Kiosk Mode Or...

[mhudd]

I'm building a FM runtime and I can't decide if I should build it in Kiosk mode or use a Menu Plug-in.

Kiosk mode has some inherent problems.

On a windows machine it does not allow the user access to the desktop unless it's through explorer. It also takes away the windows menu bar along the bottom of the screen.

I'm just thinking that Kiosk mode might tick off some users because it does not allow full windows functionality, or at least the normal stuff.

Menu Plug-ins seem like a nice idea, it's just that I'm a little nervous about Plug-ins and runtimes in combo.

Bottom line...

The standard FM menu items in a runtime are useless to the normal user and in fact confusing.

Any ideas or perspectives?

Michael

[SteveB]

I tried Secure FM which works fine and is actually very easy to use, but I never liked what the final product looked like. While Kiosk has its own set of problems, the final product is more attractive. I never viewed not being able to minimize the kiosk as a problem because my solution doesn't interact with other software or with Windows. The user can still run anything that had been minimized to the task bar and I believe he can start programs as well.

[ March 18, 2002, 08:24 AM: Message edited by: Steveinvegas ]

[danjacoby]

This conundrum is why whenever I create a runtime I try to make sure that there are buttons available to perform any task we would normally perform thru a menu item. That way, there's no need to fiddle with menu items, but those customers who know how to use them still have that option.