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Can you lock down the settings?
by balboa on Wed Jun 20, 2007 10:09 am
Is there a way to lock down the dwrcs.ini file? For example, we use the Permission required option for end-users to be notified of a new remote control connection and then grant us access. We would want these settings to locked down and not changed by our technicians. Is this possible?
Re: Can you lock down the settings?
by bryan on Wed Jun 20, 2007 12:20 pm
Hi Balboa,
The DameWare Mini Remote Control program relies heavily on the Operating System's built-in security and Administrator is the highest authority in Windows NT/2000/XP/2003/Vista security. Therefore, the ability to "lock down" or modify any settings for the MRC Client Agent depends solely on what rights your technicians have within the Operating System's security on each individual remote machine.
However, we are also investigating what it will take to add "Server Side configuration" functionality within a future version the software. What I mean is that you would have theability to store the settings for your Client Agents on a completely separate machine, a sort of "configuration server". That way, you would have greater flexibility to lock down the settings, because even though someone may have local Admin rights on this specific machine, they may not have Admin rights on the configuration server, hence they could not make changes to theconfig. Unfortunately, I just cannot make you any promises when this functionality may be available.
Bryan Brinkman
Support Engineer
DameWare Development, LLC.
http://www.dameware.com
Re: Can you lock down the settings?
by Jenson on Mon Jun 25, 2007 10:57 am
Speaking for our organization, we would be very interested in purchasing a Dameware product that would centralize the Mini Remote configuration settings, and then secure them. In fact, thelack of this functionality has become such an issue that we are now being forced to remove theDameware product from the PC's of several of our technicians who have chosen (for whatever reason) not to adhere to our standard configuration settings. This is a big deal for my organization is particular as our users insist and rely on their privacy during the workday.
We consider this issue to be the achilles heel of the Dameware Mini Remote product. The irony, of course, is that -- if Dameware wasn't as "full featured" as it is, having to centrally control theconfiguration settings would not be an issue. So kudos on one hand, and a headache on theother.
Jim Jenson
Superior Court of California
Re: Can you lock down the settings?
by bryan on Mon Jun 25, 2007 3:48 pm
Hi Jim,
Thank you very much for your feedback on this. It's very much appreciated, and we are working towards providing a centralized configuration solution for the MRC software. It's just going to take some time to develop this new functionality, because it's going to require a major rewrite ofthe existing codebase. So hopefully we will be able to offer this functionality in the next major release of the software (7.x), but again I just cannot make any promises.
However, as a possible work-around during the interim, the MRC Client Agent Service also hasthe ability to store it's settings in the Registry on the remote machine instead of theDWRCS.INI file. So perhaps this functionality may help you out:
The Mini Remote Control Client Agent Service always looks to the Registry first to see if the"Use Registry for all Settings" Registry key has been enabled. Therefore, once that setting has been enabled on the remote machine, removing & reinstalling the Service or copying a new version of the DWRCS.INI file to the remote machine will have no affect on the settings.
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\DameWare Development\DWRCS\Settings]
"Use Registry for all Settings"=dword:00000001
The easiest way I can think of to easily implement the "Use Registry for all Settings" Registry key across several machines is to use the new MRC Client Agent Service MSI Builder to build youa Microsoft Installer Package (MSI). The current version of our software (v6.3) also now includesthe fully completed version of the DameWare MRC Client Agent MSI builder, which allows you to build custom MSI packages (including all settings, INI or Registry) to deploy the MRC Client Agent in your environment. These MSI packages can then be sent to your clients (or even distributed via Group Policies within Corporate Environments, etc...) via any of your existing distribution methods.
I hope this information helps.
Bryan Brinkman
Support Engineer
DameWare Development, LLC.
http://www.dameware.com
Re: Can you lock down the settings?
by bryan on Fri Jul 06, 2007 7:21 pm
Hi Again Everyone,
Just FYI, in addition to storing settings in the Registry, we have also provided our users with numerous additional features, such as IP-Filtering, Shared Secret key, & local / global group membership to assist with controling your environment.
I hope these additional tips help.
Bryan Brinkman
Support Engineer
DameWare Development, LLC.
http://www.dameware.com
Re: Can you lock down the settings?
by bryan on Wed Jul 18, 2007 7:56 pm
Hi Everyone,
Here is another update that may help someone out. rgeorge has created an ADM template file forthe MRC Client Agent, for use in storing the MRC Client Agent Settings in the Registry.
Group Policy ADM for MRC Agent Settings
http://forums.dameware.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=71
Thank you rgeorge. Very much appreciated !!!
Bryan Brinkman
Support Engineer
DameWare Development, LLC.
http://www.dameware.com
bryan
Re: Can you lock down the settings?
by jameslocksmith on Wed Feb 03, 2010 7:34 am
how can we lock the operating systems so that password is needed to use the computer.
Best Locksmiths Phoenix
Commercial Locksmiths Phoenix
Re: Can you lock down the settings?
by goldstar on Sat Oct 01, 2011 7:41 am
i totally agree