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Configuring the notification area icon & app. Intel AMT SW Part 3

By Shmuel Gershon (Intel) (17 posts) on September 23, 2008 at 6:54 am

(See Part 1 for an overview, and Part 2 for the icon introduction and screenshots)

Hi All.
Today we'll see some secret settings in Intel AMT software. Well, not so secret: They're all written in the software readme, but hey! Who reads the instructions? :) Also, your equipment manufacturer may have removed the readme file or made it hard to find.
So, following the introduction to the notification icon in Part 2, let's see a bit about how it works and how it can be configured.

The notification icon Intel® AMT System Status shows the Intel AMT state on the system: enabled or disabled.
It's got the Intel logo, a short explanation, and a link to Intel's site. Usually it sits in the C:\Program Files\Intel\AMT\atchk.exe (or sometimes C:\Program Files\Intel\AMT Status\atchk.exe).
See the picture:

Below are some ways in which the icon can be customized to fit your needs and preferences.
Note 1: Your systems may use a different folder for the software, change it accordingly where needed.
Note 2: Some modifications include changing values in the registry. While this should be inoffensive when done on the key/values described below, the registry is a dangerous place to tamper. Do it with care and at your own risk. :)
Note 3: The instructions below pertain to versions of the software up to Intel AMT 3.0. Versions 4.0 and on will be discussed in a different post.

• Manufacturer Logo Customization:
  The logo displayed by the Privacy Icon can be Intel's or can be a different one. Maybe your computer's got the application with the logo of your manufacturer. Manufacturers do that in order to keep the brand identity of the system applications consistent. (For example, there are times when the loading screens, the login windows and all the basic system screens are personalized to match the manufacturers' brand identity).
   
  In order to modify the logo, you must add a bitmap file called oemlogo.bmp in the atchk folder.
  There are some limitations: 1) The file must be of bitmap format, 2) can not be larger than 15kb, 3) must be at most 64 pixels wide to 42 pixels tall, and 4) must be called 'oemlogo.bmp'. If a file with the requirements above is found, it will be displayed on the dialog.
   
  If you want to go back to the default Intel logo, just rename or delete the oemlogo.bmp file.

• "Click here" URL Customization:
  Just like the logo, at times a manufacturer prefers to direct the users to a website of their preferences. In such website they may explain what the Intel AMT dialog is and how it blends or relates to other pre-installed software.
   
  In order to modify the site pointed by the "click here" link, just change the following key in the registry:
  Key: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Intel\Network_Services\atchk]
  String value: "OemUrl"="http://www.intel.com/vpro"
   
  In order to return the link back to default, simply delete the value, or edit the value to be "http://www.intel.com/vpro".

• Tracing file for debugging
  In case the icon and application are behaving in any unclear way and you want to (or need to) see a bit of the internal flows for debugging, you can just change the value below in the registry from 00000000 to 00000001:
  Key: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Intel\Network_Services\atchk]
  Value: "TRACE"=dword:00000000
  
  A log file will be created at %ROOT%\temp\atchk.log.

• Delay loading of the service
  At times, services and driver can interfere with one another at the time of loading. This can cause the atchk application to time-out when waiting for communication from the atchsrv service. In such cases, an ugly error message appears: "Intel AMT Status could not be retrieved from the atchksrv service for 60 second. Please make sure the service is running".
  This does not happen in most system and network configurations. But if you're seeing this, you may want to change the following registry key to a higher value. For example, change the value from 00000007 to 00000010.
  Key: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Intel\Network_Services\atchk]
  Value: "AMTStatusInitMaxRetries"=dword:00000007

This post is already too long, so I'll post the instructions on how to minimize, hide or disable the icon in the next section.
Should come in a few days :); until then, use the comments below to ask any questions you may have.
See you!

Categories: Manageability

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