Enterprise Deployment

O&O DeskInfo was built with IT departments in mind. It needs no installation, no administrator rights and no service, and every setting lives in one readable XML file. That combination makes it unusually easy to roll out — and, if you want, to lock down.

And because O&O DeskInfo is freeware, there is no licensing to manage: you may deploy it on any number of workstations, including in commercial environments.

The rollout in three steps

1. Prepare a configuration

Install and configure O&O DeskInfo on one machine exactly the way your users should see it: profile, position, text size, help desk message. Then quit the application and take the resulting OODeskInfo.cfg from %LocalAppData%\OO Software\OO DeskInfo\ as your master file.

Before you distribute it, strip the values that are specific to that one machine — see Values managed by the application — and add the deployment settings described below.

2. Distribute the files

Copy OODeskInfo.exe and your OODeskInfo.cfg into the same folder on the client, for example C:\Program Files\OODeskInfo\. Because a configuration file next to the executable always takes precedence, no per-user setup is needed and every user on the machine gets the same configuration.

Alternatively keep the configuration on a share and point the clients at it with the /cfg parameter.

3. Start it automatically

Set SetAutoRun to true in the configuration file. O&O DeskInfo then creates the autostart entry for the current user on first start, without asking. Setting it to false removes the entry again — handy for a clean uninstall.

<Settings>
  <SetAutoRun>true</SetAutoRun>
</Settings>

A message for your users

The single most useful setting for a help desk is InfoMessage. It puts a line of your own text above the system information, permanently visible on every desktop:

<Settings>
  <InfoMessage>IT Help Desk: helpdesk@example.com | Phone: +49 30 1234-5678</InfoMessage>
</Settings>

Users no longer have to look up who to call — and when they do call, they can read their machine name and Windows build straight off the screen, or send you everything at once with Copy info to clipboard.

The message is shown as long as the active profile contains the InfoMessage key. All predefined profiles have it in first position.

Locking down the user interface

Two settings control how much the user may change.

IsRestricted

<Settings>
  <IsRestricted>true</IsRestricted>
</Settings>

With IsRestricted set to true, O&O DeskInfo runs in read-only mode:

• the configuration file is never written, so your rollout cannot be modified — not even accidentally,
• the tray icon menu is not displayed.

This is the right choice for kiosk systems, classroom PCs, production terminals and any machine where the display must stay exactly as you defined it.

TrayMenu

If you want a middle ground, TrayMenu controls the tray icon and its menu separately:

Value	Tray icon	Menu	Typical use
Full	visible	complete	Normal operation (default)
ExitOnly	visible	only Quit	Users may close the display but change nothing
HideMenu	visible	none	Icon as a CPU indicator, no settings
HideAll	hidden	none	Fully invisible except the desktop display

<Settings>
  <TrayMenu>ExitOnly</TrayMenu>
</Settings>

note

HideAll leaves the user no way to interact with O&O DeskInfo at all. Make sure you can still stop the process by other means — for example a script that ends OODeskInfo.exe — before you deploy it.

Skipping the welcome wizard

Set ShowWelcome to false so that users never see the first-start wizard:

<Settings>
  <ShowWelcome>false</ShowWelcome>
</Settings>

A profile for support cases

For help desk work, a profile focused on identification and network data usually beats showing everything. This one puts the identity of the machine in the first column, the network in the second, and drives plus load in the third:

<Settings>
  <SelectedProfile>Custom</SelectedProfile>
  <CustomProfile>
    <Name>Custom</Name>
    <DisplayName>Support</DisplayName>
    <ShowLabels>true</ShowLabels>
    <Keys>
      <Item>InfoMessage</Item>
      <Item>-</Item>
      <Item>UserAndMachine</Item>
      <Item>-</Item>
      <Item>OS</Item>
      <Item>-</Item>
      <Item>Hardware</Item>
      <Item>-</Item>
      <Item>NetworkBasic</Item>
      <Item>-</Item>
      <Item>NetworkAdvanced</Item>
      <Item>-</Item>
      <Item>LocalDrives</Item>
      <Item>-</Item>
      <Item>NetworkDrives</Item>
      <Item>-</Item>
      <Item>Performance</Item>
    </Keys>
    <ColumnAssignments>InfoMessage:0;UserAndMachine:0;OS:0;Hardware:0;NetworkBasic:1;NetworkAdvanced:1;LocalDrives:2;NetworkDrives:2;Performance:2</ColumnAssignments>
  </CustomProfile>
</Settings>

Hardware contributes manufacturer, model and serial number — the values your inventory and your hardware support contract are based on. All keys are listed in System Information.

warning

Do not add OSProductKey or OSOEMProductKey to a profile that is rolled out. A Windows product key permanently visible on the desktop is a security risk, particularly during screen sharing and remote support sessions. Users who need the key can retrieve it on demand via Show Windows Product Key in the tray menu.

Recommendations for managed environments

Situation	Suggested settings
Office workstations	InfoMessage, SetAutoRun=true, ShowWelcome=false, TrayMenu=Full — users keep full control over appearance.
Kiosk / classroom / production	Additionally IsRestricted=true and TrayMenu=HideMenu or HideAll.
Laptops	UpdateSpeed=10 and UseEfficiencyMode=true to minimise the energy footprint.
Terminal servers / VDI	ShowGPUGraph=false (many sessions do not report GPU data anyway) and ShowOnAllMonitors=false.
Server consoles	Profile Minimum or a custom profile with UserAndMachine, OS, SystemStatus and LocalDrives.

Uninstalling

O&O DeskInfo is portable, so there is nothing to uninstall in the usual sense:

1. Quit the application (or end OODeskInfo.exe).
2. Remove the autostart entry — either by setting SetAutoRun to false and starting the application once, or by deleting the value from HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run.
3. Delete the program folder.
4. Optionally delete %LocalAppData%\OO Software\OO DeskInfo\ to remove the configuration and log files.

Going further

If you manage more than a handful of machines, collecting this information centrally is usually the next step. O&O Syspectr does exactly that: cloud-based inventory, monitoring and alerting for all your PCs and servers, from one console — and free for a number of computers.

Two more free tools that pair well with a workstation rollout:

• O&O ShutUp10++ — control the privacy settings of Windows 10 and 11 centrally, with import and export of policy profiles.
• O&O AppBuster — remove pre-installed Windows apps and bloatware from your images.