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Website links / browsers not working in locked down GP on terminal servers / remote desktop

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Posted on by Steven Vallarian

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This is a weird one, so hold on....and one of the oddest problems i've ever run into.

So for some of our clients, we run their GP in a "locked down" state -- they log into their remote desktop session and we run a batch file that just starts great plains. They have access to the desktop, but an absolute minimal. Back in the day, we used the "Environment" tab in AD to just start GP when the logged it.

Been working fine for 15 or so years until this week.

This week, when the users click on a link they've setup in GP (say, to their bank website), chrome, the default browser, will launch and hang. If we setup a shortcut to run chrome, it also hangs.

If they start chrome outside of GP, but still in session, it works fine.

Here's where it gets weird.

If we start chrome before GP starts, and leave chrome open, everything works as expected. But if we close that inital browser, nothing else works.

If we use, edge, it does the same thing (because it's chrome)

If we use firefox, does the same thing.

chrome logs shows that it's the chrome network service stopping and restarting about once every 2/10 of a second, which makes the processor go bananas.

As a very awful workaround, i made a batch file to start powershell, then launch chrome, and then launch the bank website, but that's kind of kludgey, and i'm worried that i'm going to break other 3rd party integrations that may shell out to a website from inside of GP.

Just wondering if anyone has seen anything like this...ever.

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Microsoft Dynamics GP

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Derek Albaugh on at

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I can't say that we've seen anything like this, as we don't get many, if any, cases launching Dynamics GP the way you mentioned.

To verify, it seems like you're still able to get Dynamics GP open fine, but when users attempt to use a shortcut/link they've created in GP to a website, that's where you see it hanging, unless they launch Chrome outside of GP but still in the GP session?

If it worked for 15 or so years but suddenly stopped, I'd maybe look at what updates for Chrome were pushed down or even Windows, as it sounds like something may have changed there.

I'm not sure if the Community has more information they could offer...........

Thanks

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Steven Vallarian 394 on at

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Yup. So bascially, if *I* start GP for them, it won't work. If they start GP via a shortcut, it works fine. I even cut it back to the "old school method" using the environment tab starting GP and it does the same thing with the websites hanging.

Oddly enough - iexplore.exe works just fine....just no other browsers.

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Steven Vallarian 394 on at

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To replicate:

Be using a remote desktop server. I'm using Server 2016.

You may have to cut this on to enable legacy starting:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows NT\Terminal Services
Name: fQueryUserConfigFromDC
Type: Reg_DWORD
Value: 1 (Decimal)

Change the user's environment to this:

"c:\program files (x86)\microsoft dynamics\gp2018\dynamics.exe" "c:\program files (x86)\microsoft dynamics\gp2018\dynamics.set"

Then just start GP, add a website shortcut, or a shortcut to chrome.exe (or firefox.exe) (or msedge.exe). Chrome will then hang and not go to any site.

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Derek Albaugh on at

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Have you tried maybe running Process Monitor when re-creating this issue with the links, to see if anything shows as 'Access Denied' or something along those lines, or is the environment too locked down to even run something like that?

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Steven Vallarian 394 on at

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I have been in process monitor for days now trying to see the difference when the good dynamics calls out to the shell vs bad dynamics calling out to the shell. Haven't had much luck.

No access denied in there though.

Chrome actually did generate a log though. It constantly does this "Network service crashed, restarting service" every 2/10 of a second.

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Derek Albaugh on at

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Looking online for this "Network service crashed, restarting service" in regard to Chrome, I do see some things mentioned, though most are at least a year old or so........may be worth taking a look at.......

Event Viewer logs may be worth a look also if you haven't.........otherwise, I don't have much more on this....... the Community may.......

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Steven Vallarian 394 on at

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Well, after many hours of beating my head against the wall, i finally figured out it.

We were launching GP in windows 7 compatibility mode (for reasons of which i have forgotten), which apparently causing the processes that GP spawned to also launch in compatibility mode, which the browsers just couldn't work with any more.

Unchecking the box fixes the issue.

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Derek Albaugh on at

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Good information, thanks for updating the Community.

Have a great day.

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