How To Turn a Surface into a Windows Kiosk:

Have you ever been at a high-end hotel or conference center and saw an information kiosk? It’s usually setup to let you run a single application like a web browser or interactive map.

Could your small business use something like that?

Do you have an 10-year old nephew that pesters you until you let him play with your Surface to “just surf the web” but when you get it back he’s changed every setting and installed a dozen applications you don’t want? (I know this one happens to me).

Well, in either case, the same feature that came on your Surface tablet called Assigned Access can fix your problem.

Assigned Access will let you setup a user account that is only allowed to run a single application. That way, you can use it to create your kiosk or let your capricious nephew surf the web all he wants.

There is, of course, a catch. Unfortunately, Assigned Access will only let you choose Modern (Metro) apps to assign. So, on a Surface Pro 3, for example, you can assign IE to be the but you can’t assign Chrome because it’s not a Modern app.

Turn a Surface into a Windows Kiosk: Step-By-Step Setup

Before you start, make sure you have a keyboard cover (touch or type, doesn’t matter) handy. Do not skip this step.
Create a Local Account using these instructions. Make sure you leave the password field blank so the kiosk account will automatically log in if the Surface is restarted
Next, log in with that account and configure your web browser or other application the way you want
Log out and log in with an account that has administrator rights
Open the Charm bar (swipe in from the right side)
Tap The Settings charm (the gear)
Tap Change PC Settings

How To Create a local Account on your Surface

When the Settings screen appears, select Accounts

Turn a Surface into a Windows Kiosk- Get into Assigned Access mode

Select Other accounts then Tap Setup an account for assigned access

Turn a Surface into a Windows Kiosk-Assigned Access screen

Tap Chose an account and select the account you want to give Assigned Access. In this example, I made a “Kiosk” account

Turn a Surface into a Windows Kiosk-Choose an account

Next, tap Choose an application. In this case, I’m choosing Internet Explorer

Turn a Surface into a Windows Kiosk-Choose an application

Ensure the choices are correct then exit the Assigned Access screen by tapping the arrow in the upper left corner, swiping down, or by pressing the Windows button on your Surface.

Turn a Surface into a Windows Kiosk-Finishing up

Restart your Surface and log in with the account you created.

After the first time where you will need to select the account, It should automatically log in and start the allowed application every time the Surface is restarted. (if you left the password for that account blank).

In addition, you will notice the Charms bar and task switching are inaccessible and that the application you assigned to the account can’t be closed.

Pretty cool, huh?

OK, maybe I’m a geek but if you ever find yourself wishing you could lock down your Surface to a single application, you’ll find this pretty handy.

Turn a Surface into a Windows Kiosk: Getting back in

At this point, you’re probably wondering: “But Tim, if I can’t log off and every time I restart the machine it automatically goes into this mode, how am I supposed to get it back to normal use for me?” (or something like that but less long-winded)

Turn a Surface into a Windows Kiosk - Windows Key

Well, remember when I said you needed a keyboard cover? That’s because the way to exit Assigned Access mode it to attach the keyboard and tap the Windows key more than 5 times in a row.

When you do that, it logs off the assigned access account and takes you back to the user log in screen where you can choose your normal account.

It will also stop the kiosk account from auto-signing in every time the Surface is restarted (until you select it again).

So, I hope you found this useful or, at least, informative.

Tim