom Entries section in Xlist generator.
  
  For example, Calculator is the window title (the blue bit) of Windows Calculator:
   
  So enter the word Calculator in the Custom Entries box:
   
  Of course, you do not really want to block Calculator, we are only using this as an example.
• 'Wild card' entries are allowed where the character * substitutes for any group of characters
  
  For example, *eBay* will look for every window title with eBay somewhere in it.
   
  This will mean that if a user views an eBay auction site in a browser, the browser will be shut down.
   
  Currently the entries are case sensitive, i.e. *ebay* is not the same as *eBay*.

Two last things to note.

1. Although it states above that the file 'Msvbvm60.dll' should be stored in the system folder on each of the workstations, on computers with sufficient memory (about 128MB), it can just be placed in the TerminatorX folder on the server.

2. TerminatorX does not appear in the task list in task manager, but on Windows XP workstations it does appear in the processes list. For solutions to this problem see http://www.plevna.f9.co.uk/problems.htm

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