Emerson Exchange 365

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Shutdown/Restart Missing in Start Menu Win10/Server 2016 Domain Environment

For non administrators, the ability to shutdown/restart the computer is missing from the start menu and from FlexLock. I thought maybe it was a group policy setting but Disabling "Remove and prevent access to the Shut Down, Restart" in the policy editor made no difference. Right now, if I want to restart a computer I have to log out of Windows and log in as an administrator account and then I have the option to restart. Any suggestions or insights on how I might be able to add this to the start menu for all users?

• windows
• restart
• Shut Down
• deltav 14.3

JoshC

• 25 Feb 2020 7:37 PM
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11 Replies

• John Rezabek

  

  • 27 Feb 2020 5:50 PM

  Try giving them access to the Windows Desktop (in DeltaV "User Manager"). If that doesn't work, you may need to give them admin rights in Windows. (in User Manager - check "Windows Administrator")

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• JoshC

  

  • 27 Feb 2020 7:43 PM

  In reply to John Rezabek:

  Desktop Access restores the "shutdown" option in FlexLock but does not restore it to the start menu. I would like for them to have the ability to restart without desktop access. Maybe I can add a button in Operate that runs a PowerShell or batch script to restart the computer. Anyone have any experience with that?

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• Youssef.El-Bahtimy

  

  • 1 Mar 2020 1:53 PM

  I suppose the real question is why do non-administrators need to reboot workstations? Is there an underlying problem causing them to need to do this? Workstations should operate 24/7 and being able to reboot introduces a security risk, so typically restart/shutdown is reserved for administrators.

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• JoshC

  

  • 2 Mar 2020 1:03 PM

  In reply to Youssef.El-Bahtimy:

  I was wondering if someone would ask that question and I agree with you. Non-administrator users don't have desktop access so they would not be able to reboot even if the option existed, but it would be nice that when I log into DeltaV as an administrator and switch to the desktop I would be able to reboot the machine without having to log out of the machine, log into Windows as an administrator, and then reboot the machine.

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• Alan Kaelble

  

  • 2 Mar 2020 2:33 PM

  In reply to JoshC:

  2 examples of why operators need to reboot DeltaV Operate workstations

  • As stable as it is, things still do go wrong with DeltaV Operate. We have a 3 step trouble shooting guide for operators
    1. Click on 'Reset Layout'. If that does not fix the issue, then
    2. Close and then restart DeltaV Operate. If that does not fix the issue, then
    3. Reboot the Work station
  • Attempting option 2 in the list above can cause another problem when DeltaV refuses to shutdown properly. The operator gets a message 'DeltaV Operate is already running'. I acknowledge that this problem occurs less frequently in v14, but it still DOES happen every so often. Shame on Emerson for letting something like this exist for so long and through so many revisions

  Resolving either issue requires admin access or reboot. When the problem occurs after hours, then either I get a phone call, or the operator has to power cycle the work station

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• MPHymel

  

  • 2 Mar 2020 2:43 PM

  In reply to Alan Kaelble:

  I personally feel enabling a soft reboot to be preferable to power cycling. It is inevitable that an operator will sooner or later need to restart a machine, and there is no benefit gained by delaying the restart process by waiting for an admin to be present to do so.

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• Andre Dicaire

  

  • 2 Mar 2020 3:53 PM

  In reply to MPHymel:

  To Youssef's question, one case is when a Quad monitor is connected to a Wyse Thin client and on of the monitors is accidently shut off. The DeltaV Operate layout drops to a single screen and will not restore properly to the Quad layout when the monitor is turned back on. Solution is to reboot. Prevention: Don't shut down a screen. Recovery: Reboot.

  Andre Dicaire

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• John Rezabek

  

  • 2 Mar 2020 4:15 PM

  In reply to Andre Dicaire:

  I think I've seen the layout jumble even on directly connected workstations. We had one quad where a big screen didn't tolerate a blip in the power when the UPS switched to batteries during a planned power outage. There are work-arounds but our operators normally resort to a hard (power cycle) reboot. They can't exit DeltaV Operate and they typically don't all know they can get to the desktop to attempt a "soft" reboot.

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• Matt Stoner

  

  • 2 Mar 2020 4:20 PM

  In reply to Andre Dicaire:

  So would Restart option on Flexlock that is always available regardless of admin rights address?
  - Shouldn't a shutdown of a machine be a less likely need (and be forced to be more manual, i.e. admin desktop access)?
  - Replace Shutdown option with Restart?
  
  Sounds like a great request(s) for the Emerson User Driven Enhancement Program at https://userideas-emerson.com/

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• Youssef.El-Bahtimy

  

  • 4 Mar 2020 11:41 AM

  In reply to JoshC:

  Whenever the UI fails me in windows, I'm glad I can revert to command line...
  In command prompt, shutdown /r is the command to reboot. It can even be invoked remotely, or if you are nervous about mistyping use shutdown /i for a nice little dialog. Invoking remotely is ideal because while logged into a pro station as an admin, I can reboot an operator workstation without having to switch logins. Deltav started disabling secondary login in recent versions so use of the runas command locally is disabled, meaning remote is the way to go.

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• Youssef.El-Bahtimy

  

  • 4 Mar 2020 11:48 AM

  In reply to Andre Dicaire:

  Andre, I'm glad you mentioned thin clients. Almost all end users I work with use thin clients for operator workstations. If operator on thin client A on terminal server 1 decides to restart the server while another operator on thin client B on terminal server 1 is doing something important, things become chaotic. Typically, 4-6 clients spread across multiple areas per server amplifies this. This is the main reason why I espouse keeping restart of the terminal servers limited to admins, or a user tasked with coordinating activities of a maintenance nature.

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