NAV

Sending Ctrl-Alt-Del in a Session

Ctrl-Alt-Del is a special hardware interrupt used by Windows as a secure notification to let the operating system know that either a genuine user is present or highly authorised software is running. For Windows to recognise this sequence it is necessary to 'simulate' it from a Windows service.

Rather than have SimpleHelp surreptitiously install a service on everyone's machine we prefer this to be more explicit (while still keeping it very simple). If you would like to log on and off or reboot the remote computer you can install a Remote Access service by clicking the 'Install Remote Access' button under the tools menu.

This will allow you to configure an 'always-on' connection which will allow you to connect after logging off, rebooting or rebooting into safe mode without any user intervention at all, even allowing you to send Ctrl-Alt-Del to the remote machine to log on where necessary.

Vista, Windows 7 and later

In some cases on Windows Vista or later (including Windows 7 and Server 2008) if Ctrl-Alt-Del is enabled and User Account Control(UAC) is switched off it may be necessary to change the Group Policy to enable 'Simulation of the Secure Attention Sequence in Software'. To do this please run through the following steps:

  • Start Menu - Run
  • Type in gpedit.msc and hit OK
  • Under the tree item: Computer Configuration - Administrative Templates - Windows Components - Windows Logon Options
  • Right click Disable or enable software Secure Attention Sequence
  • Select Properties
  • In the dialog that pops up select Enabled
  • In the drop-down menu under 'Set which software is allowed to generate the Secure Attention Sequence' select Services and Ease of Access Applications
  • Hit OK
  • Close the Group Policy window

Ctrl-Alt-Delete as sent by the Remote Access service is purely simulating the secure attention sequence (Ctrl-Alt-Delete) at login time. Using this menu item at other times to launch task manager or lock the screen etc will have no effect, however these can be accomplished easily via other means.

In the unlikely event that you are still unable to send Ctrl-Alt-Del after making these changes please check the following:

  • You are sending CAD via the Ctrl-Alt-Del (Login Signal) menu item (Tools menu) in SimpleGateway
  • Is there a group policy overriding the local policy on the relevant machine? (for example, is the machine part of a domain?)