We have been working hard on Network Administrator 3.
It was just released – You can download it from here:
http://www.intelliadmin.com/NetworkAdministrator.exe
Network Administrator allows you to make tweaks and changes to computers across your network, and in version 3 we have an extensive plugin system that allows us to add functionality quite quickly.
One of the requests we keep getting is a plugin to change power management settings. It turns out that this is actually much harder than it seems. There are different ways in each version of windows – and some of them don’t even work all the time.
We worked around the clock to work around all of the quirks and issues, and finally built a plugin that allows you to change these settings on Windows 2000, XP, 2003, Vista, 2008, and Windows 7.
These settings are not even available with group policy, or any specific registry settings – so this is a huge time saver.
The settings for the plugin are packed with power management options:
In a few clicks you can change the power management options for multiple computers across your network.
Best of all, Network Administrator is a free tool to use on up to 3 computers at a time.
Give it a spin and let us know what you think.
Need to use Network Administrator 3.0 on more than 3 computers? Get an unlimited copy for only $199 Click here to purchase
Very cool. I just tried it for the first time since Beta 2. That “Process Kill” plugin is awesome! I got this program that gets caught in terminal sessions on my two huge TS servers – I just used your program and was able to zap it across all 35 sessions on each server.
Yes, that is a nice plugin. The fact that it can take wild cards for the process name makes it powerful too. Just don’t put a * by itself, or you will kill all processes on the remote system
– A very interesting way of temporarily disabling a computer
Hey Steve, Why you up so late again? Got a question: Any plans on creating a plugin that will set the auto-logon for Windows?
I know you guys have a free utility that does that, but it would be cool if you could put that into Network Administrator.
Got little ones at home that keep me up. Once I get them back to sleep…I have trouble getting back to bed…so why not work?
Anyhow – Yes, that actually was put into Beta 7. Download it and you will see the plugin.
Steve, Its lookin GOOD!
I se you got copyfolder.. have software that clients use that has a plugin folder that I compile the updated Dll file for often. trouble is that I must unregister the old(time consuming), copy new file(fast now), then re-register DLL(slow again because I have to do each machine)
The ability to register a DLL file, or better yet, execute a Console command(with returned results) would be awesome, and probably not that hard to add to your new plugin based beta
what do you think?
Rob Brown
Reply from Steve:
I think we are now locked with the plugin list before the final release. But…we are working on something that could answer your needs…a plugin builder. This would allow anyone to create plugins easily for Network Administrator – and eventually they would work with our Remote Control product too. That is our next project after the 3.0 Release of Network Administrator on October 30th
Steve quick question this is potentially a GREAT time saver for me as I’ve notice some Windows Update runs have the habit of seemingly resetting power save settings on some of my PC’s. My question though is… which user does this apply to? Does it only apply to the authenticated user that you use to log in on the PC through the IntelliAdmin client or does it make the power setting change for all users(I’m hoping its that later even though I think its the former).
Very good question. It depends on the version of Windows
If you have 2008, Vista, or Windows 7 it will apply to all users
If you have XP, 2003, or 2000 It will apply to the currently logged on user, or any new user that logs on to the machine for the first time.
If a user is not logged in, and they have already logged in once to the machine…then it will not apply to them. This is because the power settings in these earlier versions of windows have no mechanism for propagating the changes from the root level.
And since a user that is not logged in does not have a registry hive loaded on the system…there is no way for us to reach into it – not without leaving some program on that computer that would run when each user logs in.
One way around this is to put a small bat file in the run-once key. That way if no one was logged in…the next user to log in would get the new power settings, and it could delete itself when it was finished.
Maybe we will add it as an option.
This is something I’ve had to battle occasionally… If the change will apply to new users I assume you’re modifying hkey_users\.default\control panel\powercfg? Along with hkey_current_user? Is there no way for you to give an additional option (apply to all) which after the PC has been selected modify all ID’s under HKEY_USERS\Control Panel\PowerCfg’s?
Or does that create problems?
Yes, that is what is being modified.
There is a problem with your idea. When a user is not logged in their registry hive is not loaded under HKEY_USERS. There would be no way (Other than scanning through the documents and settings folders and forcing a load of the registry user.dat hives) of reaching into those user keys and changing the settings.
So a trick around this would be to launch a batch file on the next login (Using the run-once key) and then have it self delete so it is not laying around on the HD – Not sure if I like that idea…since none of our plugins ever leaves any files on the system. Still, we could make it an option – and let you decide if you want to do this.
The reason Vista, Windows 7, and 2008 work is because they have a built in system to handle power management settings in an elegant way.
Gotcha, thanks for the explanation… its such a retarded issue, oh well at least once we upgrade to a future OS… some day… it’ll be easier to manage.