Thank you very much to all of you for the fast replies and the help and hints!!! I think you are right - I would have to write my own GINA! and yes not in VB ;-) I will stop to investigate here because also when we would found a solution for XP would GINA not work for vista! Means I will give up at this point and think about a service. More details about my project: The program on the locked PC contains a 3rd party VNC Server component. (Now should it be clear what I am trying to do, or?) The application with the VNC Server component listens for VNC connections. This works fine as long as the pc isnt locked! But what when the pc is just turned on WITHOUT once a user logged in? In this situation would my application not run and would not be able to unlock the PC - independently what ever solution we would found! Means I need a sercive! This service starts (on request) a simple application which contains "only" the VNC server component. But here we have also some problems: There isnt a desktop where the application could run "in". My solution -hopefully: The service starts the application under different user rights (with different credentials; keyword: "CreateProcessWithLogonW"). When this works, runs the application hopefully in a "virtuell" desktop and listens for VNC connections. The "other side" can then connect to the VNC server, would then see(!) the locked PC and would be able to unlock it. But this is all theory - I have to test. What I already tried is to start such an application under that user/rigths under thats a service runs, means under the SYSTEM account. I see then in the taskmanager that the application runs - but I am not able to connect to the VNC server.... I let you all know the details - when I have some ... but now: "Thank god its friday! Watching TV and drinking beer!" ;-) (J.J.Cale)

thank you very much! Ah, ... "Gina" - I am still fighting with "WlxInitialize" ;-) May be the other links are bringing the solution :-) Thanks!! I will report here asap when i found a solution!

thx 4 ur fast reply. Its an application. And I still believe that the application runs, because I am not talking about the startup scenario! The user started the computer, logged in and pressed then (some times later) the Ctrl+Alt+Del keys ... as described it in my post. ;-) So please assume that the application runs and can react on commands (which are via tcp send). Also as descibed before: This works all fine, but I am not able to unlock the pc (with the known username, pw and domain...) Enver, no please be sure that this will not be finally a virus, trojan etc.!

Experts, I am stucking and need your help/hints. Situation: My application runs on a locked PC and should unlock the PC by request. Thats all! "Locked" means here that the user pressed "Ctrl-Alt-Del" and then the "Lock Computer" button. Means the user sees now the "Windows login screen" on his screen. Operation System: XP only - for now ;-) Details: My application runs and listens on the blocked PC for commands. One command is the "unlock the PC!". The command contains also the username, password and the domain of that user that is currently logged in. The PC should be unlocked for him! What I not want: I want no code for receiving messages - that works already fine in my application. I want not to switch the user! I want not that my application runs another application under this or that rights/user. I want not the auto login (after next reboot). I want also not to find the "Windows login screen" over his name, and sending the user and password via sendmessage... (Please think about a japanese PC and how the window title of the windows login screen looks there ;-) What I tested / found / googled: ... was always a "run as", the auto login or doesnt work (like api call "CreateProcessWithLogon" or LogonUser (advapi32)) Thank you very much in advance!

modified on Friday, July 3, 2009 4:11 AM