Restricting Disable Licensing Features Using Windows Group Policy Editor

The HCL Z and I Emulator for Windows (ZIE for Win) has improved communication with the host application with many features through the menu and toolbar operations. Following are some of the features:

• Edit: Allows to work with the data from/to the green screen
• Settings: Alter Appearance, Setup your own Keyboard mapping, Mouse, Hotspots, etc.
• View: Work with ZIEWIN look and Menu/Toolbar/Status Bar items
• Communications: Configure Connection with Host
• Actions: Send-Receive Files to/From Host, Record-Playback-Edit Macros, etc.

These and many other features make HCL ZIE for Win a powerful & reliable tool and have been used by many mainframe customers for decades. However, with ‘more power comes more responsibility’! Corporates and Government agencies are more careful about data and security than ever! These organizations mandate secure communications to the host by using server-side authentication, client authentication, SSO, etc. Still, there looms a danger of unauthorized access, identity theft, allowing imposters to use ZIEWIN for Sending/Receiving files to/from host, recording/running macro’s which could fetch sensitive data from host, altering host data. There are also chances of accidental data loss caused by un-intentional users.

To protect applications from any such security breaches on windows-based OS (supported on ZIEWIN), Microsoft introduced the concept of Group Policies which allows administrators to centralize the management of domain controllers, member servers, and desktops. Thus, increasing the control on all the operations which a user can perform on the Domain Computer and acting as an additional layer of securing corporate property.

ZIEWin supports Windows Group Policy. In this blog we will discuss about how Administrators/Domain Controllers manage features provided by HCL ZIEWIN.

Pre-requisite:

1. Make sure that the Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc) is Enabled/Installed.
   Note: This can be operated only by domain administrator.
2. Download “HCL ZIE for Windows 2.2 Documentation and Administrative Aids Multiplatform Multilingual” from Passport advantage.

   With these changes, ZIEWIN will not allow Record/Playback facility to a user. This means that Disable Licensing will be enabled for all the users. Attempt to Record/Playback in ZIEWIN Preference Utility will prompt user with the following error:

Steps:

1. Open the ZIEWIN.
2. Extract the downloaded Admin Aids.zip and navigate to location
   ZIEWIN_<Version>_Docs_Admin->admin->policy and copy the path.
   
3. From windows machine open gpedit.msc and navigate to User Configuration->Administrative Templates.
   
4. Right click the Administrative Templates and select Add/Remove template.
5. Based on the Language installation select the appropriate .adm file. For example, select enupol.adm file for ZIEWIN English installation.
   
6. A new tree structure with name Classic Administrative Templates (ADM) gets created.
7. Now here, different directories and Sub-directories can be found, where various features/components in HCL Z and I Emulator for windows can be Enabled/Disabled for users.
   
8. To disable the Disable Licensing feature within HCL Z and I Emulator for windows, perform the following steps.
   • Navigate to HCL Z and I Emulator for Windows ->Execution->Disable Licensing.
   • Select Enable radio button to set the Disable Licensing.
     
9. As an example, to disable the Macro Play/Record feature within ZIEWin, perform the following steps.
   • Navigate to HCL Z and I Emulator for Windows ->Execution Macro Play/Record.
   • Select Enable radio button and in Options Section-> Macro Play/Record select No access.
     
10. Click the Apply button to apply the changes.
11. Launch the HCL Z and I Emulator for Windows.

With these changes, ZIEWIN will not allow Record/Playback facility to a user. This means that Disable Licensing will be enabled for all the users. Attempt to Record/Playback in ZIEWIN Preference Utility will prompt user with the following error: