Is there a method to keep people from running any sort of .exe with certain phrases or words in them?

I think my IT staff is keeping our computers from running any app with "googletalk" in it.

When I modified the .exe with ResHack and changed all references for googletalk to gt, the application seems to work just fine.

What I mean by doesn't start is, I click on the .exe, it unpacks and loads the app, it shows up in task manager for 1-2 seconds, then gone. Nothing of course comes up on the screen.

Any way to disable this in Windows?... I'm running Vista x64

[Edited on March 7, 2008 at 12:36 PM. Reason : .]

3/7/2008 12:35:50 PM

fighting your IT department's will is usually not a great idea.

3/7/2008 1:24:17 PM

yeah they'll normally win. decidedly.

ok just kidding, they're not THAT hard to fool. whats wrong with the approach you used? it works right? you just want to disable it for future installations?

3/7/2008 1:29:29 PM

there's all sorts of things that could be implemented here.

they could be blacklisting googletalk and other IM software for productivity concerns.

3/7/2008 1:31:30 PM

yeah, but i think his question is HOW are they blocking it.

perhaps a good place to start would be getting a command line and running gpresult to see what group policies are in force on your system. also check your process list (from all users) and look anything you don't recognize

3/7/2008 1:33:03 PM

Quote :

"what group policies are in force on your system."

3/7/2008 1:34:22 PM

and run hijackthis and post the logs.


it'll give us some insight on what runs on startup.

3/7/2008 1:34:45 PM

Sounds like your company is using something like BlueHat or another productivity enterprise manager. Good luck beating that, productivity management suites are pretty damn good, and all of your attempts to circumvent are likely being logged and tagged as well.

3/7/2008 2:44:55 PM

^

In a way, he's already beaten it.

Quote :

"the application seems to work just fine."

3/7/2008 3:06:33 PM

it's not that big of a deal, i'm friends with nearly the entire local and firmwide IT staff, and fwiw, i work for a corporation with multiple offices internationally and IM apps actually can help productivity between offices in regards to the type of software we use and the workflow needed to be efficient.

while the IT staff has enforced no IM apps installed due to what they think will result in a loss of productivity, i know every project manager and team leader (at my firm) would agree with me in this regard because of the specific type of workflow we have in our projects... granted while some of my IM messages won't be worked related it would be offset by the time saved for the portion of time i do use it for work.

where would i find it in group poilicies?

and is BlueHat a hardware based solution? if it's software is it likely they just rolled it out overnight or into a logon script?

^and while the resource hack worked on the .exe, i do find that after a random amount of time it does eventually get closed by something.... but at least it works for a small amount of time, they must have some other method of detecting it.

[Edited on March 7, 2008 at 3:12 PM. Reason : .]

3/7/2008 3:10:19 PM

Quote :

"t's not that big of a deal, i'm friends with nearly the entire local and firmwide IT staff, and fwiw, i work for a corporation with multiple offices internationally and IM apps actually can help productivity between offices in regards to the type of software we use and the workflow needed to be efficient."

that sounds like it should be in an email to the IT staff. Surely they'll make the exception for you since you know everyone.



You also have to take into account the capacity of your organization to manage these IMs. There are several security issues (both disclosure and encryption) that would have to be addressed by them. It would be stupid to allow rampant use of IM applications in such a "large and international firm"

[Edited on March 7, 2008 at 3:18 PM. Reason : frankly, it's easier to just block it all and force people to use the phone.]

3/7/2008 3:17:10 PM

^true, but can't the same be said for email?

Quote :

"frankly, it's easier to just block it all and force people to use the phone."

and i'm sure this was their exact reasoning as well.

and yes, i'll ask the IT staff today about allowing it, but i think the group policy they are enforcing is coming from firmwide, which while i could ask, is less likely to happen because they have a greater responsibility

i mean it's not the end of the world if it's not easy to do, i was more or less just wondering how it was being enforced. i can always use the built-in web google talk and i have hamachi installed, so like i said, it's not imperative i get this to work.

[Edited on March 7, 2008 at 3:22 PM. Reason : .]

3/7/2008 3:19:46 PM

In order for them to allow this, you're probably gonna have to have some sway and/or convince them that it's not going to be expensive or difficult.



Basically get a strong argument together, with specific programs you'd suggest, cost, and possible security vulnerabilities.




Email is a different beast.

[Edited on March 7, 2008 at 3:23 PM. Reason : your probably not going to want to invest the time into this argument to be honest.]

3/7/2008 3:22:45 PM

i hear ya.

3/7/2008 3:23:32 PM

i solved this by installing pidgin.

3/7/2008 3:51:23 PM

it would be interesting to know what the IT staff is doing, exactly, to enforce this policy.



it's obviously not enough, since you've casually found 2 workarounds already.

3/7/2008 3:57:50 PM

yeah, no kidding.

but maybe the point of the restriction was to frustrate people enough not to use Google Talk in particular. i'm willing to bet that there are few that would research this enough to find a workaround or to find/use alternative like pidgin.... i'm confident if they really wanted to block all IM apps they could do it easily. but i am not in IT for a reason.

[Edited on March 7, 2008 at 4:44 PM. Reason : .]

3/7/2008 4:44:12 PM

BlueHat (and most other similar offerings) are full enterprise platforms. Hardware, software and monitoring services. If you need chat, you need to contact IT. I can all but guarantee you each workaround will get blocked in a short matter of time.

That is, if your company is using something of this nature. Otherwise you may just have super on point IT guys

3/7/2008 7:36:09 PM

Quote :

"i solved this by installing pidgin."

haha i was going to mention that earlier but never got around to it. pidgin is the poop, and nobody knows about it

3/7/2008 7:41:00 PM