Lockdown features (Industry 8.1)
June 2, 2016
Review the additional lockdown features included in Windows Embedded 8.1 Industry (Industry 8.1).
Device lockdown refers to providing a controlled and specialized experience for the end user of a device, mainly by limiting the ways in which an end user can interact with the device. There are many reasons for locking down a device, such as protecting the system from malicious users, providing a custom defined user experience, and increasing system reliability.
Because Windows Embedded 8.1 Industry (Industry 8.1) is based on Windows 8.1, you can use many of the Windows 8.1 lockdown features, such as AppLocker, Windows Firewall, and Group Policy settings, as part of your lockdown strategy. In addition, because devices often serve a dedicated purpose, they can have additional lockdown requirements beyond those of a Windows 8.1 device.
For example, your device may be a dedicated cashier device that runs a full screen cashier application, and you may want to prevent users from being able to use Windows shortcut keys like Alt+Tab to switch out of a kiosk application or Alt+F4 to close the application.
You can download a large-scale technical poster that describes how to add and configure lockdown and branding features in your Industry 8.1 operating system.
Important
The Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) service cancels Lockdown feature tasks when there is insufficient physical memory available. To resolve this issue, read the KB article.
To support these additional requirements, Industry 8.1 offers the following additional lockdown features specifically for devices: