Introduction
HP Device Management (HPDM) is used to manage the HP Thin client running the ThinPro Operating system. The ThinPro OS (Linux based) is a very secure environment. I have been working with HPDM and HP ThinPro extensively for the past couple of years. In the next series of blogs I will be discussing how to use HPDM to implement common OS tasks. In this blog I will show you how to deploy a new wallpaper picture to your ThinPro estate. The process has four steps:
1) Deploy the new wall paper image to a test device.
2) Set the new image as the desktop wallpaper on the test device.
3) Send a capture profile task to the test device.
4) Deploy the new profile to your pool of HP ThinPro devices.
Deploy the new wall paper image image to a test device.
You can start this by creating a local directory and copying the desired wallpaper image into this directory. Do this on the HPDM server. In my case I create a directory called FilesToSend, and I copy a picture of an Airbus aircraft into this directory.
I then open the HPDM console and navigate to Manage Devices and right click on the test thin client, to which we are going to send the image. We then select Send Task.
The Template Chooser windows appears. Select File and Registry in the category column and select _File and Registry in the Template column and click on Next.
The Task Editor window appears. In the Content tab click on Add. The sub-task chooser window appears. Click on Deploy Files and click on OK. The Deploy Files window appears. Click on Add from Local and select the wallpaper file. In the Path On Device section enter in /tmp/.
Click on OK and then OK. Provide a name for the template, such as SendWallpaper and click on Generate on the Package Description Editor - Files to Deploy window.
Click on OK to send the file to the test device.
Set the new image as the desktop wallpaper on the test device.
On the test ThinPro device click on the lower left hamburger and select Switch to Administrator and enter in the credentials when prompted. Click again on the hamburger and select Control Panel. Click on Appearance and then click on Desktop. You will see a Theme drop down box - select Image and and then click on Choose a file. In the Find a background image windows navigate to /tmp/ and select the sent image. Click on Open and then Apply.
Send a capture profile task to the test device.
Now that we have sent the new wallpaper file to the test ThinPro device, and set this as the background wallpaper - we can capture this new configuration into a profile template.
In HPDM, right click on the test device and select Send Task.... The Template Chooser window appears. In the left hand Category column select Settings. In the right hand Template column select _Capture Profile.
Click on Next. The Task Editor window appears. Enter in a name for the template such as Airbus Wallpaper and click on OK.
Deploy the new profile to your pool of HP ThinPro devices.
Having captured a new profile with a new wallpaper image, we can then deploy it at will to other ThinPro devices. In the HPDM console navigate to Manage Devices. In the right hand pane, select one or more ThinPro devices and click on Send Task. The Template Chooser window appears. In the left hand column under Category select Settings. In the right hand column under Template select the profile captured in the above section. Click on Next and then OK to send the profile, with the new wallpaper image, to the selected ThinPro devices.
Conclusion.
The HPDM console can seem a bit confusing at first - however, as you perform more tasks you will become very comfortable very quickly. It won't be long before you realise that indeed it is just as easy to manage these Linux based ThinPro devices as it is to manage your Windows devices. I hope you have enjoyed this little blog and wish you much success in your own administrative tasks.
