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We have Windows 7 laptops connected to movable monitors so teams can have impromptu meetings around their desks. It would be great if we could display their splunk dashboard page when they're not using it. There's a group security rule applied to all laptops on the office's domain that says to auto-logout after 15 minutes and put the display to sleep. That setting cannot change for just these laptops since it's applied across the whole domain - so I'm told. Each user also has a certificate that enables wifi connection.

I've tried a screensaver that displays a webpage but that only works if a user is logged in. So this policy logs them out and no screensaver is displayed.

Upgrading to windows 10 is an option but so far seems like it wouldn't help.

It seems this can't be done in Windows. Unless anyone has an idea?

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There's a group security rule applied to all laptops on the office's domain that says to auto-logout after 15 minutes and put the display to sleep. That setting cannot change for just these laptops since it's applied across the whole domain - so I'm told.

You were told wrong.

First, know that there's no possibility of using the laptops while no user is logged on. Therefore if what you propose is to be done, the auto-logout policy will need to be changed.

Before considering the technical aspect of that change, you should ask whether the need you have identified is justified from a business perspective. Will your teams be more productive if they can do what you propose? Does this introduce any costs or risks that would negate the benefits? ...and so on. Management needs to be involved and make a decision.

THEN... go to the IT team and remind them that they have all the tools they require to set a different auto-logout policy for a subset of the domain's laptops:

But I think they already know this, which is why you need to approach this from a business-drives-IT perspective instead of letting IT tell the business how to run.

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  • I was suspicious of that 'can't do it' reason. Having the dashboard up for all the teams showing lots of RED for all the failed tests makes it so the project owners, dev VP, and CTO that walk by to get to their desks and offices makes it so the issue is no longer 'out of sight; out of mind. We have a systemic problem of poor test coverage and management/POs prioritizing features over bugfixes since they don't know how bad it is. It's not a question if this will help, but it's an org where I need to tell IT how to do it.
    – Chip
    Commented Mar 2, 2018 at 18:41
  • I digress, the IT rep handling my ticket that told me that came back to me and suggested disabling the domain account connection and making local users for them. They'd be able to do everything except see their shared drive or setup shared across machines. I'm checking with the teams if they even use that (doubt it), and I'll give him the go ahead. I'm not sure why this solution is okay but what you said is not - but I'm afraid to ask and send idiotic IT security into a path that'll lead to more blockers.
    – Chip
    Commented Mar 2, 2018 at 18:44
  • Got it! msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa373513(v=vs.85).aspx Thank you!
    – Chip
    Commented Mar 2, 2018 at 22:15
  • Oh sorry--I see I messed up my link somehow. Good work on getting the correct link.
    – I say Reinstate Monica
    Commented Mar 2, 2018 at 22:17

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