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Setup Guide - Windows Media Player

For customers managing their own Windows media player devices.

• Quick Start
• Summary
• Prerequisites
• Hardware
• Manual Installation Procedure
• Hiding the Mouse Pointer
• Locked-Down Kiosk Configuration

Quick Start

If you just want to quickly test out Appazur Digital Signage, contact Support for simplified instructions.

As described below, more steps are required to run as a secure “kiosk” and to have the displays come back up automatically after a power failure or automatic Windows update.

Summary

Appazur Digital Signage is available for Microsoft Windows, Google ChromeOS, and Android. This document is for the Windows option and is suitable for environments with suitable policies and procedures in place to secure the Windows computer, in addition to following the instructions here. If in doubt, consider the ChromeOS option.

Prerequisites

• You must already have an Appazur Dashboard set up, i.e. you have submitted your App Setup Checklist with logo, etc. (even for signage-only customers), and received a link to your Dashboard from us.

• If you have any questions and you do not already have an Appazur support case open (e.g. new app launch case), contact Support.

Hardware

• Device of your choice running Microsoft Windows. Use a version of Windows which Microsoft is still supporting for security updates.
• An HD display (16:9 aspect ratio). 1920x1080 resolution is preferred but other resolutions are also supported. Both landscape and portrait orientation are supported.
• Either a cabled ethernet connection or a Wi-Fi network connection is required. Ethernet is the most reliable.
• The computer should have anti-virus software installed. The computer should be configured to automatically install anti-virus and operating system updates without user intervention. Schedule automatic Windows software updates to happen during the night.
• Be sure to set Windows update, power, screensaver and alert settings appropriately to avoid interruptions to your display. In Windows Settings > Windows Update you can set Active Hours to, say 6am to 10pm, to avoid update running during those hours. Under Windows Settings > Power & Sleep choose to never sleep or turn off (or you can create a new Power Plan).
• Configure the machine to come back on after a power failure (this may require a BIOS setting).
• Schedule the computer to reboot every 24 hours (e.g. use Task Scheduler to create a task to run “reboot /r”).

Manual Installation Procedure

• The Appazur installer is supplied as a ZIP file. Download it from: (Contact Support for the link).
• Unzip and you should now have an MSI file.
• Copy the MSI file to the Windows computer connected to the digital signage.

• On that computer, double-click the MSI file. Alternatively, run this command line for a silent installation:
  msiexec /quiet AppazurDigitalSignage.msi

• Set up the new application “Appazur Digital Signage” to start up automatically. Continuing with the example, you could create a shortcut (in the Startup Programs folder - shell:startup) to:

“C:\Program Files (x86)\AppazurDigitalSignage\nw.exe”

• Reboot (or test the shortcut).

When you are successful, Appazur Digital Signage should take over the full screen, with an activation code. You can then activate your media player as described here.

Hiding the Mouse Pointer

• Optionally, to ensure that the mouse pointer doesn’t appear on the display, two additional files are provided in the same file share as the MSI above. Copy HideMousePointer.vbs and arrow_hidden.cur to a directory on the Windows machine. Double click on HideMousePointer.vbs, then reboot for the new setting to take effect.
• Be aware that the mouse pointer will be invisible even when the signage is not running, so working with the machine will likely require the use of keyboard shortcuts. Navigate to Control Panel mouse settings, and choose any other mouse pointer scheme, to make the mouse pointer visible again.

Locked-Down Kiosk Configuration

• It is best to configure the Windows machine as a “kiosk” with a separate user account that can only launch this single app. This is important for security and for having the displays come back up after a power failure or automatic Windows update.
• Microsoft provides the ability to set this up locally, or to manage remotely.
• See https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/configuration/kiosk-methods.

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