View Client 4, occasionally prompts a second time for a user's credentials

[TheTer]

We are using Dell Thin Clients with XP SP3 Embedded. About 1 out of 15-20 times, after inputting a user's login name and password into the View client, it will start the Virtual Desktop, and then ask for the credentials again. The domain will be there, but the username and password will be blank. It is annoying because, the window will pop up and say hit "CrtlAltDel", which you can't do. You actually have to hit CtrlAltIns. This gets our user community confused when it happens. This began to appear when we implemented "resource pools", and was happening about 20-25% of the time on login. We got rid of the resource pools, and not it is only a few times a day, but still annoying. Any ideas?

[TheTer]

View Client and View Agent are all the latest versions from the VMWare site

[Teschmi]

Hi everybody,

I've the same issue after upgrading to View4, the problem appears when the remote VM is in sreensaver mode. The View connection didn't manage to pass thru the screensaver automatically and still ask for windows credentials. The problem is the same with windows host or linux thinclient.

Any one can help please?

Teschmi

[TheTer]

Update on the Screensaver. This has definitely seemed to help with the double ctrlaltdel issue. It appears that our policy turning off the screensaver was not applied to all OU's containing VMWare desktops, so I am still testing to see if this does fix the issue.

[Speedbmp]

Glad to hear it has helped.

when i disabled the screen savers it fixed the problem for me. Now i use for a screen saver is the thinclients screen saver.

no more problems

Stephen

[RobBeekmans]

Hi,

Sounds really interesting, have to test it more.

Last week we tested with a vanilla GI with only the agent installed.

the issue didn't occur, only after applying the latest GI with apps installed the issues reoccurred.

We've set a disable on the VDI OU, have to check if it's applied correctly.

gr

Rob

[ProPenguin]

I had similair issues when I had a GP setting a logon banner. I disabled the GP but unfortunatly that does not make the banner go away. I had to manually get rid of the banner and that solved my issue. Just thought I would throw that out there incase it helps.

[Teschmi]

Yes disabling the screensaver is the best workaround but it is not the solution. For me this issue is a PCoIP bug because this problem doesn't exist on previous versions of View (3.1 3.0). VMware must fix this issue.

For me disabling the sreensaver is not a good idea because this is the only way to secure desktop, in most cases users forget to lock their sessions.

For the moment i'll try to enable thinclient screensaver with password protect.

Teschmi

[Speedbmp]

for this reason i force a screen saver on my thinclients via config file they download after each reboot of the thin client.

Stephen

[TheTer]

I talked to VMware Support about the double ctrlaltdel. I mentioned disablingthe screensaver, and was told there are 2 screensavers that have to be disabled. The first is in the group policy (which I did), but the 2nd one is located in HKUsers\.default\control panel\desktop\ (change the ScreenSaveActive from the default of 1 to a 0)

I have implemented this reg hack in 3 of 15 labs to see if it fixes the issues in those 3 labs (approx 75 thin client devices using View)

[RobBeekmans]

I know, but that's a workaround imho.

I'm not gone advice my customers to work without a screensaver in production.

We've (the customer) disabled the screensavers in the test pool but the result is the same.

VMware has changed the support level, so a fresh look on the issue.

[Teschmi · Accepted solution]

Hi,

The solution is to disable the windows logon screensaver, in others words disable the "default user" screensaver. That will not affect the current user screensaver.

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=927588...

In my case the user screensaver is configured by global policies (with password protect) and the "default user" screensaver is disable by registry hack.

That solved my problem.

[RobBeekmans]

I find the conclusion in the knowledge base article to easy.... No screensaver is needed in a VDI environment, who are they to say that?

Our customers think differently about this as I think most customers will.

If you use no screensaver how will you protect your desktops? Use the Thin client screenaver when in the office?

What will users do when connecting from anywhere else, just let the desktop open?

For me this is a workaround not a solution

[Teschmi]

no no the user screensaver is still active for sure, when an user session is open the screensaver remain active. I only disable the pre-logon screensaver, this one is different because it comes only when no user session is open. And when no session is open they are no security problem.

Sorry my english is not perfect.

[RobBeekmans]

Okay, right... read it wrong. You're right.

[Teschmi]

Hope it will help.

Teschmi

[TheTer]

We are currently implementing the "windows logon" screensaver reg hack that you talked about. We are a University, and summer school is over, so I won't know how well it works for sure until the Fall semester starts in 2 weeks. I am okay with this reg fix, but at the same time, VMware needs to fix their agent software, since that is probably what is causing the issue. I appreciate everyone's input on this issue. I think we are finally getting somewhere.

[RobBeekmans]

I agree with you 100%

I can try this in three weeks because of the holidays over here.

[Teschmi]

I'm agree with you, VMware must fix this bug, this is not a normal operation. This issue doesn't exist on View 3 infrastructure.

Teschmi

[TheTer]

In preparation for the Fall Semester, we tested our VMware View environment with 176 simultaneous logins, and we didn't have the "double login" on any of them after installing the reg hack for the windows login screensaver password. I am going to wait until the Fall Semester starts, and we have hundreds of users logging in daily before I close this

[TheTer]

After the reg hack for the screensaver for the windows login, our issue has disappeared. Thanks to all for their input.