You probably didn't notice, but Caleb Delnay in digital is now a Drupal 7 site. I worked on the upgrade on and off over the course of a couple weeks and launched the new version last Wednesday. The site doesn't look any different on the surface, as I ported my custom theme forward to Drupal 7, but under the hood it is definitely running Drupal 7.
Take a look at my previous technical explanation for the Drupal 6 version of this site for some background on why I chose Drupal. That post also contains some background on the custom theme that is still being used for the new version of the site. For more specifics on the upgrade to Drupal 7, continue reading!
Recently I ran into a situation where it was desirable to have a program that ran and was visible on the Windows lock screen. Under ordinary circumstances this is something that just shouldn't be done. The Windows lock and logon screens are... sacred, in a sense, and displaying something on those screens is both a usability and security no no. That said, it's still possible to do and in unique situations it may even be the right solution. Plus, it was an interesting research exercise.
In my case, the machines that needed a program displayed on their lock screen were being used to drive the display of LCD screens for communication purposes. They would never be touched by a human, and in fact the purpose of running the machines on the Windows lock screen is to prevent tampering. This led me to investigate the feasibility of having a program display on the lock screen and eventually a working implementing written in C#.
Ultimately, I decided to implement a different set of security protocols to prevent unauthorized access to the machines, but nevertheless I figured I'd share my research here. Let me reiterate: please carefully consider whether it is necessary to display a program on the lock or logon screens, as Windows is specifically designed to prevent programs from doing so (think of what a pain a malicious program could be). Done considering? Well then read on!
