PC Lock® is a software program that
allows you to remotely control the PC access time of any computer that you allow
your employees or contractors access to, anywhere in the World. You can Lock, Restart,
turn the power off on any PC that belongs to your account.
We recommend you to use PC Lock® on any
computer in your office or outside of it. By allowing access to Computers and
Laptops only for business use, you will extend your hardware lifetime and also
minimize the chance of your system being destroyed by Viruses, SPY or Adware. You
can also save money by minimizing electricity bills. The remote computers can
be controlled from any computer that has PC Lock® Administrator installed and
has logged in to the Secure Network with correct External ID and password (you
can control remote PCs time from your office or home computer).
Here only a few examples of how PC
Lock can help you:
Example 1: Your
Company has the flexibility to allow your employees to work from home. You gave
laptops to a group of people and want to make sure that they don't use these
laptops for their own needs. So, you can create a schedule for each of your
employees, for example, You can allow PC use from 9 to 5 PM Monday to Friday,
at all other times the computer will be turned off..
Example 2:
Your Company does field research using temporary contractors to collect data,
supplying them with laptops to store this data. After their contract is
finished, they are required to return the laptops to you. If a contracted employee
doesn’t return the laptop in a timely manner you can send a command with PC
Lock to the laptop to lock it, there by rendering the laptop and its data
useless until it is unlocked again. To unlock the laptop the contractor would
have to contact the administrator, who would decide to extend the computer
usage or demand the computer’s return.
Example 3:
You are leasing company and collecting money for laptops on a monthly basis. At
some point you stopped receiving money from one of your customers, so, you can
send a command with PC Lock® to lock this person's computer until he contacts
you and the payments is made in full.
The
Administrator registers an account on the Secure Server and, then registers all
PCs that company employees or contractors will take out of the office.
From this point
PC Lock® Admin and Client modules establish a Secure Encrypted Communication
between Office and employees' PCs. Only computers that have the correct
External ID and passwords will be accessible. That assures that no one except Administrator
can control your computers.
The administrator,
schedules On/OFF PC time for each PC that will be given to a company employee
(users). When there is a time to shutdown or lock a remote PC, PC Lock® timer
turns off or locks user's PC automatically and sends a command to a server
confirming that user's PC is locked as scheduled. The administrator can
remotely change the time schedule for any PC registered with him through the
Admin's module of PC Lock®.
If someone tries
to block PC Lock® from talking to the server, the client's module of PC
Lock will lock user's PC, the user would then have to contact the server though
his PC or to contact company administrator, to have the PC unlocked.
PC Lock® Administrator allows a company
administrator or a person in charge to remotely configure PC Lock® Client
installed on users’ computers.
The installation process is easy and
straight forward.
You will have to read and accept the
License Agreement in order to continue the installation of the PC Lock®.
Select PC Lock® Administrator, to install
administrator’s module.
To work properly, PC Lock® needs Microsoft
.NET Framework installed on your PC. PC Lock®’s Installation Wizard will
detect if your computer has it or not, and if required it will download it from
Microsoft’s website and install it automatically.
You can launch the PC Lock® Administrator now.
You will need to disable the
Windows Vista Account Control (UAC) in order to run PC Lock® in Windows Vista.
See more details about Windows Vista
Account Control (UAC) and detailed instructions how to disable it here: http://www.yoursafetyguide.com/how-to-disable-user-account-control-in-windows-vista.aspx
When you start the PC Lock® the first
time, you will be prompted to set your own password. Set it and remember it.
To access the PC Lock® Administrator main
interface, right click on the alarm clock (that is PC Lock® icon) in the
System Notification area. You will see PC Lock® Administrator context menu.
Select Open Main Form (you can also change
password or exit PC Lock® Administrator by selecting corresponding item).
This bar shows you a list of all computers
that are registered with your account and can be controlled with PC Lock®
Administrator. Highlighted in green you will see all computers that are currently
on-line, all offline computers are in grey. You can send a command to lock any
PC that is currently online. To do so, point cursor on a selected PC, right
click and choose “Lock this client”.
Click on any computer that you want to
create or change schedule (note that you can remotely change schedule only for
computers currently online) to access PC time settings view:
Using this controls you can schedule Log
OFF, Power OFF, Lock, Suspend, Hibernate or reboot time for a selected PC.
Here the steps to create a schedule:
1.
Use “Allow to use this computer any time during
this day” to allow unlimited access to this PC during the selected day of the
week.
2.
To limit computer time during the selected day
of the week, select “Limit computer time” option. Here you can allow use only from
/to selected time (example, to use a PC from 9AM to 5PM, select Start time
9:00AM and End time 11.59PM. You can also limit PC use by setting total amount
of hours or minutes you want this computer to be used (example, you want to
allow only 2 hour per day, then choose “Allow” 2 hours in selected “Day”). To
limit a PC use during the selected time frame, use a combination of Start/End
time and Allow XXX hours/minutes in selected time frame.
3.
Select “Ignore days of the week, set MAXIMUM
allowed time” to set just maximum number of hour or days that you want to allow
this PC to be used. In this case the PC Lock® will start countdown of the
allowed time from the moment you activate the timer.
You can choose one of the following actions
that you want to apply when the time is over.
Here you can enter the message for the
remote user and the time this message will be shown to this user before the
action is taken.
Click Activate or Deactivate to activate or
deactivate the PC Lock® timer.
When you finish creating the schedule, you
can click “Update this client” button to send changes to the user’s computer.
You can send the same settings to all your
computers by pressing “Update all clients” button.
Here you can register your PC on a secure
server, connect or disconnect to the network, change user’s PC locking settings
and check your External ID.
To connect to the network and to be able to
control remote computers you need to register on the network and obtain
External ID. You will need the External ID of the administrator as Parent ID
for all your computers that will be controlled remotely.
Set your access password and click Apply.
The Administrator's PC will connect to the IT Works Secure Server. The external ID will be assigned to you automatically by the system. Remember
that ID (you can always see it at the bottom of the Network tab).
You can connect to your account from any PC
that has PC Lock® Administrator installed (example, you can connect to your
account from home or office computer). You need to have an account on the
system and know your External ID and password. Enter your External ID and the
password then click “Connect”.
In order to assure that users PC is
functioning properly and can be reached through the network, the PC Lock®
Administrator asks it to send a confirmation message for example, “I am on the
network or I am OK”. If this message wasn’t received in time, the PC Lock®
Client will consider that the user’s PC is in trouble (its Server/Client
communication is being blocked for some reason). In this case PC Lock® will lock
this PC.
By default the authorization message
interval is 1 hour, you can change it using PC Locking settings form.
Here you can choose whether you want the Ez
PC Lock® to start automatically or not, block access to Task Manager, show the
application icon in the System Notification area or run it in hidden (Stealth mode),
set up hot keys or change the PC Lock® password. Also you can register the Ez
PC Lock® from here.
Upon receiving the license you will receive
a confirmation email with the license file “epl.license” and installation
instructions.
Copy this file to a place you can navigate
to later (we recommend you to store the license file in the documents folder). Select
Options/Registration form and using Browse button, navigate to “epl.license”
file stored on your hard disk. Click Install License when you have found and
selected the license file. The PC Lock® will restart. Your copy of the
application is now registered.
Choose this option in order to start PC
Lock automatically with Windows.
We recommend you to block Task Manager.
That will protect user’s computer from having someone access Task Manager and
unload software programs that you need to run.
This option will let you hide the
application icon from the system notification area and have the PC Lock®
running hidden from the user. In this case the PC Lock® can be accessed using
Hot Key combination only.
To access PC Lock® by pressing a set of
special keys (Hot Keys) you need to set them first. This option will allow you
to set Hot Keys.
Only the person who knows the password can
access PC Lock® settings. Use Change password to set or change the access
password.
PC Lock® Client controls computer On /
OFF or lock time. It establishes communication with the server and receives
commands from the PC Administrator. PC Lock® Client makes sure that even
if the internet Connection blocked and there is no communication between Client
and Server, the user’s computer time is under control.
PC Lock® Client can also work
independently in offline mode (Server free mode). In this case all settings are
done directly on the user’s computer through PC Lock® Client main interface.
The installation process is easy and
straight forward.
You will have to read and accept the
License Agreement in order to continue the installation of the PC Lock®.
Select PC Lock® Client, to install
client’s module.
To work properly, PC Lock® needs
Microsoft .NET Framework installed on your PC. The PC Lock® Installation
Wizard will detect if your computer has it or not, then it will download it
from Microsoft’s website and install it automatically if it’s not on your PC.
You can launch the PC Lock® Client now.
You will need to disable the Windows
Vista Account Control (UAC) in order to run PC Lock® in Windows Vista.
See more details about Windows Vista
Account Control (UAC) and detailed instructions how to disable it here: http://www.yoursafetyguide.com/how-to-disable-user-account-control-in-windows-vista.aspx
When you start the PC Lock® first time,
you will be prompted to set your own password. Set it and remember it.
To access the PC Lock® Client main
interface, right click on the alarm clock (that is PC Lock® icon) in the
System Notification area. You will see PC Lock® Client context menu.
Select Open Main Form (you can also change
password or exit PC Lock® Client by selecting corresponding item).
Using this controls you can schedule Log
OFF, Power OFF, Lock, Suspend, Hibernate or reboot time for a selected PC.
Here the steps to create a schedule:
1.
Use “Allow to use this computer any time during
this day” to allow unlimited access to this PC during the selected day of the
week.
2.
To limit computer time during the selected day
of the week, select “Limit computer time” option. Here you can allow use only
from /to selected time (example, to use a PC from 9AM to 5PM, select Start time
9:00AM and End time 11.59PM. You can also limit PC use by setting total amount
of hours or minutes you want this computer to be used (example, you want to allow
only 2 hour per day, then choose “Allow” 2 hours in selected “Day”). To limit a
PC use during the selected time frame, use a combination of Start/End time and
Allow XXX hours/minutes in selected time frame.
3.
Select “Ignore days of the week, set MAXIMUM
allowed time” to set just maximum number of hour or days that you want to allow
this PC to be used. In this case the PC Lock® will start countdown of the
allowed time from the moment you activate the timer.
You can choose one of the following actions
that you want to apply when the time is over.
Here you can enter the message for the
remote user and the time this message will be shown to this user before the
action is taken.
You can play audio when you show Custom
Message. Click Set audio file to access audio settings:
Select any file in “.wav” format. You can
try to play it by pressing play button. Then click “Apply” button to save
changes. You can save your own voice with some special message to users and
play it. The selected file will be played at the same time when custom
notification will be shown to the user.
Click Activate or Deactivate to Activate or
deactivate the PC Lock® timer.
Here you can connect or disconnect user’s
PC to Secure Server, and choose the application Mode (offline Server Free or
Network).
Check “Work Offline” to run PC Lock®
Client in server free offline mode if you want to control user’s PC through
direct PC access or with 3rd party applications such as Windows
Remote Desktop or Symantec PC Anywhere. In this case PC Lock® Client will not
communicate with the server.
Please note, if you have “Work Offline
check box unchecked but not connected to the server, PC Lock® will use
default settings: authorization message interval is 1 hour, you can change it
using PC Locking settings form on PC Lock® Administrator
To connect to the network and to be able to
establish communication with the server you need to uncheck “Work Offline”
checkbox, enter your Administrator’s External ID as Parent ID and
Administrators Network access password in to corresponding fields and click
“Connect” button.
.
Here you can choose whether you want the Ez
PC Lock® to start automatically or not, block access to Task Manager, show the
application icon in the System Notification area or run it in hidden (Stealth
mode), set up hot keys or change the PC Lock® password. Also you can register
the PC Lock® from here.
When you receive the license you will
receive a confirmation email with the license file “epl.license” and
installation instructions.
Copy this file to a place you can navigate
to later (we recommend you to store the license file in the documents folder).
Select Options/Registration form and using
Browse button, navigate to “epl.license” file stored on your hard disk. Click
Install License when you found and selected the license file. The PC Lock®
will restart. You copy of the application is registered now.
Choose this option in order to start PC
Lock automatically with Windows.
We recommend you to block Task Manager.
That will protect user’s computer from having someone access Task Manager and
unload software programs that you need to run.
This option will let you hide the
application icon from the system notification area and have the PC Lock®
running hidden from a user. In this case the PC Lock® can be accessed using
Hot Key combination only.
To access PC Lock® by pressing a set of
special keys (Hot Keys) you need to set them first. This option will allow you
to set Hot Keys.
Only the person who knows the password can
access PC Lock® settings. Use Change password to set or change the access
password.