I was in DisneyWorld (Orlando FL) about a month ago and stayed at a small hotel place outside called Lake Buena Vista Resorts. They had a (free) computer set up in the lobby that you could use and print stuff from, running CyberCafe. It was interesting as it looked like it charged money, but if you talked to a staff member they would go to the terminal that controls it (master cybercafe terminal?) and allow access to the computer, so the timer was running and charging money, but you weren't paying for it. Basically you got the computer for free if you asked. A little unintuitive to me.
What I do remember is having to do a research paper and not finding the software that I wanted on the machine. The web browsers of choice were Internet Explorer, Firefox, and one more (AOL I believe). I used Firefox because it's my browser of choice and seemed like the least likely to be locked down and most likely to let me access. Basically how I got access to Explorer is by browsing to my flash drive that I plugged in through Firefox.
file:///E:/ got me to the root of my flash drive. I took my PStart. exe file and saved it back onto my flash drive as PStart. exe (overwriting itself) and then opening that file after it finished downloading in order to get to my PStart menu, with all of my hacks and cracks and other implements with it. If I remember correctly you could save any random file back on to the flash drive and then open up the folder in the Downloads window by right clicking on the downloaded file in the Downloads window and clicking "Open Download Location". This may have thrown a "not allowed" error though, I can't remember. I did get in though.
What I found was interesting was that in the Documents and SettingsAdminDesktop folder I found a bunch of run-of-the-mill hacking utilities that was (ostensibly) used by the installer to set up system policy. I would have guessed that they would have this down to an image or something but apparently not. If anyone is interested I can zip and upload the utiliities to share here. (I uploaded everything of interest on the computer to my personal FTP, although that admittedly wasn't much as nobody was supposed to be able to access the local file system anyways. )
Hope this helps someone get more access somewhere. I don't think this would let you circumvent CyberCafe (there's a good shot if you use Process Explorer or DTaskManager or something else powerful to kill/end/freeze the CyberCafe applications and services, but it may happen), but even if you can't get free access this will at least allow you to be more productive with your money you spent. At least, I hope so.
