Admin Alert: Two PC5250 Configuration Secrets

Published: August 24, 2011

by Joe Hertvik

With a history that spans well over a decade, the PC5250 program that comes with iSeries Access for Windows 6.1 contains tons of features that the average user or administrator may be unaware of. This week, I am discussing how you can use PC5250 to delete unneeded macros and to run multiple unique green-screen sessions on your desktop. Let's get started.

Deleting a PC5250 Macro

In an earlier issue, I demonstrated how to record and play PC5250 macros. After that article was posted, several readers wrote in asking me how to delete existing macros on their systems. Here's the drill for removing old and unused PC5250 macros.

To view all existing PC5250 macros on your PC, select Edit→Preferences→Macro/Script from the PC5250 menu bar. This will bring you to the following Macro/Script Setup window.

Click on the dropdown box arrow in the Auto-Start Macro/Script section and you'll see all the macros that are currently set up on this machine. Notice that while this window has an option to customize (change) a macro, there is no option to delete a macro.

While the PC5250 program that comes with iSeries Access for Windows does not have a delete function, you can easily use the Windows Search function to locate and delete your PC5250 macros. Do the following to get rid of a macro if you're running on a Windows XP machine (adjust these instructions accordingly for Windows 7).

1. Determine your macro name--All PC5250 macros end with a .mac extension. So if your PC5250 macro name is macro, your macro file name will be macro.mac.

2. Search for all macros on your system--Click on the Windows Start button and select the Search option. Use the Windows Search Companion (shown below) to look for all files on your local hard drive that end with a .mac extension. Macros are usually stored in the user's Private iSeries Access for Windows directory, which is located by default in the \Program Files\IBM\Client Access\Emulator\Private directory.

3. Once you find your target macro, highlight the file and press the delete key--Like all other Windows' deletes, the operating system will ask you if you're sure you want to send the file to the Recycling Bin. Click Yes.

This will delete your macro. If you find you deleted a macro in error, you can always go into the Recycling Bin and restore it back to your system.

Configuring Your PC5250 Setup for Multiple Sessions on the Same PC

Depending on the application, many users will need to start two, three, or more PC5250 sessions on their desktops. However, because each session must have a unique session name, you'll need to configure your user's desktops so that their session names do not match any other currently running PC5250 sessions on their PC or elsewhere on the network.

To do this, you must tweak your PC5250 configuration settings. You can check and adjust these settings by clicking on Connection→Configure from the PC5250 menu bar. This brings up the following Configure PC5250 screen.

Check the Workstation ID section. This is where you designate what the basic name of your PC5250 session is and whether you can start multiple sessions using the same base PC5250 session name. When set correctly (as shown here), you will never have a problem with your PC5250 sessions trying to use a session name that is already in use.

To specify the base name of your PC5250 session, click the Use Computer Name, Use Windows User Name, or Specify Workstation ID radio button. True to their names, the Use Computer Name radio button will use your Windows computer name as the base PC520 session name for each session, while the Use Windows User Name will use the signed on user's Windows computer name as the default PC5250 session name. The Specify Workstation ID radio button allows you to enter an entirely different base PC5250 name for your sessions. So if I wanted all of my PC5250 sessions to use the word 'JOE' as their base session name, I would click on the Specify Workstation ID radio button and enter 'JOE' in the input field below that button.

In order to run two or more PC5250 sessions on my PC with the same base session name (JOE), I would also have to check one of both of the following check boxes in the Workstation ID section of the Configure PC5250 screen. If I don't set one of these functions, I won't be able to start a second session because each session would try to access my i OS box using the same session name of 'JOE'.

• Avoid duplicate names on this workstation--When checked, each PC5250 session name on this PC will be configured with a unique name for this PC only. This is done by adding a single letter from A through Z to the session name. So if I specified that my base session name is 'JOE', by clicking on Avoid Duplicate Names On This Workstation, PC5250 would automatically title each session name on my PC to have a different name from the other sessions running on the PC. Using this checkbox, the first session name might be JOEA, the second session might be named JOEB, and so on. This would ensure that no two PC5250 sessions on the PC have the same name.
• Avoid duplicate names with other workstations--While the Avoid Duplicate Names On This Workstation checkbox ensures that PC5250 doesn't try to start two sessions with the same name on your current PC, checking the Avoid Duplicate Names With Other Workstations checkbox ensures that my PC's PC5250 sessions will not have the same names as any other active PC5250 sessions from any PCs connecting to the same i/OS machine over the network. The systems does this by assigning a unique session name to each session that adds a number to the base session name to distinguish the new session from other active PC5250 sessions attached to my target Power i, System I, or iSeries box. So again, if my base session name is JOE and I checked the Avoid Duplicate Names With Other Workstations checkbox, the system will automatically add a number to my base system name to avoid having me using the same session names as other sessions attaching to the same system. So my sessions might be named JOE1, JOE2, JOE3 in order to distinguish them from any other PCs using 'JOE' as their base PC5250 session name.

To me, the best move to distinguish my PC5250 session names is to check both the Avoid Duplicate Names On This Workstation and the Avoid Duplicate Names With Other Workstations checkboxes as shown above. By using both boxes together along with a unique base name (such as my computer name or Windows user ID name), I can ensure that I can start multiple sessions on my PC that will not be duplicated anywhere on the network. If both boxes are checked, my unique session names will be created by appending both a letter from A to Z and a number to my base name, such that if my base session name is 'JOE', my multiple session names might be titled 'JOEA1', 'JOEB1', 'JOEC1', 'JOEA2', etc.

How To Start Multiple PC5250

Once your PC5250 session is configured correctly, it's easy to start multiple sessions. You can do it in one of two ways.

• Click on your session icon a second time--Each time you click on the PC5250 icon, it will start a new session using the same configuration parameters. Each session will have a unique name.
• Click on File→Run the Same from the PC5250 menu bar of a currently running session--This will start another unique session in a separate window.

And that's all there to starting multiple unique PC5250 sessions on a PC.

About Our Environment

These techniques with tested with the PC5250 package that comes with iSeries Access for Windows V6R1M0 running on a Windows XP. You may need to adjust some of these techniques if you're running a different iSeries Access for Windows or Client Access for Windows version or if you are running iSeries Access for Windows on a different Windows operating system, such as Windows 7.

RELATED STORY

How Do I Record a PC5250 Macro?

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