Meedio Essentials 1.15.22.0, Part 2 - A Sleek and Clean HTPC Interface

Meedio Essentials - Login

Creating a login configuration for a multi-user environment is fairly easy. You just need to configure the program for users in its respective tab. If you want to get back to the login screen from the main menu, you will need to change the "Add 'back' option" on the module properties of the main Meedio group module from "no" to "last" or "first". The login plug-in is actually included with the initial installation, so no additional files need to be downloaded. It just isn't exposed until you add users to the user list.

Keep in mind that you can include additional login modules to the menu structure, which also will share the same user base information, but it is more for situations where you have a set of universal features for everyone and a set of functions for only specific users to access.

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Login v1.0 plug-in

One of the immediate downsides of this password setup that we noticed was that the passwords were exposed. This means that this type of setup will be best used for profiles rather than permissions, in the sense of organizing rather than keeping people out of certain functions. Permissions can still be designated based on the components of the menu structure, if necessary, by going to the permissions page and selecting all users or selecting the option to give specific users permission to access the module.

Click to enlarge.

Click to enlarge.

Once you load ME, you will be prompted with the available users from which to select. When you have picked a user, you will need to enter in the password, which is hidden by using asterisks. There is no "enter" or "finish" button because you are logged in automatically once you have entered the last numerical character of the password.

Click to enlarge.

Click to enlarge.

By changing the value in step 1 from "no" to "last" (in our case), the back button is added to the bottom of the list of options on the main menu. This provides a method back to the original login menu for those looking for a way to switch users. Changing the value from "no" to "first" will make the back button the first item on the main menu list.

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Because the configure.exe is not password-protected, this isn't something that you can use like the user profile options of Windows, where you can limit certain features and functions to specific users. If you were denied access, getting access to those functions would be as simple as changing the permission settings in the configure.exe, especially since there is no user level status.