Wednesday, January 22, 2003
Securing Your Pocket PC with Nice Start v1.6
Posted by Perry Reed in "SOFTWARE" @ 02:00 PM
Bored with the default password entry screen? Ever wish you could manually "log off" your Pocket PC to force the password protection to appear? This little app allows you to do that, and also makes the password screen prettier and slightly more useful. As well, it allows the password protection to work in landscape mode. But if you need strong security, this app won't cut it.
Nice Start replaces the standard Pocket PC password screen with a prettier, slightly more useful one. It's nifty, but is it really useful?
Installation
Installing Nice Start is simple. It uses the standard Pocket PC process and the developers have thrown in one nice touch - they list some of the product's limitations and requirements right on the install screen, as shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2: Installation warnings
The app runs exclusively on Pocket PC 2002 devices and will run from internal RAM storage only. This makes sense if you think about it as you wouldn't want your password protection on a storage card that might not be available when you power up.
A more serious limitation is that Nice Start works only with the more limited 4-digit numerical password option. If you need the more powerful 16-character alphanumeric password protection, this product will not work.
The basics
Once installed, the next time you see your password screen, it will look like this:
Figure 3: The Nice Start login screen
The password entry area has been shrunk and moved to the lower right of the screen. A clock and calendar take up the upper area, and free space and battery info reside on the lower left under a large (and pretty, but useless) Windows icon. There are also a few new options at the bottom of the screen. The first one is pretty self-explanatory-"Turn off". Tapping here will immediately shut off your Pocket PC. The first of the two icons in the lower right corner brings up your Owner Information in a pop-up window. The second icon brings up your default input method.
I'm not entirely sure how useful either of those functions really is. On my Pocket PC, I already have the Owner Information appear when the device is first turned on (including a note to return it to the owner if found). Why it needs to appear here, I don't know. Not only that, but there is really no way of knowing, unless you know how this app works, that the Owner Information will appear if you tap that icon, so someone finding my Pocket PC would probably never find it there.
I really don't know why they include the input method icon. Since the program allows only 4-digit numerical passwords, and since a large number pad appears on the screen, I really have no use for the input method here. Where would I be inputting anything?
Another limitation is that the only input method that appears here is the one you have set as the default. There is no way to select a different method, as you can from the standard icon that appears in most applications. However, this limitation isn't really a problem, since there's no use for the input method anyway. The other items on the screen are all display-only and not tapable.
Landscape
Nice Start does provide a few useful features, though. Users of screen orientation utilities can now leave their device in landscape mode with password protection intact. In landscape mode, the screen looks like this:
Figure 4: Landscape login screen
You do lose the free space information, but everything else is there, and laid out nicely. Personally, I almost never use landscape mode (I hate having to soft-reset everytime I change resolution), so this isn't particularly useful, but if you do like landscape mode, this will work for you.
Skins
The app installs a new item to your Settings screen which lets you change the programs options. Here you can select from several skins which are included, as well as the font and clock style used.
Figure 5: Settings screen
Figure 6: Adjust Nice Start settings here
Additional skins are not currently available on the company's Web site, however they do have a free utility called Nice Kit, which allows you to create your own. Nice Kit can be found at the vendor's Web site. Most of the skins included are nice enough, and it's fairly simple to create your own with the Nice Kit
Logging off
A useful feature of Nice Start is an applet called "Log Off", which installs to your Start Menu. Selecting this applet brings up a very XP-like dialog box, providing three options and a "Cancel" button.
Figure 7: Log-off screen
The "Log Off" function is a clever hack. It simply runs the password protection screen and forces you to re-enter your password, as if you had "logged off" the device. Pocket PCs, however, don't actually support such a function and unlike desktop versions of Windows, your applications are not unloaded. Once you re-login you're exactly where you were before you "logged-off" with all of your applications still running.
The "Turn Off" function works exactly the same way as it does on the password screen itself. The Pocket PC is immediately powered down.
The "Restart" function performs a soft reset of the device. It works exactly the same way as the reset button hidden on the back of most Pocket PC devices. That means there is no warning of the impending reset. Once tapped, the device immediately resets itself and any unsaved work you had is gone. That's fairly dangerous in my view, and the tool really should provide a confirmation dialog box before performing the reset.
Gotchas
Nice Start will work only with Pocket PC 2002 and the 4-digit "basic" password option.
Where To Buy
The software can be downloaded from Handango (affiliate link). NOTE: This link is for version 2.0, which was released after this review was written.
Conclusions
Nice Start doesn't try to do a whole lot of things. It replaces the standard password protection screen with a prettier and slightly more useful one. It does allow landscape mode users to use password protection, however all users are limited to the 4-digit basic passwords. If you've got six bucks burning a hole in your wallet and want to make your Pocket PC look as pretty as possible, this app will certainly fill that need.
Nice Start replaces the standard Pocket PC password screen with a prettier, slightly more useful one. It's nifty, but is it really useful?
Installation
Installing Nice Start is simple. It uses the standard Pocket PC process and the developers have thrown in one nice touch - they list some of the product's limitations and requirements right on the install screen, as shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2: Installation warnings
The app runs exclusively on Pocket PC 2002 devices and will run from internal RAM storage only. This makes sense if you think about it as you wouldn't want your password protection on a storage card that might not be available when you power up.
A more serious limitation is that Nice Start works only with the more limited 4-digit numerical password option. If you need the more powerful 16-character alphanumeric password protection, this product will not work.
The basics
Once installed, the next time you see your password screen, it will look like this:
Figure 3: The Nice Start login screen
The password entry area has been shrunk and moved to the lower right of the screen. A clock and calendar take up the upper area, and free space and battery info reside on the lower left under a large (and pretty, but useless) Windows icon. There are also a few new options at the bottom of the screen. The first one is pretty self-explanatory-"Turn off". Tapping here will immediately shut off your Pocket PC. The first of the two icons in the lower right corner brings up your Owner Information in a pop-up window. The second icon brings up your default input method.
I'm not entirely sure how useful either of those functions really is. On my Pocket PC, I already have the Owner Information appear when the device is first turned on (including a note to return it to the owner if found). Why it needs to appear here, I don't know. Not only that, but there is really no way of knowing, unless you know how this app works, that the Owner Information will appear if you tap that icon, so someone finding my Pocket PC would probably never find it there.
I really don't know why they include the input method icon. Since the program allows only 4-digit numerical passwords, and since a large number pad appears on the screen, I really have no use for the input method here. Where would I be inputting anything?
Another limitation is that the only input method that appears here is the one you have set as the default. There is no way to select a different method, as you can from the standard icon that appears in most applications. However, this limitation isn't really a problem, since there's no use for the input method anyway. The other items on the screen are all display-only and not tapable.
Landscape
Nice Start does provide a few useful features, though. Users of screen orientation utilities can now leave their device in landscape mode with password protection intact. In landscape mode, the screen looks like this:
Figure 4: Landscape login screen
You do lose the free space information, but everything else is there, and laid out nicely. Personally, I almost never use landscape mode (I hate having to soft-reset everytime I change resolution), so this isn't particularly useful, but if you do like landscape mode, this will work for you.
Skins
The app installs a new item to your Settings screen which lets you change the programs options. Here you can select from several skins which are included, as well as the font and clock style used.
Figure 5: Settings screen
Figure 6: Adjust Nice Start settings here
Additional skins are not currently available on the company's Web site, however they do have a free utility called Nice Kit, which allows you to create your own. Nice Kit can be found at the vendor's Web site. Most of the skins included are nice enough, and it's fairly simple to create your own with the Nice Kit
Logging off
A useful feature of Nice Start is an applet called "Log Off", which installs to your Start Menu. Selecting this applet brings up a very XP-like dialog box, providing three options and a "Cancel" button.
Figure 7: Log-off screen
The "Log Off" function is a clever hack. It simply runs the password protection screen and forces you to re-enter your password, as if you had "logged off" the device. Pocket PCs, however, don't actually support such a function and unlike desktop versions of Windows, your applications are not unloaded. Once you re-login you're exactly where you were before you "logged-off" with all of your applications still running.
The "Turn Off" function works exactly the same way as it does on the password screen itself. The Pocket PC is immediately powered down.
The "Restart" function performs a soft reset of the device. It works exactly the same way as the reset button hidden on the back of most Pocket PC devices. That means there is no warning of the impending reset. Once tapped, the device immediately resets itself and any unsaved work you had is gone. That's fairly dangerous in my view, and the tool really should provide a confirmation dialog box before performing the reset.
Gotchas
Nice Start will work only with Pocket PC 2002 and the 4-digit "basic" password option.
Where To Buy
The software can be downloaded from Handango (affiliate link). NOTE: This link is for version 2.0, which was released after this review was written.
Conclusions
Nice Start doesn't try to do a whole lot of things. It replaces the standard password protection screen with a prettier and slightly more useful one. It does allow landscape mode users to use password protection, however all users are limited to the 4-digit basic passwords. If you've got six bucks burning a hole in your wallet and want to make your Pocket PC look as pretty as possible, this app will certainly fill that need.
