Support Suite

Main

Knowledgebase: Help Guides
How to Disable Edge Swipes on Kiosks
Posted by Travis Fleenor on 14 August 2018 10:20 AM

Many Windows 10 systems have a capability called edge swiping that brings up an application navigation/select dialog when a user performs a touch gesture swiping in from the left or the right side of the screen.

Many times, companies wish to disable this feature so that particularly tech savvy visitors are unable to gain access to the desktop, file system or Operating System of the Kiosk hardware. On most versions of Windows 10 this can be disabled using local group policy or registry settings. A very well written tutorial on how to accomplish this can be found here on tenforums

However, there are versions of Windows 10 where neither of the techniques covered in the tutorial can be used. In this instance the process is a bit more complicated but works just as well. This way of turning off edge swiping is actually even more secure as it completely disables Windows File Explorer.

The steps for doing this are as follows. 

  1. Open a new text document and add in the following two lines verbatim - This assumes the Kiosk was installed in its default location
    taskkill /f /im explorer.exe
    "\Program Files (x86)\Savance\EIOBoard Kiosk\EIOBoardKioskPC.exe"
  2. Save this text document as a batch file named RunKiosk.bat to the root of the C:\ drive
  3. Open Task Manager - under Startup disable run at Startup for the Kiosk
  4. Click on the Windows icon and type in Task Scheduler and click on Task Scheduler to open it
  5. On the right hand side click Create Task - Name the task Run Kiosk Disable Explorer
  6. Under Security Option check Run with highest privileges
  7. On the triggers tab click New - Set the task to begin at startup, set the Delay to 30 seconds - make sure Enabled is checked and click ok
  8. On the Action tab click New - Set the action to Start a program - Browse to the C:\ drive and select RunKiosk.bat - click ok
  9. Uncheck all options on the Conditions tab
  10. On the Settings tab set the task to restart every minute if it fails and to attempt restart up to 3 times - Make sure the Do not start a new instance rule is applied - click ok

This will disable the File Explorer and Run the Kiosk just after startup. With File Explorer disabled, edge gestures should not function.

To test this restart Windows. Log in is normally set to happen automatically but if not log in. Wait a minute or two. The Kiosk should open and edge swipes should be disabled.

If File Explorer needs to be accessed on the device plug in a keyboard, press ctrl+shift+esc to run task manager then go to File->Run new Task. Type in explorer and hit ok. To re-disable it either run the batch file again (this will also run the Kiosk) or run command prompt as admin and execute -  taskkill /f /im explorer.exe


Comments (0)
Post a new comment
 
 
Full Name:
Email:
Comments:
CAPTCHA Verification 
 
Please enter the text you see in the image into the textbox below. This is required to prevent automated registrations and form submissions.