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In developing a network application for Windows, I need to consider how the software will operate if the application is installed and run in a Domain environment, as compared to a Workgroup or non-domain environment. I have limited experience with software in such installations, and although we will test our product thoroughly, I need to be aware of differences that may exist as early as possible.

The application is currently targeted at .NET4.5 and consists of two modules:

  1. A Windows service, run as LocalSystem, which starts Automatically.
  2. A WinForms application, run on the system at login, which lives in the task tray for 99% of its life.

The Windows Service

  1. Uses two specific UDP and TCP ports to communicate over the local network.
  2. Communicates with the WinForms application via TCP at localhost.
  3. Communicates with a server on the internet, outbound only, via a RESTful API.
  4. Automatically attempts to create exceptions for itself in the Windows Firewall. Customers will be expected to create any other required exceptions for other firewall or AV products manually.
  5. During a live-test installation (in the wild) would ideally have attached cdb.exe or similar for the purpose of automatically building a crash dump should the service throw an unhandled exception and terminate.

The WinForms Application

  1. Does not have User-Specific configurations. Application-level configurations only.
  2. Communicates with the Windows Service via TCP at localhost.
  3. Following installation should run at login for all users.

Given this arrangement and description, what are some potential pitfalls that I should be aware of, if the operating environment is domain-based?

For example, how can a Group Policy affect the desired operation per above? It's not a problem for us to require that such a Group Policy must be changed

khargoosh
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  • I'm aware that this question may brush the edges of SF. However I ask from the a view of consideration to how the application should be designed and any caveats that need to be considered _in the code_. – khargoosh Sep 24 '15 at 03:30
  • The only things that spring to mind are that group policy may disallow locally defined firewall exceptions (but the exceptions you need can be defined in group policy instead) and may disable some of the mechanisms for automatically running applications when the user logs in. – Harry Johnston Sep 24 '15 at 23:53
  • Thanks @Harry - is it possible to define in the group policy that the application _should_ run when the user logs in, despite any other mechanisms that may be disabled? – khargoosh Sep 25 '15 at 01:07
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    Yes, via the "Run these programs at user logon" option. That might not be appropriate if only some of the computers have the software in question, though. – Harry Johnston Sep 25 '15 at 01:21

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