KACE Desktop Authority 11.3 - ExpertAssist User Guide

Drivers

When you click on Drivers under the Computer Management object, you will see a list of drivers running on the remote machine. The Drivers page displays the names and statuses of all the drivers installed on the remote machine.

Double-clicking on the driver name will show you more detail about the selected object.

Dependencies can be viewed by selecting the Dependencies tab.

In the list of objects, the status field shows Started, Stopped, etc.

ExpertAssist looks through the list of drivers, and if it finds one that is set to start automatically but is not running, current driver status is colored in red. This alerts you to the fact that the driver should be running, but isn’t.

Click the Export button to download a CSV file containing the list of all the drivers available on the remote computer containing services names, statues, startup types and description.

Registry Editor

The Registry Editor enables you to edit the registry of the remote computer using ExpertAssist. First, the registry roots (HKCR, HKCU, HKLM, etc.) are displayed.

Drill down into registry roots by clicking the plus sign (+) next to them or clicking twice on their names.

Registry keys are links that open up that key for you. Key values are also displayed here, with their name, type and value.

You can edit values that are of either text (REG_SZ, REG_EXPAND_SZ or REG_MULTI_SZ), integer (REG_DWORD), binary (REG_BINARY), and other value types.

Using the toolbar buttons at the top of every page you can add a subkey or delete the currently selected key. You can add a value, delete it or set its access permissions.

Command Prompt

You can access a command prompt from within your browser by selecting Command Prompt under the Computer Management object. The Telnet client, written as a Java applet, provides encryption and data compression for security and speed. The Telnet server included with ExpertAssist lets you access a command prompt on a remote computer from terminal emulator software or a web browser.

Use the Mark, Copy, and Paste buttons at the bottom of the screen as the corresponding Windows Command Prompt commands.

Use the CB (clipboard) button to display the content that you have just copied into the Command Prompt window of EA:

1. Click CB to open the clipboard window with data copied from the Command Prompt window.
2. (If the Clipboard window is open) Click the Refresh button of the Clipboard window to display the most recent data sent to clipboard.
3. Click Send and then Paste to paste the data from the clipboard into the Command Prompt.

You can either use the Java Telnet client that’s part of ExpertAssist, or any other terminal emulator you like. There are several reasons to stick with ExpertAssist's client:

It’s secure - it uses the same encryption that’s employed by the remote control module. You must be connected to ExpertAssist though HTTPS in your browser to enable the channel encryption. It’s fast, since it uses sophisticated data compression to achieve high throughput. Furthermore, you don’t have to keep a Telnet port (23 by RFC defaults) open on a remote machine. The Command Prompt client allows you to work directly through the port you use to connect to ExpertAssist (2000 by default). And finally, it lets you transfer keystrokes that terminal emulators don’t handle, such as the Alt key. You can also use your mouse in console applications that support it.

If you decide to use a terminal emulator instead, you will need to start the Telnet server and connect to the Telnet port (23).

To start the Telnet server:

1. Set ExpertAssist to allow the Telnet connections. This can be done on the Telnet Sever configuration page under the Preferences object.
2. You can change the default listen ports in the configuration dialogs to any port available on the remote computer.

3. When a connection is initiated from a terminal emulator, you will be asked to log on.

   This is handled automatically by telnet clients, so you need to enter your username and password in the standalone client itself. ExpertAssist’s built-in client, on the other hand, automatically logs you on to the remote computer telnet session using the credentials specified when logging to the ExpertAssist.

   With standalone Telnet clients, you need to enter your credentials in clear text during the session. You are asked for your username, password, and domain. Specify your Active Directory domain as the domain if you want to authenticate on the remote computer using your domain credentials. Otherwise, specify the remote computer’s name to authenticate using SAM credentials (local to the remote computer).

4. After successfully logging in, you will be asked if you want full console support if you had the Ask console parameters checkbox set on the Telnet Server page. If you answer with No, you will only be able to use stream-mode programs - applications that take over the whole console window, like Edit.com, the Far file manager, etc. will not work. To answer No, press the ‘n’ key on the keyboard. However, if you are only planning to use command-line utilities, you can safely say No to this question. You will be taken directly to the command prompt.

5. (If you answered Yes to the previous question) You will be asked to specify the console window size. To answer Yes, press the ‘y’ key on the keyboard. A default value is provided for you. You should make sure that the terminal emulator you are using supports it and is set to the size you enter here.

6. Finally, if you have an ANSI compliant terminal emulator, you can choose to use ANSI color support during the session.

7. Should you disconnect your terminal emulator, or go to a different page in the browser window containing the Telnet client applet, all applications you have running in the Telnet session are left active.

   You can reconnect to this Telnet session by simply logging in (or loading the applet) again. There is a timeframe for this though: if you do not reconnect within an hour, all your telnet applications, including the command shell, are terminated. You can change the timeout value from the default one hour to anything you like under Preferences object on the Telnet Server configuration page.

8. To close the Telnet session, type Exit at the command prompt.

Reboot

When you click on Reboot under the Computer Management object, you will see the following reboot options. There are five choices.

Restart ExpertAssist Restarts the ExpertAssist services. It does not reboot the remote machine. This is useful if you change settings like the listening port and have no physical access to the machine in order to restart the service.

Normal Reboot Closes all processes and reboots the remote machine in an orderly fashion.

Emergency Reboot Does not allow applications and other processes to terminate gracefully, so you might lose unsaved data. Windows will, however, shut down nicely and flush all outstanding file operations to disk. This can be useful if there are hung processes that prevent Windows from shutting down normally.

Hard Reboot Reboots as quickly as possible. This option will not allow Windows to terminate gracefully, so you might lose unsaved data. This may help if the remote computer hangs. Since rebooting is immediate (just like pressing the reset button) you will not receive any feedback from ExpertAssist when clicking this button.

Scheduled Reboot This allows you to schedule a date and time to automatically reboot the remote computer which you are currently managing. This is useful if the reboot is not urgent and can take place during off-peak hours.