ConfigMgr Console

How to Create Digital Signage Players in ConfigMgr Using Right Click Tools

See a walkthrough of how to lock down a machine and set up digital signage players in ConfigMgr, using Right Click Tools’ Kiosk Manager.

Kiosk Manager has a lot of functionality and can be used for several different solutions. To help you get some ideas, this demo shows how to use Kiosk Manager to create a quick digital signage machine.

This post will cover two presentation software titles, PowerPoint and LibreOffice Impress. I’m using the same presentation for both but saved in their native format, pptx, and ODP respectively.

To create the Kiosk Manager Profiles, I selected autologin and shell replacement.

PreReqs I’ve already done:  (If you are looking for any guidance on this, hit me up on Twitter @RecastSoftware, or use your favorite search engine)

  • Create a PowerPoint Presentation, set it to automatically transition to the next slide, and to loop endlessly
  • Open the PPTX file in LibreOffice and save it in the native.ODP file format
  • Create User Account: signage in AD
  • Created Modified GPO to prevent screensavers, lock screen timeout, and legal text at logon.
Kiosk Manager Manage Profiles
Kiosk Manager Selected Configurations
Kiosk Manager Manage Profiles
For Automatic Login, I’ve created a signage account that only has permissions to logon to each of the signage machines.
Digital Signage Properties
Locking down which machines the account can log onto. These are the demo machines I’ll be using

The Shell Replacement is where you pick the software by path and the arguments. You’ll have to point to the EXE directly that you wish to launch and then provide any command line arguments required to achieve your goals, typically a little googling or reading the docs for the software will tell you what you need to do.

Kiosk Manager Manage Profiles Replace Shell
LibreOffice:  I’ve set up this example to use LibreOffice Impress with the auto-launch command, skipping the recovery prompt, and launching the specified presentation in “show” mode.
Kiosk Manager replace Shell
PowerPoint 2013: Each version of PowerPoint seems to be in a different location, so you’ll want to confirm where the POWERPNT.EXE file is on the machine you’re planning to use for signage. Looking at the docs, /S with the path to the presentation will auto-launch the presentation in presentation mode.

The Profiles are basically the same, but each call the presentation software to match the presentation files (Shell Replacements). Deployment is the same, “Apply Profile”, you can schedule or perform right away, for this, I’m running now. This reboots the machine to apply the settings.

Virtual Machine Connections
Once you apply the profile, it will reboot shortly after.
Recast Software Digital Signage
It will boot back up and automatically logon with the username & password you provided
Recast Software PResentation
When using LibreOffice, you’ll see the software load briefly, open the file, then launch the presentation
Recast Software Kiosk Manager

For more information about Kiosk Manager, check out these posts:

If you have any additional questions about the Kiosk Manager or would like us to help create a profile/demo for a specific scenario, please connect with us.

Related Blog Posts:

Customer Q&A: Lock Down Computer Labs for State Testing

Right Click Tools 4.0 – Kiosk Manager

Recast Kiosk Deployment via Task Sequence

Top Use Cases for Locking Down Devices in ConfigMgr (Using Kiosk Manager)