With hopes atremble,
I clicked the button and was rewarded with your typical Windows File dialog box.
One thing that is nice about this dialog box, is it is essentially a miniature
version of the Windows Explorer program. This means unknowingly I was given
full access to the computer! Something had gone un-noticed during system lock down.
Or, they knew but realized there was no way around it if they wanted to grant
print to file ability.
Today I had a nice reminder how difficult it is (can be)
to lock down a Windows 9x system. By lock down I mean to
allow only specified access. When people speak of the insecure
design of Windows 9x systems, this ability is included.
First, an overview of the system. The computer has Windows
95 as its
(the computer) exists to perform only one function: run the
software provided by our small parcel carrier. In fact the entire
computer is provided, pre-configured, by the carrier.
Two printers, a thermal label printer
and a dot-matrix report printer, are connected and pre-configured
for use. This is
a large carrier, known for its white trucks with blue and red
lettering. Such a large organization certainly has the resources
and know-how to lock down a system.
With ordinary use, the system boots and immediately loads
the Parcel software. Nothing of the familiar Windows interface
is presented to the user. Most of the common keyboard shortcuts and
mouse functions do not work. This is to present the feeling that
the computer is running only the Parcel software.
Today presented
a problem that required the full use of Windows.
Several parcels were shipped to China, such a shipment requires
special paperwork for Customs.
Unfortunately, I discovered that the report printer no longer works.
This as the printer repeatedly stopped printing with all lights flashing.
Nothing would revive it, except for a power-cycle. However, sending
a print job would produce the same results after 10-20 lines of text.
Connect a new printer? Of course, however how do I install the
driver when I cannot access the start menu, control panel, or anything
that is part of Windows? At first I tried swapping the printer for a
different one in the hopes the two were compatible, they weren’t. Now
what to do? A small box on the report screen caught my eye. It was a text
field wherein one could specify a file name to save a report to disk. Now
the most interesting part is next to it was a Browse button.
You know, the kind that lets you browse the file system.
With hopes atremble,
I clicked the button and was rewarded with your typical Windows File dialog box.
One thing that is nice about this dialog box, is it is essentially a miniature
version of the Windows Explorer program. This means unknowingly I was given
full access to the computer! Something had gone un-noticed during system lock down.
Or, they knew but realized there was no way around it if they wanted to grant
print to file ability.
Quickly I entered the c:\Windows directory and found the progman.exe
application. The normal File Dialog box interface does not appear to grant much
to the user: specify a file name to save or open. However, right-click a file and
you get the wonderful context menu. Included in this menu are the builtin associative
functions known to Windows. Clicking progman.exe for example,
provides an Open entry, that runs the program. Which I did.
Within moments Control Panel was accessed, a new print driver installed and
my reports were printed.
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