# Planning For Deployment

When a computer is activated as a hot desk computer, it will support multiple <code class="expression">space.vars.PRODUCT\_NAME</code> users , but, only one user at a time. The <code class="expression">space.vars.PRODUCT\_NAME</code> Subscription Administrator is responsible for activating the computer as a hot desk computer, not the end users.

Hot desk computers can be activated manually via the wizard, or automatically via the <code class="expression">space.vars.PRODUCT\_NAME</code> command line.

After activating the computer as a hot desk computer, a user signing on to the computer will see <code class="expression">space.vars.PRODUCT\_NAME</code> start up automatically and map their network drives.

## Licencing And Licenced Users

A Shared Computer licence is required to activate a hot desk computer. The licence is assigned to the computer during the activation process. The relationship between Shared Computer licence and hot desk computer is one to one. E.g. if you activate 10 hot desk computers you will require 10 Shared Computer licences.

<code class="expression">space.vars.PRODUCT\_NAME</code> will only start-up successfully for licenced users. A licenced user is a user that has been set up on the <code class="expression">space.vars.PRODUCT\_NAME</code> subscription with either a Personal Computer User licence or Shared Computer User licence.

A hot desk computer supports only one active <code class="expression">space.vars.PRODUCT\_NAME</code> user at a time. If another user signs in to the computer at *the same time* as another user, then the existing user will have their <code class="expression">space.vars.PRODUCT\_NAME</code> session invalidated as the new user's <code class="expression">space.vars.PRODUCT\_NAME</code> session will become the active one.

## Username Resolution

After the hot desk computer has been activated, when users sign in to the computer, <code class="expression">space.vars.PRODUCT\_NAME</code> will start-up automatically and attempt to identify the user to validate they are set-up on the associated <code class="expression">space.vars.PRODUCT\_NAME</code> subscription. For further information on the automatic identification process and how <code class="expression">space.vars.PRODUCT\_NAME</code> handles the case where identification fails, please refer to [#username-resolution](https://docs.zeedrive.com/deploying-to-desktop-servers/planning-for-deployment#username-resolution "mention") in the desktop server section.

## Fully Automate Deployment

Activation of a hot desk computer can be achieved automatically via use of the <code class="expression">space.vars.PRODUCT\_NAME</code> command line. And, if you have a software deployment tool such as Microsoft Intune, you can integrate the command line in to the deployment tool for a fully managed deployment experience.

Automated activation may be appealing where you have many hot desk computers to activate and wish to avoid manual activation via the wizard.

{% hint style="success" %}
If your organisation prefers to avoid end users [manually activating their personal computers](https://docs.zeedrive.com/user-guide/activate-your-computer) with <code class="expression">space.vars.PRODUCT\_NAME</code>, you may consider activating *all* your computers as hot desk computers via the command line whether they are personal computers or hot desk computers.

E.g. when your organisation provisions a computer for a new employee, the automated activation of <code class="expression">space.vars.PRODUCT\_NAME</code> on the computer could be integrated in to your existing provisioning process.
{% endhint %}

To facilitate the automated installation and activation of <code class="expression">space.vars.PRODUCT\_NAME</code> on hot desk computers, the `zeedrive.exe` executable supports a silent/headless execution mode via command line parameters.

Before you can activate a hot desk computer via the command line, you will first need to [enable command line activation](https://docs.zeedrive.com/administration-guide/deploying-to-hot-desk-computers/preparing-for-automated-activation).

Refer to [#activating-a-hot-desk-computer](https://docs.zeedrive.com/how-to/use-the-command-line#activating-a-hot-desk-computer "mention") in the command line guide for more information on the command line syntax.

If your organisation uses Microsoft Intune, you can leverage the <code class="expression">space.vars.PRODUCT\_NAME</code> command line to activate <code class="expression">space.vars.PRODUCT\_NAME</code> from Intune. A full guide to deploy <code class="expression">space.vars.PRODUCT\_NAME</code> on hot desk computers with Intune is [available here](https://docs.zeedrive.com/how-to/deploy-with-intune).

If you have an issue activating via the command line, check the [activation results log file](https://docs.zeedrive.com/administration-guide/deploying-to-hot-desk-computers/monitor-automated-activation-results).