Applications

Applications

Navigation

Use the Cursor-keys or Tab-key to navigate thru the Applications.

Selecting

Use Keyboard

When the cursor is in the Icon-column, use the Space-key for selecting / de-selecting an Application.

Use Mouse

Using the mouse, click on the App-X number for selecting / de-selecting an Application.
Right-click on the App-X number for a Popup-menu, for selecting / de-selecting all Applications:

Searching

Enter a string in the Searchbox. Appearances of the Search-string will be highlighted:

Use Keyboard

While the cursor is inside the Search-box, use the Enter-key to jump to the next occurrence of the Search-string.

Use Mouse

Use the Search-Up and Down buttons to jump to the next / previous occurrence of the Search-string.

Zoom-in, Zoom out

Use the Zoom button to toggle between Zoom-in / Zoom-out:

Assign 1 or more Applications to a Set

Use Keyboard and / or Mouse to assign Applications

Select the Set.
Select 1 or more Applications.
Use the Assign-button or Drag-and-Drop to assign the Application(s) to the Set.

The result will be as follows:

Assign 1 or more Applications to an User or Group

Use Keyboard and / or Mouse to assign Applications

Select an User or a Group:

Select 1 or more Application(s):
Click on the Assign-button. The selected Application(s) will be assigned to the selected User / Group.

Use Drag-and-Drop to assign Applications

Select 1 or more Application(s)
Drag-and-drop the selected Application(s) to the User or Group or click on the Assign button:

Note:

Applications can be assigned to 1 or more Sets.
Applications can be assigned to 1 or more Users.
Applications can be assigned to 1 or more Groups.

Add new Application(s)

Use Keyboard and / or Mouse to add new, empty Rows

Select an Application:
Use the Insert-key or click on the Insert-button. A new empty row will appear that can be used for entering the details of the new Application:
Use the Down-key or Tab-key repeatedly, beyond the last Application.
1 or more new, empty row(s) will appear which can be used for entering the details of the new Application(s):
Use the Add-Row button. A new empty row will be added that can be used for entering the details of the new Application.

Use Drag-and-Drop to add Applications from Explorer

Select the Programs in Explorer that you want to Add.
Drag-and-drop the Programs from Explorer to the List of Applications:
The "Dropped" Applications will be inserted at the drop-location:

Delete Application(s)

Select 1 or more Application(s):
Use the "Delete Application" button for deleting the selected Application(s):
The Application(s) will be deleted from the list of Applications.
The Application(s) will be deleted from Sets.
The Application(s) will be deleted from Users and / or Groups.

Sorting Application(s)

Sorting Applications is relevant, because the Sort Order as shown here, will be the same order as the Applications do appear in the Start Menu of the User. The User can not sort the Applications as they are shown in the Start Menu.

Use Drag-and-Drop to Sort

Select 1 Application:
Drag the Application where it should be:

Use Keyboard and / or Mouse to Sort

Select 1 or more Application(s)
Use the Sort-Up and Down-buttons to sort the selected Application(s).

Executing an Application

Right-click on the Program Name, or use the "Execute" button.
The Popup Menu has an option to execute the Program:
The selected Application will be Executed. This can be convenient just for some testing...
AADS Application Control is used by an Administrator. Therefore the selected Application will be executed under the rights of current logged-in Administrator.

Application Properties

Applications do have 6 properties

Property: Icon

When no custom Icon is assigned to the Application, the default Icon of the Application will be shown and used in the Start Menu of the user.

Customizing the Icon

Double-click on the Icon, or,
Select the Icon and use the Enter-key or F3-key, or,
Use the Browse-button

Select a custom Icon.

Deleting the custom Icon

Deleting the Icon implies that the custom Icon will not be used anymore, and that the default Icon of the application will be shown and used in the Start Menu of the user.

Select the Icon, using the mouse or cursor-keys.
Use the Delete-key, or select "Delete Custom Icon" in the popupmenu:

When the Custom Icon is deleted, the default Icon for the Application will be used.

Property: Display Name

Editing the Display Name

Double click the Display Name, or,
Use the Enter-key for editing the Display Name, or,
Use the Edit-button:

Special Application Control Directives

Use the Right-mouse, or,
Use the F3 or Menu-key:

A Popup-Menu with Special Application Control Directives will be shown.

Hidden Display Name $

When a Display Name starts with $, the Program is "Hidden" and will not appear in the Start Menu of the User. However, the User is allowed to use the program; the User can use the program.

Hidden Programs and Restricted Application Control

When Restricted Application Control is applied, the User can only start Applications that are explicitly assigned to the User by the Administrator. However, It might happen that an User needs to be able to use some additional Applications.

Example Hidden Program: Libre Office QuickStarter

Libre Office comes with a TrayIcon-quickstart utility. This Program does not have to appear in the Start Menu of the User, but the User might want to be able to run it and use it. This is where "Hidden" can be used. By defining and assigning a "Hidden" program to an User, the "Hidden" program will not appear in the Start Menu of the User. But the "Hidden" program can be started and used by the User.
In this example the program $quickstart.exe has been set for "AutoStart".

Note:

Hidden means that the Application is hidden from the Start Menu / is not shown in the Start Menu of the User.
The Application is available to the user and running as usual.

# Comment

Text behind # is treated as comment and will not appear in the Start Menu of the User.
Example:

The text #Users in App-25 does explain to the Administrator that this Session Menu is for the Users.
The text #Users itself does not appear / is not shown to the Users:

Property: Program Name

Editing the Program Name

Double click the Program Name, or,
Use the Enter-key for editing the Program Name, or,
Use the Edit-button for editing the Program Name:

Browse for a Program

Select the Program in the column Program Name.
Use the F3-key for Browsing, or,
Use the Browse-button for Browsing:

Multiple Select

The browse-popup Windows has the option to show checkboxes with each programs. By selecting multiple programs, multiple programs can be added to Application Control in 1 go:

Popup Menu

Use the Right-mouse, or,
Use the Menu-key to show a Popup-Menu:

Browse for the Program/Executable.
Execute the Program/Executable. AADS Application Control is used by an Administrator. Therefore the selected Application will be executed under the rights of current logged-in Administrator.

Property: Startup Folder

Usually the contents of the Startup Folder depends on the Program.

The Startup Folder can be left empty.
The Startup Folder can be a full-qualified folder on drive C: or on some network-drive.
The Startup Folder can contain Environment Variables:

Editing the Startup Folder

Double click the Startup Folder, or,
Use the Enter-key for editing the Startup Folder, or,
Use the Edit-button:

Browse for a Startup Folder:

Use the F3-key for Browsing, or,
Use the Browse-button for Browsing:

Property: Command Line

Usually the contents of the Command Line depends on the Program.

Editing the Command Line

Double click the Command Line, or,
Use the Enter-key for editing the Command Line, or,
Use the Edit-button:

Property: Startup

An Application can be started as follows:

	Auto‑Start	The Application will be started directly after the login of the user. Multiple Applications can be flagged as Auto‑Start.
	Maximize	When started, the Application will be initially shown Maximized. The user is able to Restore or Minimize the Application.
	Minimize	When started, the Application will be initially shown Minimized. The user is able to Restore or Minimize the Application.
	Visible	Default all Applications are shown Visible. The User can interact with the Application. An Application can be flagged as "not shown Visible" or "Hidden". An user can not interact with a Hidden Application. This option can be useful, for example, for starting CMD-files which will start another Application. In combination with Autorun, you can start some kind of Hidden Service application for the user, without showing it. For instance, you might use it to start some Anti Virus client software without showing it to the user.
	Elevated	The Application will be started "Elevated".
	Auto‑ReStart	When the Application is terminated, it will be started again by AADS. Multiple Applications can be flagged as Auto‑ReStart.

Editing the Startup-options

Use the mouse to select / de-select the Startup-options.

Example Elevated Application

In the example below, the Administrator has created an 2th CMD-App that is marked for Elevation:

When it is started, one can expect the following:

Environment variables and Escape Character &

Environment variables can be used in:

Program Name
Startup Folder
Command Line

Example:

The Administrator can open a DosBox, using the command Set, and see all the Environment Variables that do exist.
Those Environment Variables can be used while defining Applications for the Users.

Examples how to use Environment variables

	Result for user domain003
C:\documents\%username%	C:\documents\domain003
%userprofile%\some folder	C:\Documents and Settings\domain003\some folder

Escape character &

The & character can be used for special character in the range $01 .. $FF (hexadecimal between 1 and 255).
The & character is used as a so called escape character. Examples:

	Result for user domain003
C:\documents\&25username&25	C:\documents\%username%
C:\documents\&26username&26	C:\documents\&username&
C:\documents\&22username&22 %username%	C:\documents\"username" domain003
"C:\documents\username" %username%	"C:\documents\username" domain003

Take a good look at the last 2 examples: the first occurrence of username is not considered to be an environment variable because it is not enclosed in %. In the third example it is enclosed in &22. This is the hex-value of the character ", so result will be "username".
The second occurrence of username is considered as an environment variable because it is enclosed in %. Therefore it is replaced with domain003 in this example.

The &XX appearance will always be translated to a character:

Command line parameter or Startup Folder	Result for user domain003
C:\documents\&25username&25	C:\documents\%username%
"C:\documents\&25username&25"	"C:\documents\%username%"
"C:\documents\&26username"	"C:\documents\&username"