Options and Server Settings

From the Windows menu, select File | Options & Server Settings... to open the settings dialog. Please select a setting on the left and change the respective values on the right side. Click the OK button to save your settings.

You can choose from these options on the left hand side:

• System
• System—Alerting
• PRTG Server Connection
• Tools
• Select External Browser
   

System

Change general system settings for the Windows GUI.

Start With Windows

• By default this setting is enabled.
• With this setting enabled, the Windows GUI will start up automatically when this computer is started.
   

Show in Tray

• By default this setting is enabled.

• With this setting enabled, a PRTG icon will be shown in the Windows tray.
• On mouse over, it will show a balloon info with the most important status information about your monitoring; with a right-click you can access a menu with access to the most important functions.
• In order to use any alerting functionalities (see System—Alerting section), you must enable this option. If the tray icon is not shown, no alerting from the Windows GUI will be available.
   

Clear Tray Blink Notification automatically

• Whenever there are new alarms (sensors is Down status), the tray icon will start blinking. If you enable this option, the tray icon will stop blinking automatically as soon as there are no more alarms.
• With this option disabled, it will keep blinking, even if all alarms should be cleared meanwhile.
   

Update Interval (s)

• Define the number of seconds that will be waited before the screen is refreshed.
• Default value is 60.
   

Language

• Choose the language for this program from the drop down menu. Default is English. Depending on your installation, you may be able to choose other languages here.
• This setting will influence the language of the Windows GUI only.
   

System—Alerting

You can define what the Windows GUI will do in case of new Alarms, Messages, or ToDos. The settings are the same for all of these three cases, but you can individually define them for each case. On the left side, please select either Alerting for new Alarms, Alerting for new Messages, or Alerting for new ToDos and define the settings as follows.

Note: All alerting options only take effect when the Show in Tray option is enabled in the system settings above; if the tray icon is disabled, there will be no alerting from the Windows GUI.

Blink Tray Icon

• The tray icon will blink if there are new items to be alerted for.
• You can additionally set the Clear Tray Blink Notification automatically option in the system settings above.
   

Balloon Info in Tray

• Show a balloon info next to the PRTG tray icon if there are new items to be alerted for.
   

Popup Message

• Show a popup message window if there are new items to be alerted for.
• Note: The popup window will be always on top until it's closed.
   

Play Sound

• Play an audible notification if there are new items to be alerted for.
• There is a default sound defined. To change it, please click on the folder symbol and select any standard WAV file from your hard disk drive. PRTG already comes with a small set of sounds you can choose from.
• Note: The sound file will be played only on the computer running the Windows GUI.
   

Open GUI

• Open the Windows GUI if there are new items to be alerted for.
   

PRTG Server Connection

The Windows GUI connects to the web server running with every PRTG core server installation. It supports saving the configuration for a connection to one or more PRTG web servers. In a full PRTG installation, there is already a connection predefined. Note: For a successful connection, the program versions of Windows GUI and PRTG core server have to match.

Please click the Add button to add a new server connection configuration, or choose an existing Server from the list and click the Edit button to change the settings. Use the Delete button to remove an entry from the list. When opening the Windows GUI, it will automatically re-establish the connection used previously.

Server IP/DNS name

• Enter the IP address or DNS name of the PRTG web server the Windows GUI will connect to.

• This is the same address or name as defined in the web server settings for the core server. For detailed information please see PRTG Server Administrator (Web Server) section. Please make sure that the set values match.

• Please make sure that the server is reachable (especially when using Network Address Translation (NAT)) and no firewall settings are blocking the connection.
   

Port

• Enter the port on which the PRTG web server is running.
• This is the same port as defined in the web server settings for the core server. For detailed information please see PRTG Server Administrator (Web Server) section. Please make sure that the set values match.

• Please make sure that the server is reachable (especially when using Network Address Translation (NAT)) and no firewall settings are blocking the connection.

Login Name

• Enter the login name that will be used to login to the web server.
• This can be the administrator login or the login of another PRTG user.
• In a new installation, the login name is prtgadmin by default.
• For detailed information about user accounts please see System Administration—User Accounts section.
   

Password

• Enter the password for the login name entered above.
• In a new installation, the password is prtgadmin by default.
   

Root ID

• Enter the ID of the object that will be considered the root of the device tree.
• Default value is 0, which is the Root group of your configuration.
• If you enter an other object's ID here, the device tree will start at this object, only showing all other objects below in the hierarchy.
• This is useful to only view a part of the device tree, which is loaded much faster.
• You can create several connections that only differ in the Root ID value in order to quickly switch between different views within your configuration, choosing different connections from the File Windows menu.
   

Display Name (optional)

• Optionally enter a name that will be displayed in the Server list.
• If you leave this field blank, the Server IP/DNS name setting will be displayed there.
   

Click the OK button to save your settings.

Tools

In the Tools settings you can define commands that will be available in the Windows Menu and context menu of groups, devices, and sensors. A command to initiate a remote desktop connection is already predefined.

Note: In order for the tool function to work with your Windows version, you may need to run the Windows GUI as administrator.

Please click the Add button to add a new command, or choose an existing one from the list and click the Edit button to change the settings. Use the Delete button to remove an entry from the list.

Name

• Enter a custom name for your command as it will show up in the context menu.
   

Command

• Enter the command you want to execute on the local machine.
• This can be, for example the name of a program or script, with or without path, according to your system's configuration.
   

Parameters

• Enter the parameters with which the command will be called.
• You can use the placeholders (variables) shown in the window. Other placeholders are not possible. During runtime, these placeholders will be replaced by the respective values set for the object you have selected. For example, the %id placeholder will be replaced by the ID of a group, a device, or a sensor, depending on which object you're executing the command for.
   

Parameters—Available placeholders

The following placeholders (variables) are available in the Windows GUI.

If a placeholder is used in combination with an object it is not available for, it will simply not be resolved, but the placeholder itself will be returned.

Note: To see the output of all placeholders for different objects you can create a simple test tool that displays the output in a command line window. Just create a tool with the command cmd and the following content in the Parameters field:

/K echo.id: %id && echo.name: %name 
       && echo.host: %host && echo.message: %message 
       && echo.value: %value && echo.type: %type

 

Then, click an object in the device tree and run the tool from the Tools option in the menu (either Windows or context menu).

Shortcut

• Select a key shortcut for the command. Choose an F-Key from the list or select None to not use a key.

Select External Browser

With this settings you can define which browser will be opened when you select a command which requires opening an external browser window, for example when calling View | Open this object in Web Browser. You can only select browsers installed on the system running the Windows GUI; other browser options are disabled. By default, the system's default browser is opened. To change this behavior, choose between:

• Use system default browser
• Use IE
• Use Firefox
• Use Chrome
• Use Safari
   

 

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