Locking down Player

[diddlina]

Hi!

I'm trying to see if I can get Player (2.5.3) locked down as much as possible. I can disable NAT no problem but what about locking down the interface so other users in my organisation can't download the FalconStor pre-configured VM? Or blocking all downloads for VMs on the interface itself? We only want our users to use the VMs we create.

Has anyone had any luck in blocking automatic updates? Either by scripting or GPOs?

[continuum]

there are lots of ways to lock down player - I would need to know more about your needs.

One way to disable the display of "download featured VM" in the welcome screen is to patch vmplayer.exe -

you can also edit featuredvm.ini

...

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VMX-parameters- VMware-liveCD - VM-Sickbay

[diddlina]

Hi!

There are several things we are trying to lock but we don't know much about the internal coding of Player.

This is what we'd like to lock down/block/disable:

- the Featured Virtual Appliance

- all downloads from the virtual appliance market

- the ability to upgrade to workstation

-the ability to Enter ACE client licesnses

-if possible, block the license agreement when run Player

- block the ablility to check and perform updates

We need to be able to control what the user can and can't do with Player. We don't want them running a VM not created by us, upgrading as the upgrades haven't been tested on our networks/systems, etc. We've disabled NAT but would like to "grey out" the option if possible.

[continuum]

hiding the license agreement is easy : creae a line in preferences.ini

pref.eula.0.appName = "VMware Player"

pref.eula.0.buildNumber = "203739"

block the ablility to check and perform updates

thats another entry in preferences.ini

the other requests are possible but require editing of the VMplayer-menu itself - which is not a big problem but maybe not wanted here ?

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VMX-parameters- VMware-liveCD - VM-Sickbay

[diddlina]

If we can, we'd love to lock down and edit the Player menu to disable everything that allows a user to upgrade, etc. No one on the software packaging team in our organisation has been able to figure out how though. We never had a problem with not locking it down but at that time there were only a slect few who were using it. Now, we have a user base of almost 1000 and still growing so we'd like to lock down and control as much as possible.

[continuum]

would this do ?

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VMX-parameters- VMware-liveCD - VM-Sickbay

[diddlina]

That would be perfect!

[continuum]

this maybe considered as illegal - I don't take any responsibility

replace original vmplayer.exe with the patched one

Ulli

edit 23.11.09 patched file removed

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VMX-parameters- VMware-liveCD - VM-Sickbay

[Syntetic]

Hi,

could you please tell me, where i can find preferences.ini.

[diddlina]

I can't seem to get the patched version to run. I get the error message attached.

[diddlina]

The patched file won't run. Error message is attached. So far, everything else I've changed/modified works.

[diddlina]

The preference file can be found: C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\VMware on Windows OS.

[diddlina]

The preference file can be found: C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\VMware on Windows OS.

[continuum]

Does unpatched vmplayer.exe works in the same scenario ?

I don't see why removing some entries from the menu would have a result like that.

next time please attach screenshots directly as png-file.

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VMX-parameters- VMware-liveCD - VM-Sickbay