Alleo Rooms Installation and Setup Guide

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)

Install and Setup

1. 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
2. Execute the installer by double-clicking the file.  If you are prompted by  Windows, select Yes to proceed with the installation
   
3. Follow the installer setup wizard prompts
   
4. 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
   
5. 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.
6. Once Alleo Rooms is running you will see a Settings window with the prompt Alleo Rooms - Select Environment
   
7. 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)
   
8. 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
   
9. Select Ok to save your changes and you will notice Alleo Rooms will restart and display the Settings window once again
   
10. 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
11. Next, select Restart Application in the Settings menu (this will restart the Alleo Room application with the proper license)
    
12. Once the Alleo Rooms application is running you should see a “moving” background screensaver (depending on your Alleo Rooms configuration)
13. 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

1. Open (or create new) an Alleo board from the Alleo dashboard
2. Once the board successfully opens, select the Share (top right menu) button
   
3. 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
   
4. 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

1. With the Alleo Rooms application running, you can view the Settings menu by selecting CTRL + SHIFT + U on your keyboard
   
2. 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) 
3. 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
   
4. 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 2 key file folders for the Alleo Rooms application. 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

• 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
• 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:

1. Type and search Startup Apps in the Windows search bar, and then click Open
   
   
2. 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.
   
3. If you do not want to auto start Alleo Rooms, select Off and this will prevent Alleo Rooms from starting on system boot.
   

Configure Auto Stop and Restart

If desired, the following steps will automatically schedule a task to stop and restart Alleo Rooms at a specific time:

1. On the target system running Alleo Rooms, create a local folder named "C:\Temp\" 

2. Contact Alleo Support and request the file StartRestartAlleoRooms.zip 

3. Once you have the file in step 2 above, download and unzip the file contents to the directory created in step 1
   
4. After unzipping, you will find 2 key files
   
5. Using Windows Search, search for Task Scheduler and launch this application
6.  Select Import Task... from the Action menu
7. Navigate to the "C:\Temp\" directory and choose the "Restart Alleo Rooms.xml" file and select Open
8. This will show the Create Task window with the name "Restart Alleo Rooms"
9. Under the General tab, select Change User or Group...
10. Enter the username for the Windows account that is currently running Alleo Rooms, select Check Names and if this resolves, select OK to confirm this user
    
11. Next select the Triggers tab and then select Edit... Set the desired start time for the restart to occur under the Settings section and select OK to confirm
    
12. Next select the Actions tab and select Edit... Select the Browse button, navigate to the location "C:\Temp\StopRestartAlleoRooms.bat" and select OK to confirm
    
13. Under the Conditions tab, verify no options are selected
    
14. Under the Settings tab, verify the following options are selected
    
15. Select OK to finalize all changes.  You should now see a task named "Restart Alleo Rooms" in the task list.  It is good to select Enable All Tasks History to assist with future task execution
    
16. Finally perform a test run by selecting Run in the Actions menu to ensure proper execution (make sure Alleo Rooms is running)