The purpose of this guide is to provide a step-by-step set of instructions that allows installation and setup for the Alleo Rooms application. This guide is meant to assist administrators that are responsible for installation and setup for the Alleo Rooms application.
Also note, this article is focused on initial installation of Alleo Rooms for the Windows 10/11 operating system. The same instructions can be used for upgrading Alleo Rooms. However, official releases will be pushed to existing Alleo Rooms clients and the user can upgrade when either prompted by the application or checking for updates via the Alleo Rooms utility menu. When upgrading Alleo Rooms, all current settings will be saved and restored once the upgrade is complete.
Prerequisites
- Alleo Room Display license (provided by Alleo)
- Download link to the Alleo Rooms application (see the latest Alleo Rooms Release Notes)
- Windows 10/11 system connected to a Display (that meets minimum resource requirements)
- Requires a dedicated Windows service account: Alleo Rooms stores data in a user-scoped context. For reliable operation, the application must always run under the same Windows user profile.
- For Alleo Rooms versions 1.3.165 and prior, you must install the application with the same user account that will be used to run the application.
Install and Setup
- For Alleo Rooms versions 1.3.165 and prior, authenticate to Windows with the same user account that will be used to run Alleo Rooms.
- Download the Alleo Rooms installer to your desktop (or preferred location) on the Windows 10/11 system you wish to install the Alleo Rooms application
- Execute the installer by double-clicking the file. If you are prompted by Windows, select Yes to proceed with the installation
- Follow the installer setup wizard prompts
- When the installation is complete, you can select the option to launch the Alleo Rooms application from the installer or run the Alleo Rooms program either from your desktop shortcut or Windows Start menu
- If this was an upgrade to a previous version of Alleo Rooms, you can skip to step #12, else continue on for a new install.
- Once Alleo Rooms is running you will see a Settings window with the prompt Alleo Rooms - Select Environment
- Select the drop list under Select Environment and select the region your Alleo organization is using (e.g. North America, Europe or Local for On-Premise deployments)
- If you are selecting the Local option for On-Premise deployments, you must enter your Alleo On-Premise server URL for both the App Url and Api Url
- Select Ok to save your changes and you will notice Alleo Rooms will restart and display the Settings window once again
- Select Add Display and enter the license key provided by Alleo then select Register
It is important to note that if you are utilizing multiple displays on a single Alleo Rooms system, you must enter the license keys one at a time from left to right in regards to the display locations within Windows (selecting Register after each key is entered).
Key items to note when running multiple displays with Alleo Rooms:- All displays must be arranged side-by-side (left to right) in Windows Settings
- Stacking of displays from (e.g. top down order) is not supported
- The left most display MUST be set as your main display in Windows Settings
- Next, select Restart Application in the Settings menu (this will restart the Alleo Room application with the proper license)
- Once the Alleo Rooms application is running you should see a “moving” background screensaver (depending on your Alleo Rooms configuration)
- Finally, verify the Alleo Rooms Display name by pressing keys CTRL + SHIFT + U to show the Settings menu. Select Identify Displays and you should see the display name in the lower left corner of the display
Verify Operation
- Open (or create new) an Alleo board from the Alleo dashboard
- Once the board successfully opens, select the Share (top right menu) button
- Next, select Open on display and select the checkbox next to the display name identified in step #13 above. You can also specify the Permission level of the display. Finally select Open on display(s) to open this board on your Alleo Display
- If successful, you will now see the Alleo board open on the Alleo Rooms display. You can verify this user has joined the board by opening the Users menu and verifying the board has joined
Settings Menu Options
- With the Alleo Rooms application running, you can view the Settings menu by selecting CTRL + SHIFT + U on your keyboard
- Settings options include:
- Add Display - allows the user to add Alleo Rooms license key(s)
- Change Display Order - allows the user to change the order only if multiple displays are configured
- Identify Displays - shows the display name on each Alleo Rooms display
- Restart Application - restarts the Alleo Rooms application
- Send Logs - allows the user to archive and upload current log files to the Admin portal for troubleshooting purposes
- About - displays key Alleo Rooms version numbers
- Check for Updates - allows the user to inquire for new updates (this is automatically checked when the application starts)
- Change Environment - allows the user to change the region in order to properly setup and associate Alleo Rooms
- Exit - exits the Alleo Rooms application (you will be prompted to verify shutdown of the application)
- In addition you will find there is also an Alleo Rooms icon in the system tray while the application is actively running. You can right-click this icon and select the settings menu as well as exit the application
- By default, Alleo Rooms will have the screen cursor “hidden” after start-up of the application. Please understand this is a designed feature which provides a clean look and by hiding the cursor. However, if the user requires the cursor, open the Settings menu (see step 1) and select the board (or press the X in the upper right and select No) which hides the Settings menu. Now your screen cursor will be visible
Key Application Files
There are two key file folders for the Alleo Rooms application, Config, and Logs. These folders are located under the local Windows user folder structure and explained below. You can quickly navigate to this directory within Windows File Explorer by typing %LocalAppData% into the address bar then navigate to the "Alleo > Rooms" directory.
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Config - this folder contains the files needed for application configuration as well as the configuration for associated displays
- “appsettings.json” contains key endpoints for the application. You will notice there will be a specific appsettings files for each of the Alleo regions (correlates to the options in the "Change Environment" section of the utility menu)
- “usersettings.json” contains the display(s) and associated license information
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Logs - this folder contains the daily log files and a system information file both helpful for troubleshooting purposes
- “yyyymmdd.txt” contains a time series set of log files recorded during application execution. This file only contains data for a single day of operation
- “Systeminfo.txt” contains key system resource information to assist with troubleshooting
Configure Auto Launch on Windows Startup
If desired, the following steps will automatically start Alleo Rooms after each start of the Windows operating system:
- Type and search Startup Apps in the Windows search bar, and then click Open
- In Startup Apps, you can sort apps by Name, Status, or Startup impact. Find the app AlleoRooms and select On if you want to automatically start Alleo Rooms the next time the system boots.
- If you do not want to auto start Alleo Rooms, select Off and this will prevent Alleo Rooms from starting on system boot.
Troubleshooting – Auto Launch Not Appearing
By default, Alleo Rooms should appear under Windows Settings → Startup Apps, where you can toggle auto-launch On or Off.
If the Alleo Rooms entry does not appear, one workaround is to manually add a shortcut for the application to the Windows Startup folder.
You can do this by copying a shortcut to the Alleo Rooms executable into one of the following paths:
System-wide startup (all users):
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\StartupCurrent user only:
%APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup
Once the shortcut is added, the application should be available in the Windows Startup dialog.
Configure Alleo Rooms Weekly Application Restart
In cases when Alleo Rooms has a board during a cloud update, the application may need to be relaunched. To circumvent the issue, we recommend deploying an application restart task via the following instructions:
Setup Instructions
For Alleo Rooms versions 1.3.165 and prior, authenticate to Windows with the same user account that will be used to run Alleo Rooms.
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Prepare the Folder
If it doesn’t already exist, create the folder:
C:\Alleo\Place
AlleoStopRestartAlleoRooms.batinside it, ensuring the final path is:C:\Alleo\AlleoStopRestartAlleoRooms.bat
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Import the Scheduled Task
Open Task Scheduler.
In the right panel, select Import Task….
Browse to and select
RestartAlleoRooms.xmlConfirm the task name (e.g., RestartAlleoRooms) and complete the import.
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Verify Key Settings
Trigger: Weekly at 4:00 AM each Monday.
Action: Runs C:\Alleo\AlleoStopRestartAlleoRooms.bat
Privileges: Does NOT require highest available privileges
- If you are using RestartAlleoRooms.xml, you must update the user account under "Security options." For Alleo Rooms versions 1.3.165 and prior, the scheduled task's run as user must be the user account that was used to install Alleo Rooms.
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Test the Task
With the Alleo Rooms application currently running, right-click the task → Run.
Confirm the batch file executes and restarts Alleo Rooms as expected.
[CLICK HERE] to download the Alleo Rooms Restart Scheduled Task package (includes the BAT file and presets).
Frequently Asked Questions
How can I always show the cursor?
By default, Alleo Rooms auto-hides the cursor to avoid disrupting the UI. As an Alleo Rooms application admin, you can disable the setting to auto-hide the cursor via the following steps:
- Exit Alleo Rooms.
- If you are running Alleo Rooms version 1.3.165, navigate to C:\Users\[YOUR USER]\AppData\Local\Alleo\Rooms\Config. If you are running Alleo Rooms version 1.3.175, navigate to C:\ProgramData\Alleo\Rooms\Config.
- Open the appsettings file associated with your environment. E.g.,
- On-prem instance: appsettings.json.
- EU cloud instance: appsettings.North America.json
- NA cloud instance: appsettings.Europe.json
- Set the "HideCursor" parameter to false.
- Save.
- Relaunch Alleo Rooms.
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