Every KioWare product release is built around one question: what will make life easier and safer for the people running kiosks every day? KioWare for Windows 8.42 answers that with a mix of customer-requested features and targeted security improvements — and a lot of it came directly from conversations with the businesses who use KioWare in the field.
A Browser Engine You Can Trust
KioWare for Windows 8.42 moves the embedded browser up to Chrome 151. Beyond general compatibility with modern web standards, this update resolves an issue where sites protected by Cloudflare had started blocking older browser versions from loading at all. If your kiosk application touches a site with modern bot-protection, this update keeps it running smoothly.
More Ways to Accept Payment
This release adds support for the ID TECH VP5300 EMV payment terminal, processed securely through Fiserv’s CardPointe Unattended API. Chip, contactless, and magnetic stripe payments are all supported, giving kiosk owners another proven hardware option for secure, self-service transactions — and giving repeat, high-volume kiosks steadier terminal availability during back-to-back sales. Device integrations like this one are available on KioWare Enterprise.
Test Changes Without the Guesswork
One of the most requested capabilities in this release: KioWare for Windows can now run a test environment and a live production environment on the very same kiosk. That means updates, new content, and configuration changes can be validated in a safe space before they ever touch a customer-facing screen — without needing a second piece of hardware to do it.
Smarter, More Self-Sufficient Kiosks
Kiosk applications can now read from and write to a local SQLite database directly on the device. In practical terms, that opens the door to transaction logging, offline operation, and retaining information between sessions — even during a spotty or temporarily unavailable network connection.
Kiosk Security You Can Count On
Security isn’t a one-time feature; it’s an ongoing commitment. In 8.42, the built-in Wi-Fi setup screen now validates network names before displaying them, closing off a path that could otherwise be used to run unauthorized commands on a kiosk. Installation logs now mask passwords and other sensitive values instead of storing them in plain text. Together, these updates reflect the kind of continuous hardening customers count on when kiosks are deployed unattended, in public, for months or years at a time.
Built With Your Feedback
Several of the features above — including test/production environments and expanded payment hardware support — came directly from customer requests. If there’s something you’d like to see in a future release, we want to hear about it.
Read the complete list of updates, including additional enhancements and bug fixes, on the KioWare Version History page.
