Running Operations Console in Vista or Windows 7 or 8

Resolving The Problem

IBM i Access for Windows r7.1 Operations Console (Ops Con) is supported on Microsoft Windows 7/8/8.1 Ultimate, Business (Professional), and Enterprise 32-bit platforms. The recommended PTF level is SI53809 or later., however it is best to have the latest service pack installed on the PC.

Users in the Admin group will be prompted with the User Account Control (UAC) consent prompt when UAC is enabled. In addition, when run in this elevated mode, non-console PC5250 sessions cannot be run at the same time as Operations Console.

Operation Console support for Windows 7, Windows 8 or Windows 8.1

o	Only Operations Console LAN attach is supported.
o	Direct connect (serial attached) is not supported; no support is planned for future releases. Windows 7 no longer supports the RAS function for the modem.
o	Windows 7/8/8.1 Ultimate, Business (Professional), and Enterprise 32-bit are supported; Vista or Windows 7/8/8.1 Home Premium and Home Basic editions are not supported.
o	Minimum/Recommended PTF levels are: - V7R1 SI53809 though the latest Service Pack is recommended

UAC Consent Prompt

When running IBM i Access for Windows Operations Console on Windows 7/8/8.1 under an administrator account, the user is prompted with the User Account Control (UAC) consent prompt: "A program needs your permission to continue". The prompt occurs because Operations Console runs at an elevated level. The current design scopes connections to the machine (or all users). This requires Operations Console to run at an elevated level.



View or change UAC settings

1.	Click Start, 'search', and type secpol.msc. Expand Local Policies, then expand Security Options.
2.	Disable UAC. Setting "Run all administrators in Admin Approval Mode" to disabled will disable User Account Control (UAC). This eliminates the "Consent prompt" for applications such as Operations Console.
3.	Disable UAC for admins. Setting "Behavior of the elevation prompt for administrators in Admin Approval Mode" to "Elevate without prompting" bypasses the UAC consent prompt for admin users.

Operations Console / PC5250 coexistence issue for admin accounts

When logged in as an admin with UAC enabled, the user cannot run both Operation Console and PC5250 at their default levels at the same time. The PC5250 design uses one PCSWS.exe task for all PC5250 sessions. Windows 7 and later does not allow a session running in a one mode (elevated/non-elevated) to communicate with a process running in a second mode (non-elevated/elevated). This results in one of the two following errors:

Scenario 1: Operations Console session established first

Attempting to launch a new or existing PC5250 session results in no Windows appearing on the desktop. In Task Manager, a PCSWS.exe task is running; however, no new window is created.

Scenario 2: PC5250 telnet session started first

The Operations Console emulation window appears; however, the contents of the session are blank. No log on appears as shown in the screen shot below:


Circumvention

One circumvention is to disable UAC. If company policy prevents disabling UAC, there are two other circumventions to this issue:

1. Run as a non-admin user.

When running as a user, the user can connect and disconnect Operations Console; however, the user cannot create, modify or delete an existing connection. Each time Operations Console is started, the user will be prompted with the following authority message:



After clicking OK, the user can connect Operations Console and run both Operations Console and PC5250 at the same time.

2. Run the PC5250 sessions at a elevated (matching) level.
For the PC5250 telnet sessions (non-console), do the following:

o On the Desktop, right-click New->Shortcut.
o Type full path to pcsws.exe; for example: C:\Program Files (x86)\IBM\Client Access\Emulator\pcsws.exe
o Name it something significant; for example: pcsws elevated
o Complete the shortcut wizard.
o Right-click the newly-created shortcut Properties.
o On the Shortcut tab, click Advanced ...
o Check Run as administrator and select OK -> OK.

PC5250 sessions started using that elevated shortcut can peacefully coexist with sessions started using the elevated Operations Console.