55 votes
Make exit keyboard command more difficult
My 1 yr old played for the first time today and she was out of the app and opening up multiple instances of Windows Media Center in about 5 minutes. Any thought about making the keyboard command to exit the app a little more difficult or involved (i.e., adding additional keys besides just Alt-F4)?
Status:
planned
OK, she hit ALT-F4 fast? My concern is that if I make exiting harder that *parents* won't be able to get out. ;) (I've had this complaint before). However, your point is well taken. What's a good keystroke? CTRL-SHIFT-ALT-F4?
tinhoy
How about an "exit babysmash" button in the options? This operates under the exitsting assumption that the Options menu is hard enough to access for the baby, but fine for the parent.
sirchris
One thing that worked for me is I bought my son a Crayola keyboard to smash (http://www.amazon.com/Crayola-11071-Keyboard/dp/B00167ZYMK). The Crayola keyboard has no function keys so he has not been able to quit BabySmash yet.
The only downside is I need to keep another keyboard plugged into my computer so I can quit.
mom2louis
My daughter (18-months) also nearly exited the program on day 1 - The toolbar at the bottom of the screen showed. I think the way she was able to do this was that I have a laptop and it has buttons on the front of it (not on the keyboard) that control the media player. You can open the media player just by pushing those buttons. She hasn't figured out the buttons to close it though...yet.
Nathan Johnstone
the 4 digit pin could just be stored in plain text in the options dialog.. its not like it has to be a secret password from under 5 year olds plus its pretty hard to the opts dialog open as well
Nathan Johnstone
just make it configurable.. some checkboxes for ALT / SHIFT / CTRL and the F# keys and let people select their own combination
shanselman
I'm liking the idea of a 4 digit pin, but I'm concerned folks will forget it.
gregorylam
I say let's not overthink this. Ctrl-Alt-Shift F4 will do the trick, methinks. A exit sound (i.e. "Bye bye!") might also be useful to alert the nearby parent that the program has been compromised. You can't leave your kids completely unattended, anyway.
gregorylam
I say let's not overthink this. Ctrl-Alt-Shift F4 will do the trick, methinks. A exit sound (i.e. "Bye bye!") might also be useful to alert the nearby parent that the program has been compromised. You can't leave your kids completely unattended, anyway.
taylorlugi
I would like to see this configurable because the child keyboards normally do not have function keys. I just picked one up for my child and the keyboard doesn't have any function keys. The keys are bigger so it is easier for younger children to type. So I agree with nickknyc that this should be configurable.
gymcoach
I did not see this comment until I made my own similar one. I agree with nikknyc. Make it configurable or similar to a password/pin.
nickknyc
User configurable, please.
spigot
I think Alt+F4 is fairly sufficient. Maybe one additional key from the right side of the keyboard (F12 or something), but I wouldn't get too crazy. Inevitably kids will get lucky. But if a baby is good enough to nail a captcha or simple typed "exit" command then perhaps it time to start actual typing lessons. Even pulsing instructions are very hard to see if you've turned off solid backgrounds
mpowell
Our laptop has a "start media center" button that I'm pretty sure isn't actually a keyboard key, and so isn't disabled by BabySmash. It's possible the OP just needs to disable special function keys to prevent MC from starting...
shanselman
Ya, I thought about the captcha thing, but what if the kid sees it...do I just give them one try to type a word, then leave? For a toddler the exiting of the game might become a game in itself!
How about if they press ALT-FT, I "pulse" or blink the instructions in the upper corner that say "use CTRL-SHIFT-ALT-F4"?
cometbill
ALT-F4 - standard Windows way of exiting an app, but display a dialogue that requires a certain word typing in, maybe captcha stylee.
derekhubbard
Good point about parents not being able to get out. I like CTRL-SHIFT-ALT-F4, but I'm computer friendly. Is something like CTRL-SHIFT-ALT-ESC more "user friendly?"