Considerations for running Infor Smart Office with Windows Vista or Windows 7

Windows Vista introduces a new feature named User Account Control (UAC) that enable users to run with standard user rights as opposed to administrative rights that has, prior to Windows Vista the Windows usage model, been one of assumed administrative rights of the user.

The User Account Control is enabled by default in Windows Vista and it is possible to turn it off using policies but this is not recommended. Turning off UAC will make Windows Vista behave more like Windows XP.

The Infor Smart Office has some features that require elevation of the standard user rights to function properly in Windows Vista. The features affected are the ones using sockets for communicating with the Infor Smart Office Framework such as Lawson Business Intelligence (LBI).

To grant the rights to open the required sockets, namespace reservations must be made in Http system Access Control List (ACL). Windows Vista has a new Netsh http command that can do this from the command line. Infor Smart Office provides a command line utility that makes the necessary namespace reservations for the user with standard rights and there are also command scripts provided as an alternative that uses the Netsh http command.

To run Infor Smart Office in Windows Vista with full feature set enabled, the following alternative solutions are available:

  • Install the LawsonSmartOfficeUrlACL.msi on each client machine (Recommended)
  • Execute the LawsonSmartOfficeUrlACL utility on each client machine (Recommended)
  • Use ISO command scripts in conjunction with Windows Logon Script execution to add and remove the namespace reservations (Recommended)
  • Elevate Internet Explorer initial rights level and launch Infor Smart Office from favorites (Not recommended)
  • Turn off Windows Vista User Access Control (UAC) (Not recommended)

Namespace reservation installation

This installation installs and executes the LawsonSmartOfficeUrlACL utility. When it is uninstalled it will execute the LawsonSmartOfficeUrlACL with the /Remove argument.

This installation can be pushed out to the clients from the Active Directory or from other products like SMS.

See Pushing out .msi from the Active Directory.

Namespace reservation utility

The LawsonSmartOfficeUrlACL utility intended to be executed on the local machine is also available in the LSCUrlACLSetup.msi package that can be remotely deployed on the client machines using Windows Group Policy or Microsoft System Management Server (SMS).

The utility only needs to be executed once on the local machine since the namespace reservations are permanent until explicitly removed. The removal can be done with the same utility.

The LawsonSmartOfficeUrlACL utility adds and removes a set of ports in the socket Http ACL namespace reservations. The port numbers is chosen from a set of criteria selected in order to minimize possible collisions with other applications and services.

The LawsonSmartOfficeUrlACL utility must be run elevated as an administrator on the client machine to make the namespace reservations. Launch the Windows Command Prompt application from the context menu item Run as Administrator in order to execute the LawsonSmartOfficeUrlACL utility within the Command Prompt.

Reservations for ISO Incoming command listener

Namespace Reserved Ports: 7531, 7809, 9327

The command listener is used by IBrix and Lawson Business Intelligence (LBI) to launch new functions within the Infor Smart Office. Only one of the reserved port numbers will be used at a time by the Infor Smart Office application and the others are used as fallback in case it is already in use.

Reservations for ISO features communication

Namespace Reserved Ports: 9013, 9014, 9015, 9016, 9017

The LSC feature ports is a range reserved for use when configuring the LDT, LBI and other features.

Namespace reservation utility usage

The namespace reservation utility has a set of parameters to control the behavior when it executes within an administrator elevated Windows Command Prompt. 

LawsonSmartOfficeUrlACL [/user domain\user] [remove] [/help]

Add the ISO namespace reservations for everyone on the local machine

> LawsonSmartOfficeUrlACL.exe

Remove the ISO namespace reservations on the local machine

> LawsonSmartOfficeUrlACL.exe /remove

Add the ISO namespace reservations for a specific domain user on the local machine

> LawsonSmartOfficeUrlACL.exe /user MyDomainName\SpecifiedUserName

Show information about the usage of the utility

> LawsonSmartOfficeUrlACL.exe /help

Namespace reservation command scripts

The namespace reservation for the Infor Smart Office can also be done using login scripts that is executed when the user login on its Windows user account.

The AddLSCNamespaceReservations script only needs to be executed once on the local machine since the namespace reservations are permanent until explicitly removed. The removal can be done with the DeleteLSCNamespaceReservations script

Elevated Internet Explorer launch

If the user has administrative rights on the local machine it is possible to bypass the need to run the namespace reservation utility. The bottom line is to elevate the Internet Explorer to run as administrator when it is launched and add the activation URI of the Infor Smart Office as one of the favorites in Internet Explorer. This can be useful for temporary testing but be aware that elevating the Internet Explorer makes it more susceptible to compromise by malware than running with standard user rights. This is not recommended.