The OS displayed in GSS Console is blank for certain Windows embedded versions

Products

• Ghost Solution Suite

Issue/Introduction

When upgrading to Ghost Solution Suite 3.3 and later, certain OS's like Windows POS Ready 2009 Embedded may not display correctly on the GSS Console.

No error is displayed and the OS version may not be listed in the GSS Console GUI.

Environment

GSS 3.3 and later
Windows POS Ready 2009 Embedded
 

Cause

The AlVars.ini file holds the versions of OS's that will be displayed in the GSS Console GUI compared to the client's CurrentVersion registry key inventory that is supplied by the clients to the GSS Server. 

Some versions of Windows like those that are embeded are not included in the AlVars.ini provided in the later versions of the GSS Server. 

Resolution

The AlVars.ini can be updated to include up to 16 characters to be used as the display version of the OS for any OS's that are desired.

The Windows client will retrieve it's OS information from the "ProductName" registry key located at:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion

With this information use a text editor to modify the AlVars.ini from the GSS Server's installation path ...\Altiris\eXpress\Deployment Server\AlVars.ini. If Windows OSes like POS Ready 2009 Embedded was not displaying the OS the following line could be added to allow it to display properly (remember the 16 character limit): 

Windows POS Ready 2009 Embedded = Windows XPe

After saving the changed to the AlVars.ini file you should close and reopen it to allow the data to be refreshed in the GSS Console.