How AutoMate Unlocks a Workstation

The following options are only supported on Windows NT/2000/XP and newer operating systems

AutoMate attempts to unlock a workstation by simulating the keystrokes of a typical unlock sequence.  On Windows NT/2000/XP, AutoMate does the following:

1) Confirms that the workstation is in a locked state

2) Sends the secure sequence Ctrl-Alt-Del by pressing the Ctrl, Alt and Delete keys at the same time

3) Determines the accelerator key for the password field from the Task Administrator Preferences

4) Presses the accelerator key for the password (typically the letter 'p' on English Windows), and types out the password

5) Presses the enter key to begin the logon process

6) Waits and periodically checks if the shell process begins.  If it does not, AutoMate assumes a failure has occurred, sends the enter key to clear any dialog boxes that may have appeared, and restores the secure desktop

AutoMate supports unlocking the workstation for the currently logged on user only.  Therefore, the password used to unlock the workstation must be that of the currently logged on user.  If not, AutoMate will be unable to unlock the workstation successfully.

The password can be sent differently, or not at all.  The password step (steps 3 and 4) would be skipped if:

a) There is no accelerator key defined for the password, or

b) There is no password to type (because one was not supplied in the Run As section for the running task or no default password was specified in Preferences)

AutoMate would still attempt to logon the user by pressing the enter key.  

Because AutoMate is simply using accelerator keys and typing text into fields to unlock a workstation, as far as AutoMate is concerned, there really is no true correlation between the term "password" and whether or not it is an actual password field.  Therefore, it is possible to use AutoMate to unlock a workstation if it uses a non-standard logon screen, provided the following is true:

* only the password field is required to unlock the workstation (either because only a password field is visible, or the other relevant information is already populated in the necessary fields, like it is on a standard Windows logon screen), and
*  the enter key is the default key for beginning the logon process.  

To accomplish this, simply change the accelerator key for password in Preferences, and use the fields in the Run As and default logon as usual.

See also:

Run As

Preferences

How AutoMate Logs On A User

Running Tasks While Logged Off

Running Tasks While Locked