Remote Desktop Server 2012 2016

This document explains how to install and configure the Profit System for use on a Windows 2016/2019 Server using Remote Desktop Services.

Prerequisites

Windows Server 2016/2019 already installed and activated and current with updates and service packs. We recommend a RAID array using SSDs with a hot spare so that the server can withstand a drive failure with no data loss.

A UPS connected to service power. Ideally, the UPS will initiate a graceful server shutdown if service power is lost. Alternately, the server can be shut down manually if service power is lost for an extended period of time.

Backup software. We recommend a 2 level approach:

i. Use an online backup service such as Mozy, Carbonite, iBackup, etc. to back up the ProfitSystem data files, user documents, and other critical files daily, usually in the evening when the files will not be in use.

ii. Use a hard drive imaging product to image the entire hard drive to a backup drive on a schedule, perhaps weekly.

iii. Perform a test restore from the online backup to make sure it is working correctly.

Anti-virus and/or anti-spyware software should be installed and running with an exclusion to the Profitsystem program (TW.EXE). Windows Defender is usually sufficient.

Remote Desktop Setup

Remote Desktop should be fully activated with a License server. The basic procedure is as follows: i. Add the servers to which you want to deploy the RDS roles to All Servers group or a new server group. ii. Select that group in the navigation pane and run the Add Roles and Features Wizard. iii. Choose the installation type 'Remote Desktop Services installation'. iv. Select 'Standard Deployment' (Quick Deployment is used to quickly deploy all of the needed roles to a single server and then create a very simple collection. To have more control, we recommend using Standard Deployment). v. Choose 'Session-based desktop deployment'. vi. The wizard will ask you which server you want each role installed to and will perform the installations and restart the servers as needed.

Sufficient Server & Remote Desktop CALS are installed. We recommend using Remote Desktop User CALS.

Security Policies – Setup/create any new security policies for the terminal server users as needed by your company.

As per Microsoft, with Server 2012/16 client computers or thin clients should be running Remote Desktop version 7.1 or later. Computers running Windows Vista, 7, or 8 with current service packs will have a suitable version of the Remote Desktop Client. For thin clients, you will want to double check and make sure they’re running RDP 7.1 or later.

If you need access to the server from outside your firewall/gateway, create firewall port rule that route inbound traffic for Remote Desktop (port 3389) is routed to the server.

Printers should be installed and available for use from the server when possible. Network enabled printers connected directly to the network via TCP/IP are the easiest to manage.

Print queues should be manually set up on the server (server printers) and use Microsoft provided print drivers, rather than vendor drivers if possible.

The Easy Print universal driver built into Windows can be used, especially for remote locations. Since the printer name always contains the session ID which changes on each user login, the printer destinations in ProfitSystem for that Register/Workstation login must have a wildcard, as explained later in this topic.

Also when using redirected Zebra Printers connected to workstations Easy Print should not be used. Set EasyPrint as the fallback for Zebra Printers so the OS will try to find a matching driver name installed on server first before using the Easy Print service.

You can launch group policy locally by going to run prompt -> type in gpedit.msc -> Ok.

This will access the computer's local group policy settings and you can disable easy print by going to Computer Config -> Admin Templates -> Windows Components -> Remote Desktop Services -> RD Session Host -> Printer Redirection -> Use Remote Desktop Easy Print printer driver first -> disabled.

This setting will tell Windows to try redirect the printer based on driver name before falling back on EasyPrint.

Automatic printer redirection should be avoided when possible. In this configuration (client printers) printers are connected to clients and print queues are created when the client connects to the server. If a client is turned off, the printer is not available. If the client needs to be swapped out due to a hardware failure, or upgrade, the printer will need to be re-setup. Also, automatic printer redirection causes the session number to appear in the print queue name, such as Bridal HP 6500 (4). This means that the print queue name will change each time the user logs on, which will interfere with the Profit System. For this reason, the printers must be set up in the Profit System using the * notation. For example, instead of selecting the Bridal HP 6500 (4) printer in the Profit System, the printer name should be entered as *Bridal HP 6500. This will cause the Profit System to select the first printer called Bridal HP 6500, regardless of the session name appended to the print queue name.

We recommend the printers should be named to identify the location and type of printer. For example, a laser printer in store 1’s customer service department might be called 01CS-LASER. A laser printer in Store 1’s bridal department might be called 01BRIDAL-LASER. A tag printer in shipping could be called 01SHIP-TAG or SHIP-TAG01. The more intelligent the naming, the easier it is to locate and manage printers later.

TS Plus

TS Plus should be installed and activated.

If you only want users to be able to use ProfitSystem, add it to the list of Applications in TSPlus. Then, create a user group with all the ProfitSystem users, then publish the app to that user group. ProfitSystem will start when they log in, and when they exit ProfitSystem they will be logged off.

Setup

When using the Profit System under RDS/TSPlus, the user logon name is used as the workstation/register name. Each workstation must have a unique name, and will always log on using the same username, regardless of the actual user. The Profit System has a built-in security system to control access within the Profit System based on the actual user/clerk/sales associate ID. The USERNAMES created at the operating system level must be also added to the ProfitSystem Register File.

When the ProfitSystem is initially installed it will prompt for a Register/Workstation name. For a terminal server input your currently logged in Username.

Add a logon for each workstation. Put them all in one security group. For RDS, make sure they are in the Remote Desktop Users security group. Typically from a management perspective, it is easier to have the same logon password for ALL register users. You can configure a shortcut on the client PC to auto-logon using the correct username and password. You might find it wise to change this password each time a employee leaves the company as a good security practice.

Some example logon names: SHIPPING, RECEIVING, BRIDAL-R, BRIDAL-L, BRIDESMAID, etc. We recommend using names that identify the type of workstation. For example CS-L could mean customer service left. BRIDALSALE means bridal sales workstation. Each workstation name must be unique. It is also best if no workstation name is a substring of another (for example, BRIDAL and BRIDAL-L is bad since BRIDAL is a substring of BRIDAL-L.) Having meaningful names makes it easier to keep track of the workstations.

For multi-store systems, it makes sense to include a store ID in the workstation name. For example 01-CS-L could be store 01, customer service station, left hand workstation.

Install the Profit System workstation and server on your server on the C: drive. Best performance is achieved via the data being local to the Server vs. on a shared network drive.

After the install is completed (and you’ve rebooted if necessary) check Start->Settings->Control Panel->Fonts to make sure the Andale Mono font is installed. If it is not installed, run andale32.exe on your server, which is distributed on the Profit System CD, located in \extras\font.

Make sure that the security group has read-write-delete access to the Profit System data folder and sub-folders. By default, the data is stored at C:\ProgramData\ProfitSystem.

Run the Profit System on your server, it will ask for a register name. For the register name, use “TRAIN” (without the quotes). It should automatically detect that the data files are already present. You’ll get a warning that the name has to be unique, this is ok.

Once the Profit System starts it will ask for an activation code, which should have been provided in your set up packet. Contact BBL Systems support if you don’t have the code.

Go to Main->Housekeeping->General Setup->System Set-up and modify settings to your preferences.

• Go to Main->Housekeeping->General Setup->Stores and add a set-up for each store for multiple store implementations by simply clicking the ADD button.

Go to Main->Housekeeping->General Setup->Register Setup, add all your login usernames to the list of registers, using the usernames created in step 1 as the station names. If you are logged in as Administrator, add a register called Administrator.

Edit TPSWIN.INI and change StationName=TRAIN to StationName=%USERNAME You can edit the TPSWIN.INI file using Notepad, the file is found in C:\ProgramData\ProfitSystem You can also access the file by going to Main->Housekeeping->System Maintenance->Edit INI files.

To test, log in as a user and start ProfitSystem, it should start and show the username in the Title bar of the main ProfitSystem window.

For RDS, if you want the Profit System to start at user logon, add a shortcut to the Profit System to each user account’s startup folder. If you want the user to only be able to use the Profit System and have no access to the taskbar or start menu, go to the Environment tab of their user properties the windows user manager (Active Directory or Local Users) and set it run the Profit System at startup, using the <FOLDER PATH>TW.EXE as the Program File name, and <TW.EXE’s FOLDER PATH> as the Start In. In this configuration, the user will be logged off of the server when they exit from the Profit System.

For TSPlus, you can assign the security group to the Profitystem published application.

Log in as each user and configure their printers under Windows. Go to Main->Housekeeping->General Setup->Printers and select correct printers for each user. Test for each user.

For TSPlus HTML5 access, you can select the Universal Printer for each user.

For TSPlus using a generated client, you can let ProfitSystem automatically select the correct printer, which will usually be Universal Printer.

For RDS or TSPLus using the remote desktop client, the printer selection the * asterisk can be utilized as part of the printer name/string entered as a wildcard (meaning any characters are accepted before and after the string entered). This is helpful when printers have long names or a portion of the printer name may change each time the register/terminal logs onto the server. For example *Bridal HP 6500 would match a printer name of Bridal HP 6500 (4)

The *Bridal HP 6500 should be manually entered, not selected from the drop down list on the Printer set up form.

If NO printers are defined for a register the system will automatically attempt to print to that users Windows default printer when one exists.

Sessions will not fully log off for RDS

Using Regedit, add a REG_DWORD called "splwow64.exe" to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server\SysProcs

and set the value to 0.

This tells the operating system that splwow64.exe can be safely terminated. This technique can be used for any application that needs to be terminated when the user logs off.