Whip for Brats

v 0.1.0

This is a mini system for monitoring the time children spend in front of a computer screen during the day (and night). Unfortunately, children and early adolescents have no restraint in sitting in front of the computer and playing computer games. This is another remedy for parents, who can indicate how long the computer will function for a child. After a certain amount of time, there is a screen lock, which prevents further play (or makes it very difficult).

Screenshots

Features

• A weekly calendar indicating the range of available time: from an hour with minutes, to an hour with minutes
• Disabling/Enabling surveillance
• Three-level system with supervisor service, command execution application and GUI app for setting time and other parameters
• Temporary removal of the lock from 5 minutes to 1 hour
• Multilingual (currently English and Polish - mostly translated)

Building

Build everything. Publish Whip4BratsGUI (.NET) app.

Copy all files listed below into your folder:

• brat-server.exe
• executor.exe
• BratLocker.exe
• All files from .NET publish folder; there you'll find Whip4BratsGUI.exe file.

Installation

Run Whip3BratsSetup.msi to install software. Run the Whip4BratsGUI module and configure the parental settings, i.e.: the parent password, child account name and password (currently not used). (The application password is the password of the parent's account in the system or '1234' at the first start). A temporary password of '1234' will be created, which will be replaced with the password of the parent after it is configured on the Password Setup Screen. If for some reason you entered incorrect password, remove the key from the Windows registry as described below and restart the program.

Important! The child's account should not be in the Administrator group of the computer, or the supervision will be possible to remove by the child. On the other hand, the parent account must belong to the computer Administrator group. Next, define the time when the child can play on the computer. There is an option which can deactivate time limits.

Once you have made all the settings in the Whip4BratsGUI, you can start the service which can be done in Whip4BratsGUI app on Advanced Settings Page. (If the service did not start click the Start Service buttton again - to be fixed).

To install (register) service manually run the below command with elevated privileges:

./brat-server --register

Unregister:

./brat-server --unregister

For help type:

./brat-server --help

Start the service from The Service Management.

Uninstallation

If you installed the software by running msi file you must stop the service manually and run the command as Administrator to unregister the service:

./brat-server -u

Next remove the application from Windows Program Files as any other installed app and registry keys (see below).

If you installed the software manually the following steps must be done as Administrator:

• Stop the whip4brats service
• Execute command as above
• Delete folder where the files reside
• Remove registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Rozen Software\Whip4Brats

So, currently there is no one-click solution for removing the software.

Locked Screen

When the computer screen has been locked, only the parent can unlock it by entering the password on the lock screen and selecting additional time. The screen is not locked completely, but the locking is so troublesome that further work is pointless.

The Project

The system consists of several components:

• Windows service that monitors user time and executes proper actions (brat-server) - written in Rust
• TCP Command Server (Executor or a bridge between service and user space) - written in Rust
• Screen Locker - written in C++20
• Whip4BratsGUI (Application for setting time and other parameters) - written in C# (.NET 7)
• Whip4BratsSetup - VS project for creating Windows MSI. Microsoft Visual Studio Installer Projects Extension must be installed to be able to build the installer.

Visual Studio 2022 and VS Code have been used to write this software.

Bart-server writes logs to the Application node of the Windows System Event.

TODO

These are some ideas to implement in future:

• Write applications to remotely change the available time and monitor computer usage from the web browser.
• Block the launch of selected applications.
• Reporting of computer usage in given time intervals.
• Automatic removing the software from the system

License

This project is licensed under either of

Apache License, Version 2.0, (LICENSE-APACHE or http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0) MIT license (LICENSE-MIT or http://opensource.org/licenses/MIT) at your option.

Contributing / Feedback

This project is not finished and is waiting to be developed further. Several technologies were used to write it:

• Rust (Windows Service, TCP Server)
• C/C++ (Windows API)
• C# (WinUI)

You are sure to find something in it for you. If you want to contribute, you are more than welcome to be a part of the project! Try to share your thoughts first! Feel free to open a new issue if you want to discuss new ideas.

Any kind of feedback is welcome!