Sep 21, 2015 - 15 Comments - Visual Studio, Windows 10 -

Windows 10 – How to Make an Assigned Access Web Browser App

UPDATE: There is an easier way to accomplish this, which I’ve detailed in a new post, found here: http://thebillablelife.com/windows-10-assigned-access-web-browser-app/


Windows 8.1 introduced “Assigned Access,” which allows an administrator to restrict a user to a single Windows Store application.  This seemed to get the most use from people making simple kiosk computers that were assigned access to a single website using the Metro Immersive Windows Store app version of Internet Explorer.  MSDN advised against using a web browser for assigned access, saying that they require special permissions beyond those usually granted to Windows Store apps, but it will still let you use Metro IE.  In Windows 10, the Microsoft gods decided that browsers really don’t belong in Assigned Access, and you can’t choose to use them anymore.  Luckily they offered some simple work-arounds:

AssignedAccess1

Either make your own browser app, or just make a web kiosk the old school obnoxious way.  I cursed Microsoft at their suggestion of Option 1.  I’ve made web kiosks before using an expanded version of Option 2, and it generally sucks to manage because the whole damn thing is locked down, not just a single user – meaning you can’t just log out as the kiosk user, and log in as an admin to do whatever needs to be done.  With Assigned Access I can just log out of the assigned access user, log in as a normal user, and have a normal user experience.

In my case, I need a public kiosk to display one website on a touchscreen monitor.  The user will not browse to any other site, and I want them to have absolutely no access to the OS beyond the assigned website.

So, I chose to tackle my own browser app.  I mean, it sounds easy from their casual mention of it, and it’s the first suggestion, so it’s probably the way to go.  Having never really developed anything at all before, it was a learning process to stumble through Visual Studio, but it’s not bad.  Note that this is based largely on this post, which explains accomplishing prettymuch the same thing but with an older version of Visual Studio, and it actually includes more than I needed, so I kept it even simpler.  I’ll go through my process for how to make an assigned access web browser app in the steps below.

Step 1 – Download Visual Studio Community 2015

You can get this here.  It’s free, but can gobble up a significant chunk of space (16-26gb depending on what features you choose to install).  You will need to install, at minimum, the Visual C# programming language and it’s common tools, and the Universal Windows App Development Tools.  Note that I installed a lot more than this out of curiosity, but these should be the minimum for doing this job.

Step 2 – Make a New Project in Visual Studio

This is straightforward.  Click New Project, choose C# Blank Project, name it something relevant, save it somewhere smart (I chose a new folder in my OneDrive so I could work wherever), and you’re ready to go.  It’s probably smarter to use GitHub or something Properly Deverloper-y, but I’m not a developer and I’m used to living in OneDrive, so rather than learn another new thing I decided to save there.

Step 3 – Stumble Through The Code

Here is the long-form MSDN explanation of the WebView class and all it’s features.  It’s not very eye opening, or helpful to you at this point.  All you really need to focus on are MainPage.xaml, and MainPage.xaml.cs.

In MainPage.Xaml you’ll get a designer view that lets you either visually drag your layout around, or edit the code directly in the window below.  You’ll need the code to be this, however you do it:

AssignedAccess2

Copy-and-paste-able version:

<Grid Background="{ThemeResource ApplicationPageBackgroundThemeBrush}">
  <WebView x:Name="WVWebBrowser" HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" Height="Auto" VerticalAlignment="Stretch" Width="Auto"/>
</Grid>

So that chunk is calling WVWebBrowser, which we haven’t made yet.  Go to MainPage.xaml.cs and use this code:

AssignedAccess3

Copy-and-paste-able version:

 {
  public MainPage()
  {
  this.InitializeComponent();
  WVWebBrowser.Navigate(new Uri("http://WebsiteYouWantToDisplay.com"));
  }
  }
Step 4 – Run Your App

Assuming you’re using Windows 10, choose to run the application on your local machine, with your chosen architecture (x86/x64) by clicking the “Play” button.

AssignedAccess4

Your app should open, and you should be able to use it like it’s the real deal.

Step 5 – Graphics (optional)

This is optional, but if you browse to your project saved folder path and find the folder called Assets, it has placeholder graphics for your app.  Using such quality software as Microsoft Paint, I made appropriately sized graphics for my app, which allowed it to have a swanky splash screen at start, plus look nice on the Start Menu, and allow for re-sizing the app’s tile there.

Step 6 – Create App Packages

In Visual Studio, go to Project, Store, Create App Packages.  You can choose to make packages for x86, x64, or ARM.

AssignedAccess5

AssignedAccess6

Step 7 – Install App

Now you can take your App Packages to the computer you’d like to use it on.  Make sure that you’ve enabled Developer Mode in the Windows 10 Settings in order for this to work – it will gently remind you if you haven’t.  To install, you need to browse to the App Package root, right click on the Add=AppDevPackage.ps1 script, and choose run with PowerShell.

AssignedAccess7

 

Step 8 – Set up Assigned Access User

As an admin on the machine where you installed your new app, create a new local user account that is just a standard user.  Switch user and log in as the new user, then install your app as that user and verify it works.  Now go back to your admin user, and go to All Settings > Accounts > Other users, and click on “Set up assigned access.”  Choose the user and your app, and that’s it.  Switch user back to your new assigned access user, and your app will automatically open and keep your locked in it.  To log out, Ctrl + Alt + Del.

Step 9 – Set up Automatic Login for Assigned Access User (optional)

Since this machine will be a public machine, and for simplicity’s sake I want all of the troubleshooting steps to be “Turn it off an on again,” I configured the machine to automatically log on as the assigned access user.  Open Regedit and go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon and define the value of DefaultUserName as the name of your assigned access user.  If you entered a password for that account, define the value of DefaultPassword as the password.  Change the value of AutoAdminLogon to 1.

Now reboot and observe the magic.


 

Is it super easy or perfect?  No, but it’s not too bad.  It probably won’t be something you deploy to your whole company, but for a one-off build it was a fun learning process.

 

15 Responses to Windows 10 – How to Make an Assigned Access Web Browser App

  1. Dan Rubin

    Do you have this available for download so that way I don’t have to install Visual Studio and mess with that? I am terrible at coding.

    30 Nov 2015 - Reply
    • MikePeters

      Unfortunately you’ll have to install Visual Studio Community 2015 in order to edit the code for your use. The website that is displayed by the app is in the code itself, so there’s no way to edit the displayed site from the app itself. Also, I assume you’d want to customize the app logo and images to your company\use and rather not have them all say “Saint Louis Art Museum” like mine does. Start with the blank page template from Microsoft (link here). It’s really not that difficult, but the worst part is the loooong install of Visual Studio.

      1 Dec 2015 - Reply
  2. Toni Van Remortel

    Thanks a lot for the information, it helped me to get a setup as kiosk.

    However the App never showed up in the list for the Assigned Access.
    After looking on TechNet I’ve found that you need to enable the “windows.aboveLockScreen” extension for your App (see https://msdn.microsoft.com/library/windows/hardware/mt633799(v=vs.85).aspx)

    Basically you have to add a section in the XML of the Package.appxmanifest file:

    And now it works 🙂

    11 Feb 2016 - Reply
    • Toni Van Remortel

      Seems XML got filtered out 🙁
      So check the web page for info.

      11 Feb 2016 - Reply
      • MikePeters

        I’ve actually had issues with app crashes (Event ID 1002 – Application Hang), though there seems to be no common cause. Let me know if you have any issues with yours. I will have go back through the my code with these best practices, since I hadn’t seen them before. Thanks for the link!

        What is your use for the app? I am displaying a very media-heavy WordPress based website, which it does well enough, but I’d wondered if the large amount of photos and video are part of the issue.

        11 Feb 2016 - Reply
        • Toni Van Remortel

          We are planning to use it as visitor management kiosk, so a very simple and static web page.

          11 Feb 2016 - Reply
    • Duke

      Hi, Can you please let us know about the process (step by step) as i am having trouble following the explanation at the msdn page.

      4 Aug 2016 - Reply
  3. Jimmy H

    How did you use website restriction to one site in Windows 10 and IE 11/Edge? I used family safety prior in 8.1 but now they have migrated with outlook.com…

    24 Jun 2016 - Reply
    • MikePeters

      Creating an app the way I describe, and using assigned access to display that app will accomplish the one site restriction. The user never gets an option to have an address bar and browse to another site.

      24 Jun 2016 - Reply
      • Jimmy H

        Ah, sorry did not describe it further. I need to restrict it to two websites basically. Would I just create two apps?

        24 Jun 2016 - Reply
        • MikePeters

          You could make a landing page with links to each of the sites and configure the app to go to that page. Then the user would pick which of the sites they want to go to.

          The issue I ran into was that I’m not sure how to program an auto-refresh of the app into it. I’d like for the app to go back to the default site after a timeout period. You’ll probably want something similar from the sounds of it.

          28 Jun 2016 - Reply
  4. Jimmy H

    o yea and thank you, this is quite helpful for me.

    24 Jun 2016 - Reply
  5. Bob

    Ok, so I have a situation here. I have Win 10 tablets that I need to auto-logon a specific use and go right to an internal URL. These tablets will be given to patients to sign consent forms and we do not want the to do anything else. When I try to use the app store to build the app, it will not let me because the address I need to point to is internal. I have down loaded VS Community and followed the instructions, but it is not working. I run it and a big grey box appears with an X through the center. Can you or anyone else provide a little more detail or other links? Thanks.

    26 Aug 2016 - Reply
  6. Mary

    Has anyone solved how to handle hyperlinks that try to open in a new window? Because of the assigned access, the machine I’m testing on likes to open with Edge but obviously that will not work.
    How can I get hyperlinks that open in a second browser to be opened with my Web App?

    6 Jun 2018 - Reply

Leave a Reply to MikePeters Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.