Arcmap 10.2.1 - How to automatically set portal connection on startup

[MikeWelch]

Greetings,

Most users at my company are not administrators of their own machines so they cannot run the ArcGIS Administrator tool, click on Advanced and then Manage Portal Connections to add the connection to our site on ArcGIS.com (ex: http://my_company.maps.arcgis.com). Any know of a way to do this programmatically for any user that uses ArcMap for a given machine or possibly on installation of 10.2.1 desktop?

I tried the route of setting the following registry keys when ArcMap is installed, but they are only for the current user; new users will not have them set:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ESRI\ArcGIS Online\SignIn\URL0 set to value: "http://my_company.maps.arcgis.com"
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ESRI\ArcGIS Online\Portals String\HomeServerURIFile set to value: "http://my_company.maps.arcgis.com/arcgisuris.xml"

Thanks in advance for any help you might be able to provide,

Mike

[MikeWelch]

I created a support ticket and after working with the support analyst he created an enhancement request with this being an issue (ENH-000082222)

[MarkBockenhauer]

Mike,

Not sure if this will work.

Assuming your registry entries work for the current user.

Try putting the registry entries at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Esri

ArcMap might pick up the settings from this location if they exist.  ArcGIS Explorer Desktop allows for deployment this way, and ArcMap may employ a similar strategy.

Mark

[MikeWelch]

Mark,

Thanks for responding to my query, would the key/strings be:

HKEY_CURRENT_Machine\Software\ESRI\ArcGIS Online\SignIn\URL0

HKEY_CURRENT_Machine\Software\ESRI\ArcGIS Online\Portals String\HomeServerURIFile

I tried these, but they were not picked up by the user.

Mike

[MikeWelch]

Sorry, my cut and paste skills failed above:

HKEY_CURRENT_Machine\Software\ESRI\ArcGIS Online\SignIn\URL0

HKEY_CURRENT_Machine\Software\ESRI\ArcGIS Online\Portals\HomeServerURIFile

URL0 and HomeServerURIFile are strings.

[MarkBockenhauer · Accepted solution]

Mike,

On a 64 bit machine it need to go here:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\ESRI\ArcGIS Online\SignIn

and the key is "HomeServerURIFile"="https://portal/name/arcgisuris.xml"

for example:

I forgot about the part.

Mark

[MikeWelch]

Mark - thanks for your help with this. ESRI said they are looking to address this, but your solution above is the best solution for now.

Mike