Locking and Unlocking Input Devices on Remote Machines

Remote Shutdown allows you to lock input devices on remote Machines and subsequently unlock them. These operations can be launched immediately, or you can create a preconfigured tasks to perform such operations, or you can schedule preconfigured tasks to be executed once or on a regular basis – this section will show you how to reach all these goals.

Performing Lock and Unlock of Input Devices

Let us take a closer look at the process of initiating the lock of input devices on remote Machines.

To lock devices on remote Machines, use the Lock Devices button from the Input Devices Ribbon group on the Remote Actions page. If the Network or the All Machines view is active, the selected Machines and Collections are automatically added to the operation's Machine Queue. This action is also available from the Input Devices group from the Home Ribbon page and the corresponding group in pop-up menus and on toolbars of the Network and All Machines views. The wizard will appear on the screen and guide you through the operation configuration process Pic 1.

When configuring a lock devices operation, you can define if you would like to wait for a specific period of time before locking devices, choose if the notification should be displayed to a remote user and if it is allowed to cancel the locking process. The next step is to define a set of Machines to operate. For the information on configuring a scope of Machines, refer to the Defining Machines to Operate section of this document. Once you are done with configuring the operation, press Finish to proceed. The lock devices operation will start automatically, and as soon as it is completed, you will be able to see the execution results in the Execution Results view.

To unlock input devices previously locked by Remote Shutdown, use the Unlock Devices button from the Input Devices Ribbon group on the Remote Actions page. If the Network or the All Machines view is active, the selected Machines and Collections are automatically added to the operation's Machine Queue. This action is also available from the Input Devices group from the Home Ribbon page and the corresponding group in pop-up menus and on toolbars of the Network and All Machines views. The wizard will appear on the screen and guide you through the operation configuration process. During the unlock devices operation configuration, you should simply specify the scope of Machines to operate. Once you are done with configuring the operation, press Finish to proceed. The unlock devices operation will start automatically, and as soon as it is completed, you will be able to see the execution results in the Execution Results view.

Creating a new Lock Devices or Unlock Devices Task

If you do not want to lock or unlock devices on remote Machines right now, with Remote Shutdown you can create a preconfigured task to perform such input devices management operations in future, any time you want. To create a new Lock Devices task for further execution, you should choose the New Task > Lock Devices item from the Tasks area pop-up menu. For the Unlock Devices tasks, use the New Task > Unlock Devices item. Alternatively you can use the New Task button from the Tasks area toolbar or the Regular Task button from the New Ribbon group on the Management contextual page from the Tasks and Schedule Tools category. The New Task wizard will appear on the screen and guide you through the process of creating a new task. Once you are done with configuring the task, press Create to create it. The newly created task will be added to the Tasks area. A created task can be executed manually any time using the Run menu item from the Tasks area or scheduled for automatic execution. Remote Shutdown will store the results for all runs of this task, and you can review all of them in the Execution Results view.

Locking and unlocking input devices on schedule

As it has already been mentioned, with Remote Shutdown you can run a preconfigured input devices management task any time you want. However, manual task execution may not be convenient for you since in such a case you would always have to remember when you should perform this or that task. The scheduling engine built into Remote Shutdown can always keep this in mind for you, so that you can concentrate on your other everyday tasks.

To schedule a new Lock Devices task, you should choose the Scheduled Task > Lock Devices item from the New Ribbon group on the Home page. This option is also available in the Scheduling area pop-up menu and on the toolbar. Alternatively, you can select the Machines you want to operate in the Network or the All Machines view and choose the New > Scheduled Lock Devices Task menu item from the pop-up menu to initialize the Machine Queue with the selected Machines. For scheduling a new Unlock Devices task, use the Scheduled Task > Unlock Devices item from the New Ribbon group on the Home page and the appropriate items in the pop-up menu. The same way, as for Lock Devices tasks, you can use the New > Scheduled Unlock Devices Task item in the pop-up menu of the Network or the All Machines view.

When scheduling a task, you can provide the operation configuration options, and specify a set of Machines to operate. Once you are done with configuring the task, press Schedule for the task to be put on schedule. The scheduled task will be added to the Scheduling area. A scheduled task is executed automatically when its start time comes. Remote Shutdown stores the results for all runs of such a task, and you can review all of them in the Execution Results view.