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Web Screen Saver 2008SE

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Web Screen Saver 2008SE

Deployment on a corporate network

Web Screen Saver can use a centralized configuration file for a more efficient deployment. With such a file, every computer will be updated in your organization.

Store settings on a server for remote updates

Most of the Web Screen Saver settings are stored in a .WSS file.

You can store this .WSS file on a HTTP server, the same web server that is hosting web pages from your intranet or corporate web site.

Doing that, your configuration file is centralized and therefore can be retrieved and updated using the network.

This is a remote update mechanism that will push the current .WSS file to every computer

This update is very light because a common .WSS configuration file weighs only a few kilo-bytes (KB).

Use a custom configuration

Create a custom configuration file using Web Screen Saver. Just set any option you need and save them in a .WSS file.

Here is the list of the settings most commonly set by a .WSS configuration file:

• List of pages from your intranet or corporate web site,
• List of PowerPoint slideshows, movie files or Flash presentations to display,
• Home page address,
• Display time for each page,
• Tool bars content.

For instance, if you are using Internet Information Server:

C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\path\file.wss

If you use Apache web server, you should rather store the .WSS file at this path:

C:\Program Files\apache\htdocs\path\file.wss

Software deployment to every desktop

Once the .WSS file is stored on the server, you need to deploy files and Windows registry settings to each client.

Here are the files that should be copied to every computer to deploy Web Screen Saver software:

File	Destination
webss4.scr	Windows directory
msvbvm50.dll	System or System32 directory
comdlg32.ocx	System or System32 directory

For a complete deployment of Web Screen Saver, you also need to define this software as the default Windows screensaver. This should be done through some Windows registry settings and in the system.ini file.

Use your corporate deployment tool to deliver files and Registry settings to every computer.

A MSI installation package for Web Screen Saver is now available to push this software to many computers through silent installation.

Click here to know more about installation automation.

Deploying configuration

Here are the main settings that should be loaded into the Windows registry on each client computer:

• "DefaultFile" with HTTP address of the .WSS file, for instance: http://server/path/file.wss
• "Password" with encrypted value if you want to restrict access to the Configuration dialog box. Click here to know more.
• "UserName", "CompanyName" and "SerialNumber" for registration information. Click here to know more.

Click here to get more information about Windows registry settings.

You can also deploy manually on every computer by using the "File Open from the web..." command.

Type the .WSS URL and click OK. For instance:

http://server/path/file.wss

Using this command in Web Screen Saver, you will need more time to deploy on every computer.

Using a centralized configuration

This section describes how Web Screen Saver uses a centralized configuration file.

When Web Screen Saver is launched, the address of the .WSS file is read from the "DefaultFile" registry value.

This .WSS file is downloaded through the network and stored in the Web Screen Saver cache directory ("CachePath" registry setting).

Then, the .WSS configuration file is opened and executed.

At the end of the page loop, the .WSS file is refreshed if a newer version is found on the server.

If your configuration file points to .pps or .swf files, these files are downloaded and stored in the cache path the same way the .WSS is cached.

So, an update mechanism is also at work for these file types. Click to know more about PowerPoint or Flash screensavers.

Updating a centralized configuration

To update the .WSS configuration file, copy it locally to a computer and open it using Web Screen Saver.

You can therefore update the configuration file and save these updates locally.

When the new configuration file satisfies you, you can publish it by copying it again to your web server. This new file will replace the old configuration file.

This updated file will now been automatically retrieved by every client and used instead of the old file.

Mime type for a .WSS configuration file

When storing a .WSS configuration file on a web server, you should add a new mime type for .WSS files on the HTTP server.

Doing this will ensure that a user who clicks on a .WSS file in a web page will get that file opened by Web Screen Saver.

Mime type for .WSS configuration file is:

application/webss4

If you are using Apache web server, you can add this mime type with the following command line included in the httpd.conf file or in the .htaccess file in the directory storing the .WSS file on the server:

AddType application/webss4 .wss

On a Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS), you can edit properties of the web server and add a new mime type for .WSS files.