Auto populate connection settings?

Discussion in 'Parallels Client for Windows' started by BillyH1, Apr 12, 2017.

  1. BillyH1

    BillyH1 Bit poster

    Messages:
    2
    Hello,
    I work a lot with PC's in a Windows domain that will have multiple people log in/out of Windows throughout the day. Rather than sign in as each user and setup the connection properties in Parallels, there must be a way to have a default connection setup to avoid this. The users will be using Single Sign On.

    I thought I read something in the past that you can export a configuration setting (.2xc file) and place it somewhere so that every time a new user signs into the workstation it will already have the connection properties set.

    Any thoughts ? :)
     
  2. Valentin@Parallels

    Valentin@Parallels Parallels Support

    Messages:
    66
    Greetings @BillyH1
    Indeed there is a way to export settings and furthermore install client silently with exported settings, you can review this KB article for reference.
    However sadly this will not be a solution for your case since user settings will be imported for user who is currently logged into client machine since Parallels Client stores settings for all users separately.
    On the other hand I believe that many Parallels RAS users may find such feature pretty useful so if you really feel like having such feature in Parallels RAS tool set you can visit this forum and suggest this feature for future implementation.
    Let me know if you would have additional questions. Will be glad to discuss it if you will have any!

    Cheers!
     
  3. NelsonP1

    NelsonP1 Bit poster

    Messages:
    3
    One thing that worked for me was I created the shortcut as follows
    %ProgramFiles%\Parallels\Client\TSClient.exe

    Than go to properties of the new shortcut, under taget add the following to it.
    "s!='Server Address/FQDN' t!='443' d!='Domain' u!='User Name' a!='#148' m!='2' o!='0' i!='Connection Name' r!='1'"
    Keep in mind I am new to parallels so there's values in there that I'm not sure of but creating this shortcut and applying it to the public desktop allowed me have a working shortcut on everyone's desktop and not needing to apply the exported config.
     
    Last edited: Jul 31, 2017
  4. NelsonP1

    NelsonP1 Bit poster

    Messages:
    3
    The only drawback I see to this is just Parallels will always ask for login info even if you hit save password.

    Just some food for thought.
     
  5. jpc

    jpc Pro

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    433
    @NelsonP1 If you use URL schema, I think you may be able to save the password. Haven't tried it though.
     
  6. NelsonP1

    NelsonP1 Bit poster

    Messages:
    3
    Will that cause any issues with it being a shared icon? I have that shortcut published on citrix within the public desktop
     
  7. jpc

    jpc Pro

    Messages:
    433
    @NelsonP1 The URL schema is intended to be "executed" on a local machine where a parallels client is installed. If the public desktop already has the parallels client installed, it may work.
    Your other approach should not require you to use a password if you already have the connection saved using parallels client. (at least, it works for me when I create a shortcut on the desktop and use the arguments from there)
     
  8. CoreyR

    CoreyR Junior Member

    Messages:
    11
    I was never able to get the 2XSetting.2xc file to work during deployment. It would be nice if I knew how it applied the settings - for example, does it add entries in the registry or modify something in %appdata#\2XClient? Regardless, it doesn't work properly.

    We use the PowerShell Application Deployment Toolkit to install the MSI (with SSO) and add the registry keys as shown in the attachment. We also deploy the registry keys via Group Policy Preferences in the event someone tries installing the Parallels Client manually. We have 99% success with this combination.

    However from time to time users will receive the error "[2055] - The user name or password is incorrect". We're not sure if this is an issue with SSO or possibly related to our deployment of registry keys via GPP.
     

    Attached Files:

    Last edited: Sep 6, 2017
  9. JustinP4

    JustinP4 Bit poster

    Messages:
    1
    I reverse engineered this registry method on my own and tested with a few people and it appears to work, including enabling SSO...
    Here's what I did:

    1. Created connection with all the settings I wanted on my local client (you can do from scratch or use the special url as per mentioned everywhere on the forums and documentation... although the KB article has some line return problems that make it confusing)
    2. Exported the .reg from registry editor from HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Parallels\AppServerClient\Farms\F0000 (important, this needs to include F0000 and its subkeys!)
    3. Used notepad++ to modify the mention of my username to variable "%username%" as per https://www.pcreview.co.uk/threads/variables-in-registry-keys.1579955/
    4. Converted .reg to xml and then copy/pasted into group policy using this tutorial: https://4sysops.com/archives/conver...t-registry-key-into-group-policy-preferences/
    5. All settings appear to work! It even brings through the secondary connection, which is cool. Because I'm exporting the full set of keys, it's got literally everything. The only thing I can't do is store the password. If you enable SSO like I did ("SSO"=dword:00000001), that becomes a non-issue. (I should also note that if a client isn't configured for SSO, it will fall back to username/pw and then when you enable sso it will automatically switch to SSO in the connection settings on the next reboot.)

    The other thing is if you use F0000 it will replace the user's first connection silently and without recourse. If you need more connections, presumably you need to have them sequentially numbered.

    I've applied these registry keys under user settings and applied them to OU containing users, FYI. Working on a separate set of GPOs to enable SSO, but that's a whole other can of worms, lol.

    P.S.: For clarification, the rewriting of the username works as such in the .reg file: "UserName"=REG_EXPAND_SZ:"%USERNAME%"
     
  10. EduardF2

    EduardF2 Bit poster

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    2
    This does not seem to work anymore.. anybody got some suggestions how to handle this? I can't find any documentation on this. Tried with basic client.
     
  11. jpc

    jpc Pro

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    433
    @EduardF2 IIRC the basic client does not use the registry for these settings but the mysettings.xml file located (by default) in the installation directory.
     
  12. EduardF2

    EduardF2 Bit poster

    Messages:
    2
    Yes, thanks, I found that out while my comment was awaiting moderation and coudn't delete it.
     

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