LCD Slideshow: Auto Launching in Chrome

This requires being connected to your server as well as Admin privileges.

Automated Login and Load - Launching Without the Script

Automated Login and Load

Many people utilize our LCD License to display dashboards on monitors throughout their locations. When the machines are rebooted, someone often has to login and manually launch the slideshow. With a couple of well placed scripts you can accomplish this. Attached you will find a zip file containing two files.

The first is lcd.cmd, this will be what you will place in the machines Startup folder, which will launch automatically when the system loads. This folder is often located:

C:\Users\<username>AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\

The <username> should match the user that will usually log into the system. If you change the name or location of the associated lcd.ps1 script you will also have to change this batch file. The second file lcd.ps1, and should be placed in the following directory:

C:\lcd\

This script will launch Google Chrome in full screen mode and navigate to the slideshow URL. Please Note: This directory will need to be created. There are two variables that need to be changed in the script. Locate the following line: 

$startPage = 'http://<server:port>/idashboards/lcd/?user=<LCD User>'

You will need to change <server:port> to the server name and port number for your iDashboards Installation. You will also need to change the <LCD User> to match the user that is configured in your iDashboards license. You can locate the LCD User's logging into iDashboards Admin, selecting System, then About.

Although we recommend using the Slideshow feature to control what slides are displayed, you can replace the whole $startPage value with the same URL controls which work for the previous versions of the software. You can find them in: iDashboards Admin Manual 15. LCD Slideshow (Wall Display)

Automated Login and Load

Launching Without the Script

If you are not able to use the script to auto login and launch the browser you can still setup the browser to auto launch and load in Fullscreen Mode. Open Chrome and on the right side click the three dot menu. Go to Settings then scroll down to On Startup and find Open a specific page or set of pages, click Add a new page and put in your URL: http://<Server:port>/idashboards/lcd/?user=<LCD User> then close Chrome. 

For using the Chrome Desktop Icon: Copy the shortcut into the Startup directory in Windows. Then right click and select Properties. In the Target field go all the way to the end past the last ". Add the following: -start--fullscreen

Then click Apply, now when logging into the system, Google Chrome should load in Fullscreen Mode and run your LCD Slideshow.

If the above is unable to resolve the issue, then please contact iDashboards Support for further assistance.

Automated Login and Load - Launching Without the Script