KACE Desktop Authority 11.1 - Installation and Upgrade Guide

User/Computer Management

In this section we will cover the difference between User and Computer Management. We will also discuss how to decide if a specific configuration belongs in a User Management profile or a Computer Management profile.

What’s the difference?

Computer Management supports configurations of the computer operating system and options that apply to all users of the machine. These settings are configured whether there is a user logged on the system or not. Computer Management settings are applied during a workstations Startup, Shutdown, Refresh, and/or Scheduled events.

User Management objects are used to apply settings that are specific to the User environment and occur only when a user is logged on to the computer. These settings are applied at user Logon, Logoff and Refresh intervals. Note: The Computer and User Refresh intervals are separate from each other (two separate timers).

How do I know which to use?

The User and Computer Management containers each have their own set of profile objects.

Table 32: User and Computer Management profile objects

You will notice by looking at these categories, most of them are under either User Management or Computer Management. However, for a few of them, they appear in both User and Computer Management.

First determine if the setting to be configured belongs to User, Computer or both. If it only belongs to one of them, then the decision is easy. When the setting belongs to both User and Computer Management you must use further deduction to determine the correct placement.

You must now ask yourself a few questions:

1. Is this setting for one or more specific users? If so, then it belongs under User Management.
2. Is this setting for a specific Operating System? If so, then it belongs to Computer Management.
3. Does this setting pertain to a server (not terminal server)? If so, then it belongs to Computer Management.
4. Is this a setting that can be configured under both, User or Computer Management, opt for Computer Management. This may reduce the user’s logon/logoff time.

As with most things, since Desktop Authority is such a flexible tool, there will be some configurations that can be configured in more than one way. If you are not exactly sure how to configure a setting, use common sense and test the setting with a test user first.