Wyse Device Manager Agent Disabled

In our thin client implementation we have decided on going with Wyse.  We're using the Wyse OS based V10Ls for standard users and then Windows XPe based R90Ls for users that require special setups.  Managing the V10Ls could not be easier: set up an FTP server with one config file and put the thin client in DHCP.  The rest is magic.  However, with the R90Ls we needed a way to customize the factory XPe image and deploy it to the rest of the devices.  We initially looked into using Altiris for imaging, since we were already using it for some of our servers, but soon discovered that it would cost us about $5,000 in licensing to image the rest of our thin clients.

Enter Wyse Device Manager (WDM).  This free thin client management solution from Wyse is great for keeping an inventory of your thin client devices, and can also be used for things like remote control and imaging.  The process of taking an image of a thin client is fairly simple -- customize the current image to your liking, run a built-in prep script on the client (so that the device maintains its "uniqueness") and then take the image using the WDM interface.

As I started creating our XPe images, I noticed something.  After every time we took an image, the WDM Agent service was stopped and disabled on the thin client (called the HAgent service in the Services tool).  No matter what I did, this service would be disabled causing the device to no longer be in communication with the WDM server.  Obviously this defeats the purpose since going forward we would not be able to remotely control or image this thin client.

After doing some digging, I discovered what the issue was: a typo in the built-in prep script.  In prep_4_man.bat in C:\Windows\Setup there was a line that read:
regedit /s /i c:\windows\setup\isetup.reg
But there was no file named isetup.reg in C:\Windows\Setup -- but there WAS a file named setup.reg.
I simply removed the extra "i" from the line, and that triggered the train of scripts that run post-imaging that cause the thin client to establish itself and enable the WDM Agent service.

I'm not sure how many people are building custom XPe images with Wyse thin clients -- but if you're using the latest XPe build from Wyse, this should help!

Users Unable to Change Expired Passwords on Windows Server 2008

In our environment, we have Citrix XenApp 5.0 publishing desktops from Windows Server 2008.  Our users connect to these published desktops via thin client or through the web interface.  We recently decided to put our password policy into effect, which included expiring user passwords once a month.

When the first user experienced the password expiration interface in Server 2008 after coming back to a locked workstation, they received the following message:
"The password for this account has expired. To change the password, click Cancel, click Switch User, and then log on."

However, there was no cancel button to click on, and no apparent way for them to either change their password or log off and log on again to do so.  The only way we could get around this was for them to call the help desk, we'd manually reset their passwords in Active Directory and then they could log in again using that new password.  An unacceptable solution in my opinion :)

So, I started to do some digging and found the following Microsoft KB article:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/958900
which has an associated hotfix, that we applied and users were able to happily go on changing their passwords when they expired.

But then, we noticed something else.  Users that had two monitors set up at their station were experiencing an interesting symptom now: When the Server 2008 login screen came up, the dialog was now centered in between the two monitors (instead of only being in the primary), and it only showed the left half of the dialog in the primary monitor.  The secondary monitor was just completely black.

Oddly enough, the solution was to upgrade to Server 2008 SP2.  The service pack includes the previously mentioned hotfix, but for some reason did not have the same affect on dual monitors that the hotfix alone had.

I spent several hours scouring the web for a solution and didn't find anything -- so hopefully this will help you!

Attack of the Thin Clients!

So, for my latest project at work, I'm working on transitioning our company to Server Based Computing and thin clients.  There are many pieces to this puzzle, especially considering the fact that the company is not yet even on a domain.  I'm in the process of evaluating several pieces of software (Ericom's WebConnect, Provision Network's Virtual Access Suite and of course the almighty Citrix's XenApp) and several pieces of hardware (Wyse and HP thin clients).  Not to mention the whole Windows domain infrastructure that will also need to be in place :)

Anyway, I thought it may be a good idea to keep track of my findings -- and see if anyone out there might have any advice or suggestions for our journey ahead... as I'm sure there are plenty of people out there who have already done, or are in the process of doing the same thing.

We've decided to build all of this on top of Windows Server 2008, so I have already set up a test Active Directory domain, and Terminal Services on separate servers.  I was able to install WebConnect as well as XenApp on the Terminal Services box, and have been able to give both a little bit of a test run.  WebConnect was very easy to set up and get up and running since it is fairly simple.  And while that is a strength, it also limits the possibilities of what you can do with it.  Then, on the complete opposite end of the spectrum you have XenApp, which has so many options and possible customizations that it took a day with a Citrix employee to configure.... and that's just XenApp.  There are apparently quite a few different modules that can be used in conjunction with XenApp to enhance the functionality and feature set even more.

We've also purchased a Wyse Thin Client, which is running Wyse's Thin OS on it.  It's been configured to boot, get info for an FTP server from DHCP and pull all of the settings for connecting to Citrix, etc from that FTP server.  So, at this point, we can literally take the thin client with all its factory default settings, turn it on, and within 15 seconds be looking at a published desktop.  How crazy is that?

Now, we're waiting for the HP thin client to come in so that we can compare and contrast :)

Again, any input, suggestions, questions or advice are welcome!