From the thank-god-for-small-favors dept. One of the really cool things that RES Software has put into PowerFuse 2010, is the ability to centrally toggle PowerFuse on/off, on the target machines. This is a huge advantage from using the old Setshell stand-alone utility, as you can do it on more than one computer at a time. The only other way to do this currently is utilizing the Set Shell task of RES Wisdom.

This new feature of PowerFuse 2010 is evident when you it on a target computer for the first time. Here you will get a (somewhat) interesting question, wheather you want to launch the Workspace Composer automatically or manually. What the installer is asking you (in the oldschool terminology) is “Do you want to set PowerFuse as the Shell now?”.  The dialog box looks like this:

So what’s this deal with a Workspace Composer, you may ask? Well, it’s new branding for the Workspace Manager (pfwsmgr.exe) I don’t believe the process name itself has changed though. So just to make sure we are all on the same page, let’s get the terminology straight:

Automatic = Set the value of HKLM\…\Winlogon\Shell to pwrstart.exe, i.e. start a Powerfuse session at logon.

Manual = Set the value of HKLM\…\Winlogon\Shell to explorer.exe, i.e. don’t start PowerFuse

Out of the  box, the value for the installer is manual. The overall idea is for you to be able to dunk PowerFuse into an existing environment, and then centrally switch PowerFuse on across the estate in the tempo you’re comfortable with. Note: When installing RES PowerFuse unattended using a command line, it is now possible to apply the public property AUTORUNCOMPOSER. I presume you set it = YES, but I will have to check.

So great, we can set the shell uppon install, but what about later in the console? That’s also possible. In order to use this, do the following.

1. Start the PowerFuse console and navigate to Setup|Agents
2. Select one or more agents and rightclick on them
3. In the context menu, go to Run Workspace Composer and select Automatic or Manual.

Let’s say you’ve changed an agent to Manual, thereby disabeling PowerFuse. When you’ve changed the setting, the status in the Run Workspace Composer column for the agent, will change to Manual (pending). This means that the agent has not yet picked up the configuration change. The agent will check for the status of the shell in the database and then in turn write the new shell value to the registry locally. This should however happen as quickly as any normal configuration change. You can hit F5 in the agent view at any time to update the status.