Disable


PURPOSE   OPERATION   OPTIONS   COMMAND LINES   RELATED PROGRAMS


Author: Dan Mares, dmares @ maresware . com (you will be asked for e-mail address confirmation)
Portions Copyright © 1998-2021 by Dan Mares and Mares and Company, LLC
Phone: 678-427-3275
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Purpose

When a computer is seized you immediately need to secure it so that no one can tamper with it while it is classified as evidence. You must make certain that if someone accidentally turns on the computer that no data is thereby altered. Also, the person turning on the computer should be notified that this is seized evidence. Disable will accomplish this.

Disable should be placed in the autoexec.bat file of a bootable floppy disk (using DOS 5.0 or before). Then when the computer attempts to boot from the floppy drive the Disable program disables all keyboard activity and places a message on the screen indicating that this computer is seized evidence. The message can be customized to tell the user who to call at that time.

Disable turns off all keyboard activity thus disabling the ability of the CTRL-ALT-DEL and CTRL-C keys to break out of the program and restart the computer.

The only way to stop the Disable program is to shut the power off of the computer.


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Operation

When used in the config.sys file, Disable is treated as a system driver and is run from the config.sys. Because config.sys cannot be stopped from executing, Disable will ALWAYS execute under these conditions.

(NOTE: if using DOS 6.0 or later, the F8 command can be used to bypass this program. Thus, it is suggested to make your boot disk using DOS 5.0 or earlier).

When called in the autoexec.bat file, there is a possiblility that a user could stop the autoexec.bat file with a CTRL-C before Disable has a chance to start. The user would be at the DOS prompt at this point (not advisable).

In either case, when Disable starts, it totally disables all keyboard activity. This means the only way to do anything is to shut power to the system.

The first task is to enter your appropriate agency/company and personal data into the program. This is called "branding."

In order to “brand” Disable with the proper name and address of a contact person, you need to run it with at least one argument. (That is, put something on the command line after disable. Usually the program name itself will suffice--see below). The program will ask you for up to 5 lines of possible output text, each about 58 characters long. This should be sufficient for most purposes.

Another way to brand the program is to run dis_labl.exe on the disable.exe program. The command lines are shown below in a number of places. This will also brand the program.

It is suggested that you always keep at least one clean copy (original, unbranded) so you can later re-brand as necessary.

To brand Disable use either of these two commands:

C:>disable  disable.exe
C:>dis_labl disable.exe

If you enter the command followed by a minus (-) sign: 

C:>disable  -

then the program will not run. But it will show you the screen that you have just branded. This is a quick way to see if you got everything in the correct locations.


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Options

None
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Command Lines

From autoexec.bat file:

disable

If you can find a program called wrapper.sys, or some other program which will allow you make disable a "driver" then you could place it in the config.sys file.

From config.sys, you must use a program that installs Disable as a driver. The driver which has performed well in our tests is called wrapper.sys. This is a shareware program and costs $25.00. However, we have not seen it on the web for a number of years.

The command line in config.sys is:

device=c:\dos\wrapper.sys -R a:\disable

To “Brand” the program use one of the following commands:

C:>disable disable.exe

C:>dis_labl disable.exe

To see the banner without locking the system use:

C:disable -

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Related Programs

None

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