iDesktop Quick Start Guide

Introduction

Installation

After installation, you can bring up your web browser and go to http://localhost:9010 to access iDesktop.

Deploy Agents

Ways to install agent:

• Download agent installer (agent_installer.exe) from the iDesktop server, and then install it on each desktop.
• Or use GPO to deploy agents
  • Download agent_installer.msi from the iDesktop server ( URL: http://server:port/desktop/agent_installer.msi )
  • Create a batch file (e.g. install.bat) with the following commands in it:
    

        IF EXIST c:\idesktop_agent\conf\agent.properties goto :end
         echo installing...
         msiexec.exe /i "%1" CUSTOMER.ID="0"  SERVER="192.168.1.100" PORT="9010" 
        :end
                

  • Open Group Policy Management Console from the Administrative Tools folder (or gpmc.msc from RUN).
  • Expand the domain tree, locate the domain name. Right-click the domain name and select Create and Link a GPO Here.

    

  • Specify a descriptive name for the GPO.
  • Select the Scope tab.
  • Click the Add button in the "Security Filtering" to specify the computers.
  • Click the "Object Types "button in the "Select User, Computer, or Group" dialog and select Computers object type.
  • Specify the computer names and click "Check Names" to add the required computers.
  • Right-click the new GPO and select Edit.
  • In the Group Policy Object Editor window, expand User Configuration > Windows Settings > Scripts.
  • Double-click Logon in the right-hand pane.
  • In the Logon Properties window, click Show Files, and drag and drop the previously created install.bat into it.
  • Back in the Logon Properties window, click Add.
  • In the Add a Script window, click Browse and you will see the newly added logon script (install.bat). Whatever you do, DO NOT manually browse for the file, it should be in front of your eyes. If it's not there, check the previous steps for a mistake. Click Ok.
  • Specify the script parameter, which is the location of the agent_installer.msi, e.g. \\fileserver\installer\agent_install.msi
  • Close the Group Policy Object Editor window.
  • Close the GPMC window.

Main User Interface

Dashboard Tab

Agents Tab

Displays the status of agents. For each agent, by clicking its small icons, you can do

• File Management
  Manages files/directories on desktop, including upload/download/delete/create/move/rename files or directories.
• Remote Desktop Support
  IT administrator can view and control the remote desktop.
• Scan Inventory
  Tells the agent to scan its hardware and software inventory.
• Alert Settings
  Changes the alert settings of the agent.
• Chat
  Chats instantly with the agent. It will tell the agent to open a chat window so that IT administrator can interact with the person being assisted.

Alerts Tab

Menu Items:

• Alerts
  Displays received alerts.
• Default Alert Settings
  The default settings will be applied to all agents deployed after the settings have taken effect.
• Tasks
  Creates tasks to change alert settings of selected agents.

Inventory Tab

Menu Items:

• Devices
  Lists devices discovered by agents.
• Hardware
  Displays discovered hardware components.
• Software
  Displays software installed on agents. You can also check license compliance details of the commercial software. After you enter number of purchased licenses, expiry date, then you can generate reports on license compliance.
  

• Patch
  Displays all the Windows patches installed on agents.
• Scan
  Creates new tasks to tell agents to scan inventory data.

Software Deployment Tab

Menu Items:

• Tasks
  Creates tasks of installing/uninstalling software on agents.

  Installers can be MSI or EXE files.

  For EXE packages, you need to specify arguments for unattended silent installation. You can refer to this page for more information.

• Software Repository
  Adds new installers to repository.

  Parameters, options can be specified for each installer. You can add scripts to be executed before or after installation/uninstallation.

• Script Repository
  Adds new scripts to repository. Scripts can be used before or after installation/uninstallation.

Access Control Tab

Menu Items:

• Software Restrictions
  You can configure to allow or disallow software on remote desktops.
• Registry Restrictions
  Configures whether to allow or disallow end user to edit registry settings.
• USB Restrictions
  Configures whether to allow or disallow all USB or just USB storage devices.
• CD-ROM Restrictions
  Configures whether to allow or disallow CD-ROM.
• Floppy Restrictions
  Configures whether to allow or disallow floppy drive.

Task Tab

Menu Items:

• Configuration Tasks
  Lists all the tasks and their status info.

  You can use the "Add" button to create new tasks. Predefined tasks include firewall, power management, service, hard drive management, scripts, etc.

  Pre-defined Tasks:

  You can create the following pre-defined tasks, which will be performed immediately or at a later time on selected desktops.

  • Firewall
    
    • Turns on or off Windows built-in firewall for selected desktops.
    • Allow or block certain ports.
  • Check hard drive
    Check or fix hard drive using the Windows built-in chkdsk.exe command.
  • Clean up hard drive
    Clean up disk using the Windows built-in Cleanmgr.exe command.
  • Hard drive defragment
    Use the built-in defrag.exe to defragment disk drives on selected desktops.
  • Executables
    Administrator can deploy executable files on remote desktop.

    Executable files include scripts, exe and other executable commands.

    

  • Power management
    Configure desktops power saving schemes
    • Turns off monitor after certain amount of time.
    • Turns off hard disk after certain amount of time.
    • System standby after certain amount of time.
  • Registry settings
    Allow administrator to add, modify, or delete registry values on the desktops of users.
  • Environment variables
    Environment variables are a set of dynamic named values that can affect the way running processes will behave on a computer.

    The function allows you to set system or user environment variables on the desktops.

  • IE
    Allow administrator to set home page and proxy server on the desktops.
  • Windows Services
    Allow administrator to change the settings of Windows services, such as starting/stopping a service.
  • Path
    Allow administrator to add system or user path. New path is inserted into the beginning of the existing paths.
• Remote Shutdown
  Shutdown remote desktops.
• Wake on LAN
  Wakes up remote desktops if Wake-on-LAN feature have been enabled on computer's BIOS.

Ticket Tab

There are two types of tickets: request and problem. A request can be a simple question or an incident, which is any unplanned negative impact on a service. A Problem is the underlying or root cause of one or more requests. A problem can be linked to one or more requests. If a problem is closed, all its linked requests are closed as well.

A ticket has four states:

• Open
  Technician is working on it.
• Pending
  Technician is waiting for the requester to respond.
• Resolved
  The ticket has been resolved.
• Closed
  The ticket reaches its final state, and all its fields are read only.

Only users with admin role can close a ticket.

If a ticket's state is Resolved, and the requester has not responded within a certain period of time, the ticket is closed automatically by system.

If a ticket is in a closed state then all its fields are read only. Only users with admin role can reopen the ticket.

Admin Tab