Updated article: Getting rid of first-time login stuff

The technote article RG01F, published January 2010, discussed how to get rid of the Personalized Settings window, which appears at first-time login for new users. In this minor overhaul of the article, there is now detailed information on how to configure this through the PowerFuse 2010 console.  Click here to read the updated article.

SR1 Wisdom update

Okay, this is some old updates which have been sitting in the queue for a while without getting published. Nevertheless, there’s some good info in here on how to upgrade Wisdom.

March 27th, RES Software released an update package for RES Wisdom. The Service Release 1 package for Wisdom 2009 is available for download from the RES Portal. The update can be downloaded here (this requires you to have a valid SA logon).  So, what’s new in this update you might ask? There’s a good deal of fixes:

Have a look here for more info:  

If you havent’ tried upgrading Wisdom before, don’t worry. It’s piece of cake (really, it is! :) Essentially, you fire up your console and point to the update package, which is automagically uploaded and distributed thereafter. All the agents, dispatchers and consoles will upgrade themselves without you having to do anything.

1) You download the .WUP file (Yes, WUP is short for Wisdom Update Pack :). Start your Wisdom console and go to Infrastructure | Datastore | Setup | Components.

2) Here you use the button, and it’s pretty much a next, next finish job from there.

The mere thought of having a production system upgrade itself on a massive parallel scale,  may scare the  living daylights out of you. If it does, it just proves you’re still sane! :) Seriously, Wisdom is one of the most stabile platforms out there and it handles itself very safe and sanitary. One of the very little known facts of the product is that you can actually downgrade to an earlier update package version. So, if something isn’t working right, it’s possible to do a rollback. The version range where this is possible has yet to be determined, but we will ammend this post as soon as this has been clarified.

Happy upgrading

/TRG

PowerFuse 2008 SR4 update 8.0.4.5

By Max Ranzau

Febuary 19th 2009,  RES Software released an update of the Service Release 4 for PowerFuse 2008. It is now version 8.0.4.5. This update contains many important fixes. At the bottom of this posting, there is a link to download the releasenotes. There are also several cool enhancements to this update. These are mainly some interesting registry keys which you can use to tweak PowerFuse with. Here is an overview of these new settings, quoting from the releasenotes:

Configure cache timer interval. It is now possible to configure the cache timer interval. This interval determines how often the cache checks for changes in the database or for new transactions. The default for this interval is 5 seconds. This interval can be changed by setting the following registry key:

Key   : HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareRESPowerFuse

Value : CacheTimerInterval (REG_SZ)

Data  : A value between 5 and 60 (seconds)

Warning: Changing the default of 5 seconds should only be done in special cases, such as a heavy load on the database server. 

Disable screensaver when RES PowerFuse Workspace Extender is active: When a RES PowerFuse session is started from a workstation with the RES PowerFuse Workspace Extender or the RES Subscriber Agent, the RES PowerFuse session will enable a Screensaver by default. It is now possible to change this behavior, by setting the following registry string value in either HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE or HKEY_CURRENT_USER

Key   : SOFTWARERESPowerFuse

Value : NoAgentScreensaver (REG_SZ)

Data  : Yes

Force LogOff of disconnected sessions after timeout: It is now possible to force a logoff of disconnected sessions after a specified timeout expires. This can be enabled by setting the following registry keys in either HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE or HKEY_CURRENT_USER

Key   : SoftwareRESPowerFuse

Value : ForceLogoffEnabled (REG_SZ)

  Data  : Yes or No (to enable/disable the mechanism)

Value : ForceLogoffTimeout or ForceLogoffTimeoutOnDisconnect (REG_SZ)

  Data: value in minutes

Value : ForceLogoffOnDisconnect

  Data  : Yes or No

If you are already using the ForceLogoffOnIdle mechanism, the timeout in ForceLogoffTimeout can be used to use the same timeout for both mechanisms, or you can use a different timeout to disconnect by setting a value in ForceLogoffTimeoutOnDisconnect.

Silent refresh of RES PowerFuse sessions: A silent refresh of RES PowerFuse will not show a splash screen during a refresh of the Workspace Manager, which in some cases is less intrusive for the user. A silent refresh will only be used when the refresh is a result of a display change, a USB device change or a reconnect of a disconnected session. “Silent refresh” can be enabled by setting the following registry key in either HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE or HKEY_CURRENT_USER:

Key   : SOFTWARERESPowerFuse

Value : SilentRefresh (REG_SZ)

Data  : Yes or No 

The release notes for the 8.0.4.5 update can be downloaded here:

Updated desktop shortcut lockdown BB

It was discovered yesterday that there was something missing from the Desktop Shortcut lockdown buildingblock. A part of the BB will redirect the desktop to the homedirectory. As a consequence of this (at least that’s the presumption) you may be met with a very security warning every time you click on a desktop icon. The update consists of a PowerLaunch User Registry hack which will take care of this. This is to be found in a new Step 6 of the technote. The updated technote can be found here

/TRG

Guide to migrating PowerFuse 7.x to 20xx

One of the friendly folks at RES Software (in this case yours truely! ;-) made this presentation, which describes in detail how to migrate  a legacy PowerFuse 7.x installation to PowerFuse 2008 or higher. This presentation  goes through everything, even how new WorkSpaces should be created for hybrid environments with both laptops, workstations and terminalservers. Note, check out the speaker notes, as there are a ton of details in there.

Note1: The presentation was originally created back in June 2008 and was based on a 7.03 to PF2008 migration, but is perfectly valid for a migration directly to Powerfuse 2010 or Workspace Manager 2011. The dialog boxes may have changed a bit since PowerFuse 2008, but the procedure is the same.

Note2: Be sure to read the speaker notes in the presentation, as they contain all the commentary necessary to understand and/or present the migration procedure.

Download the presentation here: