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182604
October 23rd, 2010 06:00
Thinshell - Choose between WindowsShell or Thinshell
Is there a an easy way of allowing users to choose between WindowsShell or Thinshell?
We are in the process of rolling out terminal services in a call centre. Currently they have about 400 desktops and we are converting the desktops into thin clients useing Thinshell. A great solution, well done Quest.
I have set up a set up an OU to deploy the relevant software and also to make the registry update and this works very well because we can control the rollout by moving pcs into the OU in a controlled fashion.
The problem is that our users hot desk and need to be able to choose between TS or desktop without calling the helpdesk.
We have had a very brief look at ZeroPC and is probably a more suitable solution. We look forward to that being released, no preasure then chaps.
mbowe
3 Posts
1
November 2nd, 2010 16:00
You could also do something like a default autologin with a user that has little to no local/network privledge and launches into Thinshell to authenicate the users 'real identity' to a desktop/application served via vWorkspace. But, then the end user also has the option to 'log off' of thin shell and connect to the local explorer.exe shell for local computing. The article Rick references is helpful in this as well.
rmack1
1 Rookie
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48 Posts
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October 30th, 2010 10:00
Hi Francois,
I guess the answer is yes and no. The default shell can be determined either on a machine basis (HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\Winlogon, shell) or on a per-user basis (HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\Winlogon, shell), so if you use a group policy, you could assign a different per-user shell depnding on security group membership.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms838576(WinEmbedded.5).aspx has a detailed description of the options.
I guess you could have 2 logins for users, one local and one AD and define the shell that way, however otherwise you would have to have a custom GINA to allow that sort of selection pre-login.
regards,
Rick
DELL-Paul Fi
101 Posts
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July 2nd, 2015 04:00
Thinshell does have two modes available. Native and Shell. Native will not allow any choice of applications to users but if you use Shell mode then you can.
more details here: http://en.community.dell.com/techcenter/virtualization/vworkspace/b/vworkspace-blog/archive/2012/06/13/thinshell-2-5-native-mode-v-shell-mode