Customizing the Thin Client OS Image

Article
06/30/2006

After you create the image, you can customize it by changing the registry settings. You can change the device registry settings in the following ways:

Modify the Project.reg file before building and downloading the image.
After downloading the image to the CEPC and then connecting to a device, use the Remote Registry Editor. Using the Remote Registry Editor changes the image registry, but the changes are not persistent to the registry files in Platform Builder. The next time you download the image, you must configure the registry again. For information about how to use the Remote Registry Editor, see Remote Registry Editor.

Specify the Client to Display by Default

You can specify the default client. This allows you to control the client that is displayed by default when the user creates a new connection. For information about how to set the default client through the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\WBT\Clients\Registration registry key. For more information, see Thin Client Registry Settings.

Configure the Keyboard

The Windows Thin Client requires hot-key support for the user. You can leave the default hot key connection for each Windows Thin Client device in the registry, or you can modify these connections if you wish.

You must provide a UI in the Setup Property Sheets by which the user can enable hot-key support or make it unavailable. You have the option of making the hot keys configurable.

For more information about configuring hot keys on the Windows Thin Client, see Thin Client Registry Settings.

These settings also apply to any non-RDP application that transmits scan codes to a server.

For more information about keyboard hardware, see Thin Client Hardware.

Configure Screen Savers

If you want the shell to load a screen saver after a specified period of time, you must include the dynamic-link library (DLL) of the screen saver in your image. You must also configure the registry to support the screen saver.

For information about how to configure the registry to support your screen saver, see Thin Client Registry Settings.

Configure Client Startup Behavior

You can configure the shell to start applications automatically prior to launching the user interface (UI). Use this functionality for applications that require a UI, such as the Windows Thin Client Setup Wizard, and that must run before the shell UI is started. Applications that do not require a UI must start as part of the Windows CE initialization process.

For information about how to configure the registry to start applications automatically, see Thin Client Registry Settings.

Configure the Windows Thin Client Shell

Software must be registered with the shell to make this information available. The shell uses the Microsoft Windows CE registry to obtain client information for all of the connection software that is installed on the system. The shell does not manage unregistered software.

Client information is read once when the shell starts up and, therefore, cannot be changed dynamically. If new client software is installed on the Windows Thin Client, then the system must be reset before connections that are based on that software can be created.

For more information about configuring the Windows Thin Client Shell, see Thin Client Registry Settings.

Configure Client Information

The shell uses registry settings to determine registered clients, so you must configure each client in the registry. This is particularly important if you will have more than one Windows Thin Client.

Before a connection can be established, the Windows Thin Client Shell must have the following information for each client that it manages:

How to create the connection.
The Description value, or a display name to show when creating a new connection.
The Type value, or an eight-character description to display in List View.

For information about configuring client information, see Thin Client Registry Settings.

Configure a Printer

To add a printer, use the printer wizard after you download the Windows Thin Client OS Image.

Configure the Redirectors

In RDP 5.1 and later, the redirectors have been merged into the core Microsoft ActiveX® control and do not need any separate settings.

For information about how to write and register your own virtual channels or redirectors, go to this Microsoft Web site, and then search for Implementing Virtual Channels.

Add an Application to the Thin Client

You can add an application to the Windows Thin Client by adding information to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\WBT\Clients\Registration registry key.

For more information, see Thin Client Registry Settings.

Add Wireless Capability to the Thin Client

For the Windows Thin Client to support the wireless LAN, add the Cisco wireless LAN card driver into the image.

Add Control Panel Utilities to the Thin Client

You can add Control Panel utilities by adding additional entries to the registry.

The following code example shows the format for adding a Control Panel utility to the project.reg file. In this example, X indicates the index of the utility.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CtlpnlApplet\TermPropCplApplet]
"CplAppletX"=<utility name>

For more information about the registry, including predefined indexes, see Thin Client Registry Settings.

Persist the RAM-based Registry

You can persist the RAM-based registry by entering code in the TestDesktopResolution and RestartTeminal functions in the Ioctl.cpp file. This file is in the %_WINCEROOT%\Public\Rdp\Oak\Uit\Wbttscmn\Ioctl.cpp directory.

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