Default Settings

General Information

Starting with Royal TS V6, we provide a new and very flexible way to configure default settings. You can deploy and set initial settings (Options) as well as initial default settings for all connection types for your users using various sources (configuration providers). In addition to initial settings, you can also enforce application settings (Options) and default settings for all connection types.

There are configuration providers for JSON files, environment variables and the registry (which you can still deploy using GPOs).

Previous versions had limited GPO support using ADMX files which are not shipped and supported anymore. See also: Migrate from ADMX files.

Supported Settings

Application Settings (Options)

You can set almost all the settings available in the [Options] dialog. You can find a reference of all supported settings in our Scripting section.

Default Settings

You can control the default settings for each connection type - similar to what you can do in the user interface under Application / Default Settings.

You can find a reference to all the supported settings for each connection type in our Scripting section.

Scope

We provide the following scopes to control how and when the settings are applied to the Royal TS configuration.

Initial

All settings defined in the initial scope are only applied once when Royal TS starts the very first time (when no configuration file is present). This can be useful to provide a default configuration for onboarding new users tailored to your environment.

The user can still change all the settings in Royal TS and they will not be applied again, even if settings in that scope have been changed or added.

Tip

To re-apply the initial scope settings, remove the configuration file to pretend that Royal TS has never been started before. Note that all customizations performed by the user may get lost in that process.

Default

Settings defined in the default scope will always be applied when Royal TS starts or when a group policy refresh is executed on the system.

Even when the user tries to change options or default settings in the user interface which have been configured in the default scope, they will not be applied. The configured default values will be re-applied automatically.

Configuration Provider

Royal TS supports different configuration provider to apply the settings. The order and priority of the configuration providers is:

 1. JSON File in Configuration Path
 2. => JSON File in Application Path
 3.    => Environment Variables
 4.       => Registry (Current User)
 5.          => Registry (Local Machine)
 ^
 Priority

Royal TS will read, parse and process the configuration in the above order whenever Royal TS is started or when the system signals a group policy refresh. If there are conflicting settings, the configuration provider with the higher priority will overwrite the setting from the lower priority.

Tip

Examine the Royal TS log (under View -> Log) to find out which settings have been applied. Enabling Debug logging will show additional information about the configuration provider.

JSON File (Configuration Path)

Place a JSON file in the configuration path. The default value for the configuration path is:

%APPDATA%\code4ward

Tip

You can change the configuration path in the RoyalTS.exe.config file where RoyalTS.exe is located.

Create or deploy a JSON file for the initial scope in the above directory with the name:

%APPDATA%\code4ward\initial.settings.json

Create or deploy a JSON file for the default scope in the above directory with the name:

%APPDATA%\code4ward\default.settings.json

Here's a sample JSON file:

{
    "RoyalApplicationSetting" : {
        "DisableDisplayScalingOnHighDpiSettings": true,
        "ColorizeTree": true,
        "DontShowDocumentModifiedNotification": true,
        "DontShowMaintenanceExtensionNotification": true,
        "DontShowRestoreConnectionsDialog": true,
        "DoNotCreateDashboardOnStartup": true,
        "DoNotShowGettingStartedPageOnStartup": true,
        "SuperStartPageBehavior": 0,
        "AutoStartDocumentMode": 1,
        "WelcomeWindowLicenseAgreementVersion": 999,
        "WelcomeWindowUpdateCheckAndFeatureTrackingVersion": 999
    },
    "RoyalSSHConnection" : {
        "UseGlobalPlugInWin": false,
        "PlugInWin": "107df0a3-eab8-40ee-87f2-cc8a310f9269",
        "BellAction": 1
    }
}

JSON File (Application Path)

Place a JSON file in the application path (install path) where RoyalTS.exe is located. The default path is:

%ProgramFiles%\RoyalTS V6

Create or deploy a JSON file for the initial scope in the above directory with the name:

%ProgramFiles%\Royal TS V6\initial.settings.json

Create or deploy a JSON file for the default scope in the above directory with the name:

%ProgramFiles%\Royal TS V6\default.settings.json

Environment Variables

Create environment variables for the initial scope like this:

RTSInitial_RoyalApplicationSetting__ColorizeTree = True
RTSInitial_RoyalApplicationSetting__DoNotShowGettingStartedPageOnStartup = True
RTSInitial_RoyalApplicationSetting__WelcomeWindowLicenseAgreementVersion = 999
RTSInitial_RoyalSSHConnection__BellAction = 1

Create environment variables for the default scope like this:

RTSDefault_RoyalApplicationSetting__ColorizeTree = True
RTSDefault_RoyalApplicationSetting__DoNotShowGettingStartedPageOnStartup = True
RTSDefault_RoyalApplicationSetting__WelcomeWindowLicenseAgreementVersion = 999
RTSDefault_RoyalSSHConnection__BellAction = 1

Caution

Please note that the first seperator of the prefix (RTSInitial_ and RTSDefault_) has only one underscore character and the seperator between the object type and the property name (for example ...RoyalApplicationSetting__ColorizeTree) has two underscore characters.

Registry (Current User)

Create the following registry key by script or using group policies for the initial scope:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\RoyalApps\RoyalTS\Initial\RoyalApplicationSetting]
"ColorizeTree"="true"
"DoNotShowGettingStartedPageOnStartup"="true"
"WelcomeWindowLicenseAgreementVersion"="999"

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\RoyalApps\RoyalTS\Initial\RoyalSSHConnection]
"BellAction"="1"

Create the following registry key by script or using group policies for the default scope:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\RoyalApps\RoyalTS\Default\RoyalApplicationSetting]
"ColorizeTree"="true"
"DoNotShowGettingStartedPageOnStartup"="true"
"WelcomeWindowLicenseAgreementVersion"="999"

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\RoyalApps\RoyalTS\Default\RoyalSSHConnection]
"BellAction"="1"

Registry (Local Machine)

Create the following registry key by script or using group policies for the initial scope:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\RoyalApps\RoyalTS\Initial\RoyalApplicationSetting]
"ColorizeTree"="true"
"DoNotShowGettingStartedPageOnStartup"="true"
"WelcomeWindowLicenseAgreementVersion"="999"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\RoyalApps\RoyalTS\Initial\RoyalSSHConnection]
"BellAction"="1"

Create the following registry key by script or using group policies for the default scope:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\RoyalApps\RoyalTS\Default\RoyalApplicationSetting]
"ColorizeTree"="true"
"DoNotShowGettingStartedPageOnStartup"="true"
"WelcomeWindowLicenseAgreementVersion"="999"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\RoyalApps\RoyalTS\Default\RoyalSSHConnection]
"BellAction"="1"

Migrate from ADMX Files

Previous versions of Royal TS (V5 and earlier) had limited GPO support by providing a ADMX files and the ability to set some settings (mostly logging and some security settings) using group policies.

This approach was very limited and the authoring experience for ADMX is difficult, error prone and cumbersome. The lack of good tooling for authors makes it very hard to maintain ADMX files.

The following sections should help you to transition from ADMX based settings to the new system.

Security

In previous versions (V5 and earlier) all security related policies were set in the following registry keys:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\code4ward\RoyalTS\Security\
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Policies\code4ward\RoyalTS\Security\

Do not allow to check for updates

This policy setting allows you to manage if a user is able to configure Royal TS to check for updates.

Previously, the ADMX configuration changed the registry value DoNotAllowCheckForUpdates. An equivalent boolean property has been created in the RoyalApplicationSetting with the name:

PolicyDoNotAllowCheckForUpdates