Computer Rental Controller is a computer program that allows you to easily rent or sell computer time on your computer. It offers two methods for renting time.
In the first method, it will generate a list of passwords. Each of these passwords allows access to the computer for a period of time selected by. Once it has created a list of these passwords, whenever the computer is turned on, Computer Rental Controller displays a password screen that blocks access to the computer until you input a password. Each password then allows access to the computer for a period of time you selected when you had Computer Rental Controller create the passwords. When that time expires, access to the computer is again blocked. If all the time allotted to the password has expired, the password will be deleted from the list of password. You can also terminate the session early if you are finished. If the user terminates the session early with at least three minutes left, the remaining time (minus one minute to account for partial minutes used) will be allocated to the password for later use. This allows you to sell the passwords, thus selling use of the computer for specific periods of time.
Using the second method, Computer Rental Controller allows you to create and store a list of permanent passwords. Each password can be used an unlimited number of times. When a person gains access to the computer using one of these passwords, Computer Rental Controller keeps track of how long the person is on the computer. It can then give a report of how long each person used the computer. This report lists each time they signed onto the computer and how long they were on for that session. You can then bill each person for their use of the computer at your convenience.
There are also administrator and supervisor passwords that allow unlimited access to the computer. When these passwords are used, you gain access to the Computer Rental Controller control panel as well as the other computer functions.
Computer Rental Controller is useful in situations where you want to set up a computer that people can use for specific periods of time, such as an Internet Café or computer kiosk. It can also be used in cases where a parent might want to control how long a child uses the computer.
Computer Rental Controller keeps two separate running records of when the computer was accessed. One shows the use of the permanent passwords so you can bill each person. The other record shows all accesses to the computer using the rental passwords that are used only once. This can be useful for business records.
Registering Computer Rental Controller
From the time you first run Computer Rental Controller, you have a 30-day trial period to evaluate it. During that time, Computer Rental Controller will be fully functional. If you decide you like Computer Rental Controller, you should register and pay for it ($30). At the end of the trial period, if you do not pay for Computer Rental Controller and input the registration code you receive, Computer Rental Controller will be deactivated. That is, it will no longer display the password screen that blocks access to the computer until a password is entered. It will be reactivated when you input the registration code, which you will receive when you pay for Computer Rental Controller.
There are several ways to pay for Computer Rental Controller. The easiest way to register a single copy is to go to the LeithauserResearch.com site. From there, you can go to the payment page (links are in the third paragraph on the home page). Scroll down the page to the place where Computer Rental Controller is listed. Input the serial number that appears on the registration screen for Computer Rental Controller (the screen that asks you to register and input your registration code) and then click on the "PayPal buy now" button. You will be sent the registration code by email. You will normally receive this code within a day, although it may take a little longer under unusual circumstances (Internet problems, etc.).
You can also pay for Computer Rental Controller by clicking on the Print button on the Registration screen to print a form. You can then mail this form to the address given on the form or fax it to the fax number given on the form. You can pay by enclosing a check or by filling out the credit card information on the form. You can also pay by phone using your credit card. The number to call is 386-410-6769.
Volume discounts are available. Call 386-410-6769 or send an email to [email protected] with information on how many copies you want to license for a price quote.
Installing and configuring Computer Rental Controller
When you run the Computer Rental Controller install program, it will ask you if you want Computer Rental Controller to run automatically on Windows startup. It is STRONGLY recommended that you choose Yes. If you do not have Computer Rental Controller run automatically on startup, it will be possible to circumvent Computer Rental Controller simply by rebooting the computer so that the computer is no longer running Computer Rental Controller.
When installation is complete, Computer Rental Controller will run automatically. The first thing it will do is display the registration screen that gives you the serial number for your copy, displays information on how register (pay for) the program, and asks you to input the registration code. Until you have tested the program and decided you want to keep it, just click on the Ok button without inputting a registration code. This will allow you to use the program on a trial basis for 30 days. If/when you decide you want to continue using the program, you can pay for it either by phone, mail, or online and obtain a registration code that will allow you to keep using it.
The first time you run Computer Rental Controller, it will first ask you to select an administrative password and a supervisor password. These are very important. These passwords are required to generate and list rental passwords, to access the computer without these rental passwords, and to uninstall Computer Rental Controller. If you do not remember these passwords, you could find yourself locked out of your own computer. Be sure to select passwords you will remember. Also, be sure to use different passwords for the administrative and supervisor password.
Note: Administrative and Supervisor passwords are case sensitive. This means that "Password" and "password" and "PASSWORD" are all different words.
When inputting passwords, you can cause the password to be displayed as a series of asterisks (one asterisk for each letter) by checking the "Conceal password while typing" box by clicking on it. You might want to do this if someone is watching you and can see the password you type.
After you select your passwords, Computer Rental Controller will display a screen that asks you to select where you want Computer Rental Controller to store the password files. These files contain the list of all the passwords you have had Computer Rental Controller create.
Normally, the best place to store these files is the default path that Computer Rental Controller uses. This creates password files in a secure location.
However, there sometimes is a problem with the default path if the user account that is running Computer Rental Controller has limited access. For user accounts with limited access, no program that is running can alter files in general shared folders. This means that if Computer Rental Controller is run from a user account that has limited access, it cannot record when passwords have been used. Therefore, the same passwords can be used over and over. To solve this problem, choose User Path as the location for password files if any of the users who you are restricting using Computer Rental Controller will be signing on using accounts with limited access. The Individual User Path option creates separate paths for each user, because limited user accounts can access such files. Note: If you use this option, it is necessary to log onto each user account and create passwords with Computer Rental Controller for that account. Any passwords created from one account will not be accessible from another account.
There is another option. If you wish to have access to the password files from another computer, you can select Custom for the path. To use this option, click on the Custom option button. A text box will appear. You can then type the path for the custom path in this box. This will allow you to designate any path for the folder to store the password files. For example, if the computers are on a network and the server shows up on the computers on the network as G:, you can create a folder called Passwords (or any other name) on the server drive and select the custom path G:\Passwords\ for Computer Rental Controller. Note that the end of the path must be the character \. If you do not include this at the end of the path, Computer Rental Controller will add it for you.
When you have selected the path for the folder to store the files in, click on the Ok button. To close the screen and return to the main Computer Rental Controller screen without changing the path, click on the close button.
Once you have input the passwords and password file path, Computer Rental Controller will display the main screen. Since you have not yet generated any rental or permanent passwords, the screen will display a message that says "Number of passwords = 0" and another message that says, "Please generate some passwords using the "Create Rental Passwords" option under the passwords menu." When you see this message, you should click on the "Passwords" menu and then on the "Create Rental Passwords" or the "Add/Edit Permanent Passwords" option. The details of this operation are explained when you click on the Help button on the "Create Passwords" or "Edit permanent Passwords List" screen.
Once you have set up Computer Rental Controller (set up administrator, supervisor, and rental or permanent passwords), any time it loads it will display the password screen which prevents access to the computer until you input either an administrator password, a supervisor password, a rental password, or a permanent password. The password screen will not normally be displayed if there are no rental passwords left and you have no permanent passwords. The only exception to this is that if a user uses the last password, the blocking screen will appear when their time is up.
The first time Computer Rental Controller runs (immediately after installation), it will not display the password screen that block access to the computer. This is to give you plenty of opportunity to read the instructions and set up passwords. To activate the password screen, click on the Activate menu at the top of the Computer Rental Controller screen.
The Computer Rental Controller main control screen
The Computer Rental Controller main control screen allows you to create lists of passwords, view previously created passwords, change administrator and supervisor passwords, view and clear reports of computer activity, and other functions. These are explained below.
Creating lists of rental passwords
To create a list of passwords, click on the "Passwords" menu at the top of the Computer Rental Controller main screen, then click on the "Create Rental Passwords" menu option. Computer Rental Controller will then require you to input the administrator password. Once you input the password, Computer Rental Controller will display the "Create Passwords" form.
This form allows you to create rental passwords. To do so, simply specify the number of passwords to create by putting a number in the box labeled "Number of passwords to create:". You can either type a number in the box, or pull down a list of suggested numbers by clicking on the down arrow beside the box and clicking on a number.
Once you have selected the number of passwords to create, select a period of time that each password will allow a person to use the computer. You can select the number of hours and minutes assigned to the password. Put this amount into the two boxes provided. For example, to cause the passwords to allow the person to use the computer for 1 hour and 30 minutes, input 1 in the hours box and 30 in the minutes box. To make a password worth one hour, put 1 in the hours box and 0 in the minutes box. You can either type the numbers in the boxes, or use the pull down menus provided on the right side of each box.
Once you have selected both the number of passwords and the time for each password, click on the "Create" button. The passwords will be created and stored. Once this happens, the Print and File buttons will become enabled. If you turn on your printer and click on the Print button (or press Alt+P on your keyboard), your printer will print out a sheet (or sheets if you created a lot of passwords) that gives each password and the time limit for that password. The sheet is arranged so that you can easily cut it into individual pieces of paper. You can then sell each piece of paper containing one password.
Clicking on the File button will cause Computer Rental Controller to save a CSV file named NewRentalPasswords.csv in the C:\CompRent folder. (Note: If the current user account does not have administrative privileges, it is possible that Computer Rental Controller will not be able to write this file in this folder. If this happens, it will write the file in the current user folder and will display a message telling you where this file is.) This file will contain the list of new passwords just created. The file can be loaded into either a text editor like Notepad or a spreadsheet program like Microsoft Excel. This file is useful if you do not have a printer attached to the computer and you need to transport your list of new passwords to another computer for printing. Note: Each time you create this file, it overwrites the previous file. Therefore, if you create several batches of new passwords and save them to files, be sure to copy each file to a disk or at least rename the file before you create the new batch of passwords and save the new NewRentalPasswords.csv file.
You can create several batches of passwords at one sitting, with each batch having a different number of minutes. When you are finished creating batches of passwords, click on the "Exit" button to close the "Create Passwords" form.
Viewing your rental passwords
To view a list of your current rental passwords, click on the "Passwords" menu and then on the "View Rental Passwords" menu option. Computer Rental Controller will ask for the supervisor password. (Note: Any time Computer Rental Controller asks for the supervisor password, you can use the administrator password instead.) Once you input the password, Computer Rental Controller will display the "View Passwords" form.
This form allows you to view, print, and file existing passwords. It can be useful if you want to have a comprehensive list of all rental passwords currently available. There are several advantages of this option over the option to print passwords form the "Create Passwords" form. For example, it allows you to get a list of all passwords, where the "Create Passwords" printout shows only one batch of passwords with one time limit. It also allows you to see which passwords are still available if you have lost track of which ones were used.
When you display this form, it will initially show a list of all passwords of all time limits in the list box. You can restrict the list to passwords with a particular time limit by clicking on the "Specific Times" option button and then inputting the desired number of hours and minutes in the boxes. The list will automatically change as you change the number of hours and minutes.
Whether you have a list of all passwords or only a select time displayed, you can print or file the list shown. Turn on your printer and click on the "Print" button to print out the same kind of list that you would get from the "Create Passwords" printout. Click on the "File" button to save the displayed list to a file. This file will be like the file created using the "Create Passwords" "File" button, but it will be named RentalPasswords.csv, rather than NewRentalPasswords.csv. Again, it can be viewed either with a text editor or a spreadsheet program. Computer Rental Controller will attempt to put this file in the C:\CompRent folder. (Note: If the current user account does not have administrative privileges, it is possible that Computer Rental Controller will not be able to write this file in this folder. If this happens, it will write the file in the current user folder and will display a message telling you where this file is.)
You can also delete a password using this form. If you click on a password on the list, a message box will appear that asks if you want to delete this password. If you click on the Yes button, the password will be deleted and can no longer be used. If you click on the No button, the password will not be deleted.
When you are finished viewing, printing, or filing your passwords, click on the "Exit" button to close the "View passwords" form and return to the main Computer Rental Controller screen.
Editing your list of permanent passwords
You can add, edit, or delete permanent passwords by clicking on the "Passwords" menu and then on the "Add/Edit Permanent Passwords" option. Computer Rental Controller will then require you to input the administrator password. Once you input the password, Computer Rental Controller will display the "Edit Permanent Passwords List" form.
This form allows you to add new permanent passwords, edit existing passwords, or delete passwords. You select which of these operations you want to do by clicking on the appropriate option button in the "Operation" box.
If you are adding a new password, you need to input the name of the person this password is for in the "User Name" text box and the password you want to assign to this person in the "User Password" text box. Unlike rental passwords, Computer Rental Controller does not generate passwords automatically. Since these are permanent passwords, you get more control over them. Once you have input a user name and password, the "Add" button will become enabled. Click on this button or press Enter on your keyboard to add the password to the list.
To edit an existing user name or password, click on the user name in the list. The name and password will appear in the appropriate boxes. You can then edit either or both of these. When you are done making the changes, click on the "Change" button or press Enter on your keyboard.
To delete a user, click on the user name in the list. Then click on the "Delete" button or press Enter on your keyboard.
You can print a list of your permanent passwords by clicking on the Print button.
You can make as many changes in the list as you want. When you are finished, click on the "Close" button or press Esc on your keyboard to exit the "Edit Permanent Passwords List" form.
Changing the administrator password
You can change the Administrator password by clicking on the "Passwords" menu and then on the "Set Administrator Password" option. Computer Rental Controller will ask you for the current administrator password. Once you input this, it will ask you for a new administrator password. You can cancel changing the password at either step by clicking on the Cancel button.
Note: Administrative and Supervisor passwords are case sensitive. This means that "Password" and "password" and "PASSWORD" are all different words. Be sure to remember the exact password you choose.
Changing the supervisor password
You can change the supervisor password by clicking on the "Passwords" menu and then on the "Set Supervisor Password" option. Computer Rental Controller will ask you for the current supervisor password. You can input either the supervisor password or the administrator password. Once you input one of these, it will ask you for a new supervisor password. You can cancel changing the password at either step by clicking on the Cancel button.
Note: Administrative and Supervisor passwords are case sensitive. This means that "Password" and "password" and "PASSWORD" are all different words. Be sure to remember the exact password you choose.
Activating the password screen
If the main Computer Rental Controller screen is showing, you can activate the password screen that blocks access to the computer by clicking on the "Activate" menu.
Viewing Rental Password Activity Reports
When Computer Rental Controller is displaying the password screen that blocks access to the computer and a rental password is entered to allow access to the computer, a report of this activity is logged. You can read the log in several ways.
You can click on the File menu on the Computer Rental Controller main control screen and then on View Activity Record. This will display the "Activity Report" screen. This screen lists all the times someone puts a password into the password input screen to access the computer. It will show either the individual rental password used, or "Administrator" or "Supervisor" if those passwords were used. It will show the time that the password was used. If a rental password was used, it will also show the amount of time that the rental password had allocated to it when it was used. It also shows when the password input screen is activated, blocking access to the computer. In this case, the report shows the word "Exited" in the position that normally shows the password, and the time left in the position that shows the amount of time originally allocated to the password when the password is used. This allows you to determine for how long the password user, administrator, or supervisor accessed the computer.
You can print the contents of the "Activity Report" screen by clicking on the "Print" button. You can create a file of this activity report called "Activity.csv" by clicking on the File button. Computer Rental Controller will attempt to put this file in the C:\CompRent folder. (Note: If the current user account does not have administrative privileges, it is possible that Computer Rental Controller will not be able to write this file in this folder. If this happens, it will write the file in the current user folder and will display a message telling you where this file is.) You can view this report with a text reader like Notepad, but the report might be a little hard to read because the columns will not be lined up properly. You can read it with a spreadsheet program like Excel. You can also read it by clicking on the "Files" menu and then the "Read Activity Report" menu Option.
You exit the screen and return to the main Computer Rental Controller screen by clicking on the "Exit" button.
Erasing the Rental Password Activity Reports
If the activity report is getting too long and you want to clear it, just click on the "Files" menu and then on the "Erase Activity Record" menu option. Computer Rental Controller will first ask you if you are sure you want to do this and then ask for the administrator password. If you reply Yes to the first question and input the password, it will clear all record of password access to the computer.
Viewing the Permanent Password Activity report
To view the report on use of the permanent passwords, click on the "Files" menu and then on the "View Permanent Password Activity Record" option. Computer Rental Controller will ask for the supervisor password. (Note: Any time Computer Rental Controller asks for the supervisor password, you can use the administrator password instead.) Once you input the password, Computer Rental Controller will display the "View Permanent Password Use" form.
This form allows you to view the use of the permanent passwords. You can view reports on all the permanent password users at once in the report, or select one user. To view all the reports at once, click on the "All Users" option button in the "View" box. To view one user report, click on the "Specific User" option button. When you select "Specific User", a dropdown list will appear that allows you to select one user by name.
Whether you are view all users or one specific user, the list box will display a list of the times the user(s) accessed the computer. This list will show the user name, followed by the amount of time they were on in each sitting, followed by the time the sitting started. At the top of the list, Computer Rental Controller will show the total time the user was on the computer.
You can print the report that is currently showing. You can do this with an all users report or a report on a single user. To print the report, turn on the printer and click on the "Print" button. This report can be used to bill the customer.
You can also create a file of the report you are viewing by clicking on the "File" button. This report will be in the csv format, which can be viewed in either a text editor or a spreadsheet program like Excel. This file will be stored in the C:\CompRent folder. (Note: If the current user account does not have administrative privileges, it is possible that Computer Rental Controller will not be able to write this file in this folder. If this happens, it will write the file in the current user folder and will display a message telling you where this file is.) If you are viewing a report on all the users, the report file will be named "Password Use.csv". If you are viewing a report of one user, the report file will have the name "User Name Password Use.csv", where "User Name" will be the actual name of the user. Thus, you will have separate files for each user. Note, however, that if you create a file where a previous file of the same name exists (a previous file on the same user), the older file will be deleted.
There is an additional file that is automatically created by Computer Rental Controller called "PermanentPasswordUse.csv" that lists permanent password use. This file will be stored in the C:\CompRent folder. (Note: If the current user account does not have administrative privileges, it is possible that Computer Rental Controller will not be able to write this file in this folder. If this happens, it will write the file in the current user folder and will display a message telling you where this file is.) This as an alternative record of permanent password use and serves as a backup to the other record. The difference from the "Password Use.csv" file is that the "PermanentPasswordUse.csv" file gives you a list of each time the permanent password was used, and how long it was used that time. The "Password Use.csv" file gives you a summary of how long each user accessed the computer.
Changing the password file path
If you need to change your password file path, you can click on Files and then on "Set Password File Path." This will display the same screen that appeared when you first installed Computer Rental Controller. From this screen, you can change the folder where Computer Rental Controller stores its passwords. You would most likely do this if you found that Computer Rental Controller was not recording used passwords because someone was accessing it from a limited user account, or if you wanted to network the password files. Note that changing the path will cause you to lose all password files previously created.
Accessing the computer with Computer Rental Controller installed
Once Computer Rental Controller is installed and the rental passwords have been generated, each time Computer Rental Controller runs or you click on the Activate menu, the password screen will be displayed. This screen totally fills the compute screen and blocks access to the computer. There is a text box where you can input a password. This can be a rental or individual permanent password, or the administrator or supervisor password. To access the computer, input a password and click on the "Go" button. If you use the administrator or supervisor password, you will see the Computer Rental Controller control screen in the middle of the screen. If you use a rental password or individual permanent password, this screen will not be visible, although you can display it by clicking on the Computer Rental Controller icon on the system tray.
If you accessed the computer using a rental password, a small window will appear in the upper left corner of the screen. This screen displays the number of minutes left on the password, in the format Hours:Minutes. You can minimize this screen if it is too distracting, in which case the time left is displayed in the bar at the bottom of the screen. When one minute is left before Computer Rental Controller reactivates at the end of the password time period, Computer Rental Controller will display a screen that warns people that only one minute remains, and they should close down their programs. At the end of the time, the password window will pop up again, blocking access to Windows until another password is entered.
There is a "Stop" button on the small window that displays the time left. If you click on this, it will ask you if you are sure you want to stop. If you click on the Yes button, it will reactivate the password screen. If you are using a rental password and have more than two minutes remaining, one minute will be deducted from the remaining time (to account for partial minute used) and the remaining time will be credited to the rental password. If then is less than 3 minutes remaining, all remaining time will be discarded. If you are using a permanent password, Computer Rental Controller will record how long the password was used.
Exiting Computer Rental Controller
To totally shut down Computer Rental Controller, click on the "Files" menu and then on the "Exit" menu option. Computer Rental Controller will ask you for the supervisor password. As usual, the administrator password can be used instead. Once you input a password, Computer Rental Controller will shut down completely, and you will need to double click on the desktop icon to restart it, or reboot your computer is you have set Computer Rental Controller to start automatically when Windows starts.
Uninstalling Computer Rental Controller
To uninstall Computer Rental Controller completely if you decide you do not want to continue using it, click on the "Files" menu and then on the "Uninstall Computer Rental Controller" menu option. Computer Rental Controller will ask for the administrator password. Once you provide that, it will ask you for confirmation several times. It will then completely remove itself from your computer.
On some systems, especially Windows Vista, this procedure occasionally causes an error. If this happens, you can remove the program using the uninstall procedure in the Windows Control panel. This involved running the program usually called either Add/Remove Programs or Programs and Features in the Windows Control Panel.
Minimizing the main Computer Rental Controller screen
If you click on the minimize button on the Computer Rental Controller main screen (the little dash in the upper right corner of the screen), the Computer Rental Controller main screen will disappear. The icon for Computer Rental Controller will be displayed on the system tray. Left clicking on this or right clicking on it and then left clicking on "Restore" will redisplay the Computer Rental Controller main screen. You can also display the screen by double clicking on the Computer Rental Controller icon on the desktop. If Computer Rental Controller is not running at all, this will run it. If the program is already running (as indicated by the Computer Rental Controller icon displayed on the system tray), double clicking on the desktop icon does not activate a new instance of the program. It merely restores the main screen as if you clicked on the icon on the system tray.
Bug reports and suggestions
Reports of problems or suggestions for improvement are welcome. Send such reports or suggestions to:
David Leithauser
Leithauser Research
821 SnapDragon Drive
New Smyrna Beach, FL 32168
You also can send email to [email protected]. In cases of emergency, you can call Leithauser Research at (386) 410-6769 between the hours of 10 AM and 6 PM ET.
If I feel that the improvement would be of interest to most users, I will make it for free and send you the improved version. If the improvement is unusual and suited only to your specific needs, I can give you a price quote for a customized version (see below).
Custom programming
Leithauser Research does custom programming. If you would like a custom program of any type written, please contact me at the above address for Leithauser Research. Describe the program you would like written in as much detail as possible and I will give you a price estimate.
Go to Leithauser Research home page
Go to Computer Rental Controller download page