What does "use desktop credentials" exactly do ?

[OudMaster]

Hi

can someone tell me about what "use desktop credentials" check does ?

and is it required to disable it the time you enable "Enable Pre-desktop Login" check?

I did not find a clear explanation about it in the user manual. 

thanks,

[[email protected] · Accepted solution]

Hi @OudMaster,

From my understanding, Enabling either "Use desktop credentials" or "Enable Pre-desktop Login" options will enable the Pulse Credential provider i.e. users will be see the Pulse icon on the user profile avatar (Pulse Credential provider sits next to the windows credential provider and captures the username/password entered by the user), which means the credentials used to authenticate against VPN connection will come from / automatically acquired from Pulse Credential provider.

The significant difference lies in their connecting attempt and the way they behave during the reconnection. Let me break it down for you,

>> Activating "Enable Pre-desktop Login" (only) option will try to initiate the VPN connection automatically (cannot be set to manual) even before the user logs in to the windows profile i.e. as soon as the user enters their system credentials. If the user disconnects and reconnects the VPN connection, they will be prompted for authentication.

>> Activating "Use desktop credentials" (only) option will try to initiate the VPN connection automatically (can be set to manual if you'd like) after user logs in to the windows profile. If the user disconnects and reconnects the VPN connection, they will not be prompted for authentication as the credentials are stored in Pulse Client cache. 

Additional benefit of using desktop credentials option is that the cached credentials will be used for other Pulse Client connections too; if they have the "use desktop credentials" enabled.

>> Activating both "Enable Pre-desktop Login" and "Use desktop credentials" will gets you the benefits of both i.e. pre-login VPN connection and no authentication prompt while reconnecting.

I hope this helps you.

-- Ray.

[OudMaster]

Thank you very much for your response.

It is clear to me now, but one more,

The user can click to save his credential the time they login using Pulse Agent,

If his credential is saved, does it have the same effect of enabling "use desktop credentials" ?

[[email protected]]

Yes, saving the credentials using "save settings" on the pulse client and using "use desktop credentials" will have the same effect, which is, not prompting the user for credentials.

- Ray.

[OudMaster]

thank you very much for the clarification.

[[email protected]]

You're welcome

[[email protected]]

How does the pulse secure prompt automatically come ? Everytime when we restart desktop it's aksing for user credentials of the desktop