Dell KACE Admin Template

By default when the Dell KACE agent is deployed to client computers they will display a splash screen. If you have a Windows Vista or later environment this can be conveniently managed by pushing out some registry values using Group Policy Preferences. If however you still have some Windows XP client computers without the Group Policy Preferences client installed, it’s a little more tricky.

Without further ado, here’s a simple Group Policy Template that you can import to disable the Dell KACE Splash screens.

;
; Dell KACE K1000 Agent Settings
; ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
;
; Provides group-policy based customisation of the Dell K1000 agent
; bootup splash screens. Useful for networks with XP clients that do not
; have the group policy preferences client installed.
;
; Changelog
; ~~~~~~~~~
; 2012.08.20 Dave Hope Initial version
;
; ======================================================================
CLASS MACHINE

CATEGORY "Dell"
CATEGORY "KACE"

KEYNAME "SOFTWARE\Kace\CustomBootupSplash"
POLICY !!bootup_policy
EXPLAIN !!bootup_explain
VALUENAME "DisableBootupSplash"
VALUEON NUMERIC 1
VALUEOFF DELETE
END POLICY

POLICY !!login_policy
EXPLAIN !!login_explain
VALUENAME "DisableLoginSplash"
VALUEON NUMERIC 1
VALUEOFF DELETE
END POLICY

POLICY !!boottask_policy
EXPLAIN !!boottask_explain
VALUENAME "DisableWaitForBootupTasks"
VALUEON NUMERIC 1
VALUEOFF DELETE
END POLICY

POLICY !!logintask_policy
EXPLAIN !!logintask_explain
VALUENAME "DisableWaitForLoginTasks"
VALUEON NUMERIC 1
VALUEOFF DELETE
END POLICY

END CATEGORY
END CATEGORY

[strings]
bootup_policy="Disable bootup Splash"
login_policy="Disable login Splash"
boottask_policy="Disable wait for bootup tasks"
logintask_policy="Disable wait for login tasks"
bootup_explain="Controls whether the KACE splash screen is displayed at startup.\n\nEnabling this policy prevents the splash screen appearing.\n\nIf this setting is not configured the splash screen is displayed."
login_explain="Controls whether the KACE splash screen is displayed at login.\n\nEnabling this policy prevents the splash screen appearing.\n\nIf this setting is not configured the splash screen is displayed."
boottask_explain="Controls whether the system should wait for KACE bootup taks.\n\nEnabling this policy prevents the system waiting for bootup tasks.\n\nIf this setting is not configured the system will wait for bootup tasks."
logintask_explain="Controls whether the system should wait for KACE login taks.\n\nEnabling this policy prevents the system waiting for login tasks.\n\nIf this setting is not configured the system will wait for login tasks."

Setting the policy elements to “Enabled” will disable their setting. For example, Enabling the “Disable bootup Splash” policy will prevent the splash screen for appearing. For more information on the registry keys involved visit the Dell KACE knowledge base.