Just a Quick Reminder About Kiosks, Pay Phones, and ATMs.

I didn't do it. 

There I go, hanging out in the real world, again.

For those of you who may not be aware, most computer kiosks, pay phones (no one uses them), and even ATMs (no one uses them either, right?) run Windows. Some run a version called Windows Embedded. There are a LOT of devices out there that use WindowsXP Embedded. These are basically just stripped down versions of the original operating systems. Because who needs Windows Media Player on an ATM anyway? (Or in general?)

On the right is a kiosk from our favorite corporate hang out, Wal Mart. Users of these can apply for jobs, clock in, shop online, etc. As we can see in the video, the keyboard is missing a few keys. (Ctrl, Alt, but no Del) There is a Shift key, however. Because of this, I can invoke a program called "Sticky Keys." It is a program built into Windows that prevents keys from being pressed repeatedly. Comes in handy when your keyboard sucks. Does NOT come in handy when you want to play Galaga and mash the fire button. 

I totally did that, though. 

As you can see, whoever designed these Windows based kiosks for Walmart knew this trick, probably thanks to Johnny Long (@ihackstuff). I got blocked by some application. Why would I want to do this? Sometimes the Start Menu will appear as well. That would be cool, because then I can access a whole bunch of stuff I'm not supposed to see. (Like CMD.EXE, The RUN Dialogue, IEXPLORE.EXE, EXPLORER.EXE, etc...) 

I kid you not, you can print from your floppy disk.

I wonder if I brought my own keyboard along and plugged it into the back, or maybe a photo kiosk what would happen? Maybe even a flash drive? Windows XP Pro for Embedded Systems will no longer be supported as of April of 2014. That means no more security updates, hooray! Windows XP Embedded (More customizable) will go end of support in 2016. Why is this important? Well I could find a flaw in the basic Windows software and leverage it on one of these machines, or even some ATMs and Microsoft won't put out a fix for it. AWESOME. This means that a large number of ATMs will need to be replaced or upgraded by that time. (A large feat, as there are more than 420,000 ATMs in the USA alone [Sauce])