Kiosks

Most modern browsers support kiosk mode. This opens a browser that is locked into full-screen mode, perfect for presenting data on large screens and projectors without giving easy access to the 'back' button or navigation controls.

You can launch most Chromium based browsers (Google Chrome, Edge, Opera etc.) in kiosk mode by opening the browser with an additional command-line parameter named –kiosk, followed by the URL of the website you want to open.

For example, to open one of our demo displays as an digital sign, you can use the following command (using Windows and Chrome)…

 "C:\Program Files\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe" --kiosk "https://demo.optrix.com.au/s/pl/displaylist/info?report=powerdist"

You can run the command above in Command Prompt, or copy it into a Windows Shortcut.

If you want to run on a specific screen in a multi-screen setup, you can use the –window-position parameter. This parameter takes an X and Y screen position, separated by a comma.

You'll need to figure out where the top-left corner of your desired screen is. For screen #1, it's always 0,0. If your second screen is to the right of your main screen and you're using a full-HD display, your second screen will be at 1920,0.

To open the kiosk on the 2nd screen in the situation described above, you'd run the command below…

 "C:\Program Files\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe" --window-position=1920,0 --kiosk "https://demo.optrix.com.au/s/pl/displaylist/info?report=powerdist"

It's a little more awkward if you want to run multiple screens. Chrome-based browsers usually remember where they were last opened. When you open two windows, one of them often ends up ignoring the position you asked for, which means they both open on the same screen.

The most reliable way of opening two browsers on two different screens is to make sure each browser has its own user data directory. This prevents the two browser windows from interacting with one-another.

To do that, you'll need a folder where your browser can store two different user accounts. This can be your documents folder, or any folder on your hard drive where you have permission to create files.

In this example, we'll create a folder on C: drive called tmp.

 "C:\Program Files\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe" --window-position=0,0 --kiosk --user-data-dir=c:/tmp/u1 "https://demo.optrix.com.au/s/pl/displaylist/info?report=threed_barchart"

 "C:\Program Files\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe" --window-position=1920,0 --kiosk --user-data-dir=c:/tmp/u2 "https://demo.optrix.com.au/s/pl/displaylist/info?report=powerdist"

NOTE: A window might open in the wrong place and ask you to perform some first-time setup questions when you launch these kiosks for the first time, since you've created two fresh new Chrome user folders.

If this happens, simply finish the setup without signing in to any accounts. This should then open your browser in Kiosk mode on the correct display.

See the Kiosk Mode Example for a step-by-step guide to opening a kiosk browser when you first login to Windows.