Legal Text Banner @ Logon

For those who need to publish the understanding of limited user privacy. I suggest you make a registry edit to post a Legal Notice Banner prior to a user's login. This banner for Windows NT causes the to press a button to bypass it for logon.

In Notepad Type
REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon]
"legalnoticecaption"="Banner Heading"
"legalnoticetext"="Your Message"

Now Save Your Document as FileName.Reg

and now you are able to run your .reg file, and enter a legal notice banner at logon.

Here is an example of a DoD Banner:

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon]
"legalnoticecaption"="DOD Warning Banner"
"legalnoticetext"="Use of this or any other DoD interest computer system constitutes consent to monitoring at all times. This is a DoD interest computer system. All DoD interest computer systems and related equipment are intended for the communication, transmission, processing, and storage of official U.S. Government or other authorized information only. All DoD interest computer systems are subject to monitoring at all times to ensure proper functioning of equipment and systems including security devices and systems, to prevent unauthorized use and violations of statutes and security regulations, to deter criminal activity, and for other similar purposes. Any user of a DoD interest computer system should be aware that any information placed in the system is subject to monitoring and is not subject to any expectation of privacy. If monitoring of this or any other DoD interest computer system reveals possible evidence of violation of criminal statutes, this evidence and any other related information, including identification information about the user, may be provided to law enforcement officials. If monitoring of this or any other DoD interest computer systems reveals violations of security regulations or unauthorized use, employees who violate security regulations or make unauthorized use of DoD interest computer systems are subject to appropriate disciplinary action. Use of this or any other DoD interest computer system constitutes consent to monitoring at all times."

We just did this and there are many scripts available that will put this in the registry for you automatically (we used the one sent out by the DoD and modified it). I have one for NT/2000 and one for the Win9x family. You just edit the message with notepad and then save it and run the script. Sets it up the same way as you describe Tek but is just a bit lazier and doesn't require directly editing the registry. If anyone wants them PM me and I will e-mail them to you, they are quite small.

BTW, a banner that does not require users to push a button, like a start up splash screen is not considered enough in court (America) to be binding that they have read and accepted the terms. This is why the registry login banner is considered the best way to go for an Acceptable Use Policy or Security warning.

Soda,

Would it be possible to zip the files, and add it to this post? I think it would help this post out as a one stop shop for most individuals. I also have the script for Solaris Systems I will be adding.

They do this where I work, but they have it as a part of everyone's NT logon script so that if you were to go into the registry and delete the keys the next network login would automatically put the message back. In addition to that they use the NT login script to modify the registry to have any computer that connects to the network automatically enabled to support multiple users and also somehow disable regedit.

The one thing that I don't like about the way this is implemented where I work is that if you connect to the company's network from your own machine at home, say through VPN, when you log in to the network the NT logon script updates your personal machine. I raised heck about this to our network admin who blew me off saying for me to quit connecting that way if I didn't like it.

I feel that they quasi-hacked my machine at home by updating my registry without my knowledge, so I had the admin forced to clean my registry and supply me with a laptop to take home.

yes i agree with Tek Weasel. and absolutely i'll download it, and hope u're not encryted it coz just want to learn how u make it. study purpose:)

Here is the one for NT, am looking but have not found the Win98.

Please note, I did not create this, I am not taking credit for creating this. It was originally put out by the DoD with the standard DoD warning. I do not know who created this or I would give credit. This is the only reason I did not post this originally.

The mainstream way to set this is to use system policies:
With NT4 PDC and NT4/9x clients: Use poledit.exe to make a new policy, rename it to ntconfig.pol and put it in the NETLOGON share. That particular (banner) policy is somewhere inside the availible ones.

On w2k and active directory, this is made even easier... Just check the group policies: the same policies that are availible and many more. Active directory also makes managing group policies MUCH easier...

Ammo