Ability to Control Metro Apps in Kiosk Environment

Question

Hi, we develop secure kiosk application layer and need
to support Windows 8 in new version of our SiteKiosk product.

I wonder if it's possible to interact with Metro Apps / WWAHost.exe:

1. How can I detect that an Metro App is started?
2. Is the better way to close the Metro App then to kill corresponding WWAHost.exe?
3. Is there a something like policy to prevent certain application to start?
4. Is there an API to suspend / resume Metro App externally

Thank you in advance,

Slawa Konkevych
Provisio, Germany

Answer 1

Hi,

You can open Task Manager, detect WWAHost process and check its command line parameter "-ServerName" which indicates specific hosted Metro style app.

You need not to manually close your Metro style app. Windows will maintain it and decide when to terminate it according to specific policy.

To prevent a Metro style app from running, you can implement some check logic in launch or activate event. If your custom ploicy is not met, you can call Application.Exit to shutdown the app.

There is no API to suspend/resume Metro style app externally. Normally, you can use SuspendThread and ResumeThread to suspend and resume a specific process in Desktop environment. However, both APIs are not available in Metro style app.

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Best wishes,

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Robin [MSFT]
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Answer 2

Hi Robin,

thank you very much for the quick answer.

I would like to further specify my tasks:

I need to start our Kiosk App in full screen mode and want to prevent some actions / charms,

for example i need to prevent the wellcome screen to show. Can you please tell me if its possible?

Thank you in advance,

Slawa Konkevych

PROVISIO, Germany

Answer 3

Slawa,

You will want to look into Windows 8 embedded and see if it meets your needs:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsembedded/en-us/evaluate/windows-embedded-standard-8-ctp.aspx

Best Wishes - Eric

Answer 4

Hi Eric, thank you very much for your suggestion,
I just have told it to my product manager and he would like to look through embedded version soon.

In spite of the embedded OS we have to support the mainstream Windows version.
Do you know whether a certain policy exists to hide certain applications
from the Start Screen or even to disable the Start Screen entirely?

Thank you in advance,

Slawa Konkevych

PROVISIO, Germany

Answer 5

Slawa,

The embedded version of the product is the only supported way of doing this.  They currently have a free trial you can download.

Best Wishes - Eric

Answer 6

Here is the link:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsembedded/en-us/evaluate/windows-embedded-standard-8-ctp.aspx