[FaD] How to: Run the Client Before and After Logon

[BitSpit]

Call this revision 1. It's not perfect yet but it'll give me something to do besides be bored. Also note this is only for NT-based OSes. It might work on Win9x but locations/registry entries might be different if it even works at all.

Personally, I'd prefer to log out when I'm not actively using the computer. However, FaD doesn't directly support being run as a service. Also, running as a service could be a greater security breach than running it normally. So, I've come up with a way to run it before logon as a screen saver and as a normal client.

Setup:

First, open the FaD control panel (tray icon > Setup) and go to the General tab. Set THINK Graphics to Screen saver. This will place all the necessary files in your Windows directory. Now close the control panel.

You may want to customize how the screen saver will look. Normally, it will cycle between stick, spheres, and space filling. I prefer spheres so I need to do some editting. Go to your Windows directory (E:\WINNT in my case) and open think.env in Notepad. Add the line THINK_GRAPHICS=3 and save. If you would like something different the table below lists the options.

0   Line (OpenGL disabled)
1   Stick
2   Ball and stick
3   Spheres
4   Space filling

The screen saver is now set up. However, for it to run, we need to do some registry editting. Open regedit and go to HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop Double click on SCRNSAVE.EXE and change the value to think.scr While here, you may also want to change how long Windows waits before starting the screen saver. To do this, double click on ScreenSaveTimeOut and change the value. This number is in seconds. For example, it should be 300 for 5 minutes.

Everything for the prelogin part should now be set. Close regedit and reboot. When the logon or press Ctrl-Alt-Del dialog appears (depends on your security settings), sit around and wait the amount of time you set. After waiting, you should see a white flash and then molecules dancing around on the screen.

After you get tired of watching this, log back in and wait for everything to finish loading. Notice something missing? FaD no longer loads when you login even if you have think.lgo in one of the many startup locations. The reason for this is that loader.exe runs lgo files. When FaD is set to screen saver, it will no longer process this file. We have to create our own method to do this.

This part isn't too hard. It's mostly and and paste with some editting for your particular system. All we have to do is create a bat or cmd file (either one works) that does the previous job of think.lgo. Here's mine:

@echo off
E:
cd "\Program Files\Find-a-Drug"
start tray.exe
start server.exe
start /min think.exe /s

You'll probably need to edit this for your system. Change the change letter and path to whatever is approriate for your system and save in your Startup directory or make it a logon script if you feel daring.

There's just one more problem that needs to be solved. Notice the minimized THINK window in the task bar? This is because the FaD settings no longer tell the client to start hidden. We have to do some editting to do that. Go to your FaD directory (NOT where the screen saver is) and open up think.env. Add the line THINK_MINIMISE=OFF (yes, it is misspelled), save, and restart FaD. The graphics window is now hidden on startup. There is one side effect to this. This setting tells the client to hide instead of minimize when the minimize button is clicked. However, it shouldn't be a problem for most people.

Things that need to be added: detection of an already running client to avoid error messages

[win2kuser]

Top marks.

What a great idea BitSpit.

If I have a power cut, my Win2K Server won't automatically log in and load into the desktop and hence no Fad. The Win2K Pro boxes are ok as they automatically log in.

Will try that later...

[BitSpit]

I've found one flaw. The screen saver ignores the THINK_GRAPHICS option so it always cycles through different view modes. Looks like I have a feature request for the next THINK version.

[BitSpit]

Finally had some jobs that didn't take a while. I got to confirm that it does indeed load the server when it needs more jobs (saw the title bar for the server flash in the corner). I did have to do a little troubleshooting. I've got a driver issue with the screen saver. I get hard locks after a random amount of time (5 minutes to a few hours). Strangely, it doesn't happen when I run the client normally and have the window open. For now, I've got OpenGL disabled for the screen saver (THINK_OPENGL=0).

[Mickwish]

I take this won't work when running a client from a queue server, though.

Haven't tried it yet, but I might try using a service app like Firedaemon to run think when the OS starts. Anyone do this already?

Thanks
Mick

[BitSpit]

You could probably do something similar if:

1) you created a computer startup script that mapped a drive. It would have to use the net command had have a password in it.
2) you copied the screen saver stuff to the local drive
3) you edit the screen savers' think.env to point to the network drives

Although with this method, you might need to have a seperate installation on the file server for each client. It would also be a big security hole with a password in the script (says the person who now uses a third-party screen saver before logon).