Auto Launching Chrome and LCD Slideshow

Automated Login and load

Manual login to Windows with auto load in full screen 

Automated Login and Load

Many people utilize our LCD Licenses to display dashboards on monitors throughout their locations.  When These machines are rebooted, many times, someone has to log in to the system and manually launch the slideshow.  

With a couple of Well placed scripts, you can accomplish the same thing.  Attached you will find a zip file with two files in it.  The first is lcd.cmd.  This script will be what you will place in the machine's "startup" folder, which will launch automatically when the system is loaded.  

This folder is normally found in c:\users\<username>AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\  the <username> should match the user name that you normally log into the system with.  If you change the name or location of the associated lcd.ps1 script, you will have to change this batch file.  

The second file is lcd.ps1 and should be placed in the c:\lcd\ directory (you will have to create this directory).  This script will launch chrome in full screen mode and navigate to the slideshow URL.

There are two variables that need to be changed in this script.  Locate this line: 

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

You will need to change <Server:port> to the proper server name and port number for your iDashboards installation.  You will also need to change the <LCD User> tag to match the user that is configured in your iDashboards License.

You can locate the LCD User's by looking at the home screen of the iDashboards Administration console.

Although we certainly recommend using the new Slideshow feature to control what slides are displayed, you can replace the whole $startPage value with the same URL controls which work for older versions of the software.  You can find those listed in the Admin Manual under Chapter 15 LCD Slideshow (Wall Display)

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. 

Launch Chrome and click on the three dot menu in the right side. Go down to Settings to to the On Startup section and find Open a specific page or set of pages put in your URL (http://<Server:port>/idashboards/lcd/?user=<LCD User>). Now close Chrome. 

Using Chrome desktop icon copy the shortcut into the Startup directory in Windows. Right click and select properties. In the Target field go all the way to the end past the last ". Add the following -start--fullscreen, Click apply.

Now when logging in to the system, chrome should load in full screen and run your LCD.