Public Computing How-To

Most changes made here take effect immediately, and will cause active user sessions to reset or restart. It is strongly recommended that any actions be done outside of normal operating hours.

Set Hours of Operation

First, you will create a pair of Presets. One for your Open state, and another for your Closed state.

Once you have your Open and Closed Presets ready, we need to create a schedule using Events.

You can also add a warning message that will display on all screens before closing.

To create schedules for weekends or different hours on different days, create a set of Events for each kind of day.

For example, if your hours of operation are:

M-F: 8 AM to 8 PM
Sat: 9 AM to 5 PM
Sun: Closed

Then you would create an additional set of Events for Saturday:

Repeat this for any days of the week that have different operating hours. Any days that are not open can be left off since the system will be closed at that time.

Change Hours of Operation

Without Pre-Book

In the Control Center, go to the Events tab. Edit your event times, and click OK. Remember to change any messaging events accordingly, and to do this on all of your servers at once.

With Pre-Book

Follow the same steps as above in Userful Control Center.

In Pre-Book's Machines and Locations section, update the operating hours for the Location. This only needs to be done once per Location.

Adjust Default Session Length

Edit the Session Management profile and apply your changes.

Remember to update any Presets you may have, using the same Preset name, so the changes are permanent

Adjust Number of Sessions (Requires Pre-Book)

Pre-Book can be set to only allow a certain number of logins per day. This setting is made in the individual policy - if you have multiple policies to apply this to, they should all be updated.

Change the Home Page

Click the Source you want to change. Update the URL on Home Page and click OK.

Remember to update any Presets you may have, using the same Preset name, so the changes are permanent

White List a Website

See Web Filtering in Session Management

Click the 3-dot menu in the Source and Edit the Session Management Profile.
Click the arrow next to the Filter Name near the bottom, and Edit the Filter.
Add a new line (Enter) to the White List and enter the domain for the site you want to allow, for example youtube.com.
Click OK, then OK again, and again once more, to return to the Control Center.
Click Apply.

Remember to update any Presets you may have, using the same Preset name, so the changes are permanent

Extend Time for a Patron

Click the user's Display.
Find the Extend Time field.
Enter a positive number (5) to add time, or a negative number (-5) to remove time
Click Extend.

Choose the Source you want to change the Login method and click on the 3-dot menu to the right
Select the Session Management Profile and click Edit
Change the Login Method from the drop-down menu as per your requirement.
Click OK and then Apply to make the changes take effect immediately.

Remember to update any Presets you may have, using the same Preset name, so the changes are permanent.

Add a Staff Account

pageUser Accounts

Create a Group with access to the necessary Resource Groups and Control Center functions.

Then create a User, and assign it to that Group.

That user account can now be logged into and will have access to the necessary functions.

Change Print Costs

Login to Userful Manager and look for the server card
Click on the Printer icon at the bottom of the card to open Print Profiles
Click on the Edit button to open the Print Profile Menu of the Printer you desire to change the cost.
Enter the cost/page as per your requirement and click Save.

Tile Welcome Screens

See Tile Mode under Resource Group Functions

Add Apps to the Dock

See Cloud Desktop

Remember to update any Presets you may have, using the same Preset name, so the changes are permanent

Add Website Links, Bookmarks, and Shortcuts

Click the Source you want to add to.
Click the Add URL option. Give it a name and copy-paste it to the address.
Click OK, and OK again.
Click Apply.

To remove links, click the Source, select the URL you wish to remove, then click the X to the left of the list. Click OK, then Apply.

Remember to update any Presets you may have, using the same Preset name, so the changes are permanent

Change Desktop Background

Click the Cloud Desktop Source you wish to change.
Open the Desktop Background menu and select the image you wish to use.
Click OK and apply the changes.

Remember to update any Presets you may have, using the same Preset name, so the changes are permanent.

Custom backgrounds can be uploaded to the /usr/share/backgrounds folder in JPG or PNG format.

Enlarge Text and Other Elements

The Large Print option in Session Management does not affect Web Browsers.

Individual sessions of Chrome or Firefox can be made to display larger/smaller text by holding Ctrl and either pressing + or - on the keyboard, or scrolling with the mouse wheel.

If you want to create a station that is more accessible to those with vision impairments, we suggest adjusting the display resolution to a lower value - for example, if you have a 1920x1080 screen, try setting it to 1366x768.