Touchscreen keyboard on secure desktop

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wal9000
wal9000
Community Member
edited April 2015 in 1Password 4 for Windows

I'd like to use "Unlock on secure desktop" on my SP3 like I do on my desktop, but there doesn't appear to be a way to open the touch keyboard for password entry.

It's fine when I have the keyboard hooked up, but if I ever go somewhere without it, 1password becomes impossible to unlock (because there's no way to type). And since I can't unlock it, I also can't get into the settings to disable secure desktop.

The best way to handle this would be to automatically pop the software keyboard open if the hardware keyboard isn't present, but I'm not sure if that would have trouble with other things being connected that mimic keyboard input (IIRC many mouse drivers also create a fake HID keyboard to send whatever inputs you assign buttons to).

More reliable to have a button to open it manually?

The Windows login/unlock screen does both, which is probably the best approach, though I've never checked how well it handles other USB devices masquerading as keyboards.

Comments

  • MikeT
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    Hi @wal9000,

    You don't need to unlock to temporarily turn off the Secure Unlock feature, just tap on the Cancel button of the Secure Unlock dialog and that should take you back to the regular lock view. You can then unlock with your software keyboard.

    Unfortunately, it might not be possible to bring up the software keyboard because it is a separate process, which is blocked automatically to ensure the isolation of the desktop with the unlock process.

    We'll investigate to see if it is possible to activate another process to open up the software keyboard.

    @RichardPayne / @svondutch , do you know off your head if this is possible?

  • RichardPayne
    RichardPayne
    Community Member
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    There's two ways to do this:

    1) 1Password has to the launch the on screen keyboard when it switches to the new desktop. This is not workable because it would have to try every conceivable on screen keyboard which would impact speed of execution. I suppose it might be retreivable using the accessibility apis but I'm not familiar with them.

    2) The keyboard detects the change of input desktop and switches itself into the new desktop. 1Password already scans for unknown processes and prevents password entry if one is present and there is already an exception list so keyboards could be easily excluded.

    @wal9000 are you talking about the standard MS on screen keyboard or something third party?

  • AGAlumB
    AGAlumB
    1Password Alumni
    edited April 2015
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    @RichardPayne: Thanks for clarifying!

    @wal9000: Any relation to Hal? ;)

    I am filing a ticket for this. Even if it isn't something we're able to do presently, it would be great if we can get Secure Desktop and Onscreen Keyboard working together in the future for those of us using 1Password on Windows tablets. In the mean time, you can cancel out of the Secure Desktop to unlock normally if needed as MikeT suggested. Thanks for bringing this up! :)

    ref: OPW-377

  • wal9000
    wal9000
    Community Member
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    @MikeT: You're right that I can unlock by canceling in the main app, so that'll do for a workaround. I'm used to interacting 90% of the time through the browser extension. When you hit cancel there, it cancels the unlock completely.

    @RichardPayne: Yes, the built-in keyboard in Windows 8. Worth nothing that it has a special mode for password fields that locks you out of handwriting mode (because that displays words on screen as they're recognized).

    @brenty: Yup

    Just saw you guys have a metro app in the works! I put my email on the list for that. Guessing it will be somewhat limited in terms of auto-type and anything else that requires interacting with external processes though?

  • AGAlumB
    AGAlumB
    1Password Alumni
    edited April 2015
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    @wal9000: Indeed! I've been playing around with the Windows Modern Alpha myself, and while it is in the very early stages I am excited to see how it progresses!

    'Modern' apps are indeed heavily sandboxed (don't call it Metro! /lawsuit /lawsuit /lawsuit ;)), so there will be limitations, but we have some great plans for working within those constraints. Cheers! :)

  • wal9000
    wal9000
    Community Member
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    @brenty: Only way to distribute those is through the MS store, correct?

    I'm more than happy to take a poke at the alpha, but if I have to buy a 5th copy I'll probably pass on the final release. :-\

  • AGAlumB
    AGAlumB
    1Password Alumni
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    @wal9000: Yes, it will be distributed through the Windows Store ultimately.

    I'm more than happy to take a poke at the alpha, but if I have to buy a 5th copy I'll probably pass on the final release. :-\

    Well, the alpha is definitely free, and we'd love to have you! I think it's too early to say anything beyond that, although I could see it being 'freemium' like the Android and iOS apps are now. Only time will tell! ;)

This discussion has been closed.