AED Setup 1

Setting Up the Active Earth Display

 

There are three main steps to setting up your Active Earth Display: 1) preparing your computer, 2) setting up your account, and 3) installing the restart script. 

Before starting, review the hardware and software requirements page, especially the PC lockdown information.

The following instructions are geared towards someone with an intermediate to advanced knowledge of PCs.

 

Preparing Your Computer

A.  Accounts and Installations

  1. Create an Administrator account and login to it. Specify a password. This account will not be used for running AED normally but rather for installing or removing programs and other priveleged items that the AED account will not be able to perform.  (TIP: If this is not a new PC you may want to first do some housekeeping: delete all but one Administrator account, uninstall or delete as much old unused stuff as you can, defragment the disk, etc.) 
  2. Get the network connection to the Internet figured out and working. This is usually something you can get help with.
  3. Install the Elo Touchscreen drivers either from the CD with the monitor or by visiting  their driver downloads page to get the latest version.
  4. Install Internet Explorer (IE) version 7 from here.
  5. The IE7 installer probably had you restart. If not restart now.
  6. Login as Administrator (or whatever account has Administrator privileges).
  7. Create an "Administrator" account for the AED, perhaps called “AED”. Specify a password. (Note: after all setup is done you will convert this account to "Limited".) Remain logged in as Administrator.
  8. Obtain anti-Virus software, something like Norton or ClamWin (free) and install it now. Leave its settings generally at default, though if it has any way to prevent notification dialogs or alerts, disable them. Popup alerts from the task bar can be a problem.
  9. Restart if the anti-Virus installation did not have you do it.
  10. Install Flash 9 from here.  (TIP: Verify the version of Flash player you have installed by right mousing on any Flash content and the popup menu will say at the bottom “About Flash Player 9.0” or something similar.)
  11. Install Quicktime Alternative http://www.free-codecs.com/download/QuickTime_Alternative.htm  or full-fledged Quicktime 7 (without iTunes) http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/win.html.

B.  Control Panel Settings

  1. Go to Control Panels (Classic View). Visit Add/Remove Programs control panel and remove as many “unnecessary” programs as you can: Outlook, Messenger, iTunes, Powerpoint, Excel, Word, Skype, and so on.  (TIP: Visit Administrative Tools contol panel and then Event Viewer. Familiarize yourself with this dialog, which allows you to review events of various types that have happened on the computer. This is just for practice, in case in the future you need to troubleshoot the PC you may recall this facility and return here.)
  2. Logout and login as the AED account. 
  3. Go to Control Panels. 
  4. Visit Display Properties control panel.
    1. Screen Saver –  If your display is not interactive you probably don't need a screen saver since your display will likely be cycling indefinitely through its content. If you your display is interactive, determine how long until the screen saver kicks in, if at all.  (TIP: Your AED will have a timeout that will return the display to its home page (first link), so we recommend using the screen saver at some setting like 60 minutes. Select one from the list, such as 3D Text with something like “Touch to activate” or better yet make your own by getting a series of earthquake photos with  “Touch me to activate” superimposed onto them, and then make your screen saver be a slideshow of these images...!)
    2. Power Management – from the Screen Saver tab, adjust your monitor power settings by pressing the Power... button. You will have to experiment and decide what works best for you. I have chosen to turn off the monitor and hard disks after 2 hours of inactivity. Do not allow the system to go into Standby mode. Do not allow Hibernation.
    3. Back at Display Properties, go to Appearance tab and select “Large Fonts”. Also, push the Effects button and on that dialog, under "Use the following method to smooth edges of screen fonts:" select "ClearType" or "Standard" and hit OK and then Apply, and notice the effect on fonts on the screen. We find that Standard works best for the Elo Touch monitors, and it makes a significant difference in readability. Select your preferred setting.
    4. Still at Appearance tab, push Advanced... button and set the scrollbar with to something like 20, so you can scroll windows with your finger, and set tooltip font to Tahoma 16, so you can have nice large tooltips.
    5. Back at Display Properties visit the Settings tab and make sure your monitor is set to 1280 x 1024 pixels resolution and high quality color.
    6. Visit Elo Touchscreen control panel -  at the General tab, perform the Align operation by pressing Align. At the Mode tab select “Mouse emulation”.  BE CAREFUL with “Hide Arrow Mouse Pointer” option – it will make the pointer not show on the screen, which is nice for the AED operation, but it can be difficult to control the computer with the pointer hidden! Safest is to leave it off until you have time to experiment with it.
    7. Visit Internet Options control panel (this is the exact same panel you get when you issue the Tools / Internet Options menu command from inside IE.)  These are the key setting that you should set:

      General tab:

      •  Browsing History: Settings:  Check for newer versions..=Automatically,  Disk space to use...=1024MB Security Tab

        • Zone=Medium High (or High)
        • Local intranet = no changes
        • Trusted Sites= ADD www.iris.edu
        • Restricted Sites = no changes
      • Security Tab
        • Medium High
        • Popup blocker on (settings “Medium”)
      • Content Tab
        • Content Advisor disabled
        • Auto Complete Settings = disable all auto-completion
        • Rest left as default
      • Connections Tab
        • No changes
      • Programs Tab
        • Manage Add-ons:
          • Show: add-ons that run without requiring permission
          • Click on Status column header to sort by enabled/disabled
          • Disable:
            • Adobe PDF Reader
            • iTunes related
            • Windows Media Player
            • Anything non-essential like:  Snagit, Norton (this does not disable Norton, just Norton access from IE), Google/Yahoo toolbar, CBrowser, Vendor specializations (Dell, Compaq, Shuttle, in their name)
          • Enable
            • Shockwave Flash Object
            • Quicktime Object
        •  Back at Programs tab, disable the “tell me if IE is not the default browser”.

      Advanced Tab

      • Here is a list of the features that I have ON. Most of these should be in their default states. I have placed ** next to the most important ones:
        • Move system caret....
        • Reset text size to medium while zooming
        • Reset Zoom level to 100%....
        • Disable script debugging (IE) **
        • Disable script debugging (other) **
        • Enable page transitions  ***
        • Enable third party browser extensions ***
        • Enable visual styles on buttons and controls.....
        • Reuse windows for launching.....
        • Show friendly HTTP .....
        • Underline links =never
        • Use Passive FTP ....
        • Use smooth scrolling
        • Use HTTP 1.1***
        • Send IDN server names
        • Send UTF-8 URLs
        • Show Information bar for .....
        • Always use ClearType for HTML ***
        • Play animations in web pages ***
        • Play sounds in web pages ***
        • Show image download ...
        • Show pictures ***
        • Smart image dithering
        • Do not search from the Address bar
        • Allow active content from CDs...
        • Allow active content to run in files....
        • Check for publisher's certificate....       
        • Check for signatures on ......
        • Enable Integrated Windows....
        • Enable native XMLHTTP .....
        • Phishing Filter = disabled
        • Use SSL 3.0
        • Use TLS 1.0
    8. Visit QuickTime control panel
      • Browser tab:  select these:
        • Play movies automatically               
        • Enable kiosk mode
      • Update tab:
        • Disable automatic update check
      • Streaming tab:       
        • Enable instant-On
      • Advanced tab:
        • Download cache = BIG, like 5000 MB or greater
        • Rest leave as default settings

    9. Visit Scheduled Tasks control panel.  Verify that you understand the presence of any scheduled tasks, probably there are just one or two and one of them is likely your anti-Virus system scan and / or check for updates.

    10. Visit Sounds and Audio Devices control panel.  Verify that sound works and adjust the volume.

    11. Visit Taskbar and Start Menu control pan

      • Taskbar tab:
        • Select Lock the taskbar
        • Don't select Show Quick Launch
      • Start Menu tab:
        • Select Customize.. button
          • General tab:
            • Under Programs, reduce the number of programs on the Start menu to something low, like 1. Press the Clear List button, and below in Show on Start Menu: de-select E-mail and select Internet: and select Internet Explorer.
          • Advanced tab:
            • De-select as many of the menu items here as you can live without on the AED account, such as “Help and Support”,  “My Network Places” “Printers and Faxes” “Search” but DO leave the “Run...” command.  
            • Also select ALL the “Don't display this item” options, if you really want to reduce the options in the Start menu for the AED account.       

     

     

    Click next to continue the set up process and to set up your account.

    NEXT > Setting Up Your Account