Project Server Help Blog

Quick Start for Project Server Veterans

Overcoming the lock on the Windows Logon Account field

Another new Project Pro 2013 and Project Server 2013 behavior catching veterans by surprise is the new lock on the User Logon Account field. Microsoft chose to hide this functionality behind a registry value to signal the ultimate goal of relying completely on SharePoint for authentication. The objective makes sense because SharePoint already recognizes many authentication providers and will ultimately be able to handle anything; but it's not there yet for organizations with complex and granular security requirements, and the web-based management interfaces are not yet robust enough to replace Project Pro 2013 as part of the Project Server's management suite. The Project Pro 2013 client is still the best way to stage a resource pool for import as it allows you to perfect the metadata for resources at the same time. Fortunately, Microsoft included a registry value that re-enables the User Logon Account field. It works in Project Pro 2013 when connecting to a Project Server instance that is using Project Server permission mode. Do not enable this for any site using SharePoint Permissions Mode!

Start the Windows Registry editor by running the regedit command. The system opens the Registry Editor window shown in the figure, which also shows as expanded to the following path:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\MSProject\Profiles\ProfileName

Registry Editor expanded to profile

Notice at the bottom of the window that I added a new WindowsAccountEditable string value and then set the value to Yes. You must do this for each Project Server 2013 profile for which you want to unlock the Windows account field for editing. Of course, you need to create the profile before you can add the registry string.

Opening the Enterprise Resource Pool in Project Pro 2013

Before you can manually enter your organization's enterprise resources using Project Pro 2013, you must open the enterprise resource pool. To open the enterprise resource pool in Project Pro 2013, complete the following steps from Project Web App:

1. In your web browser, click the Resource Center link in the Resources section of the Quick Launch menu. The system opens the Resource Center page shown in the following figure.

Resource Center page

1. On the page, you can select any resources for editing, but you must select at least one. I call your attention to the hidden selector menu shown in the following figure that appears over the checkbox column in the grid only when you float your mouse pointer over the column header. Make note of this, as this is a characteristic of the grid object and applies to many pages in the system. Otherwise, this feature is not easily discoverable.

Hidden Column Header Selector

1. Once you make or clear your selections, (in this case I leave one resource selected), in the Editing section on the Resources ribbon, click the Open button. The system opens the enterprise resource pool for editing as shown in the following figure. Notice that the project displays "Checked-out Enterprise Resources – Project Professional" at the top of the screen whether or not you opened any existing resources. You now have a check-out handle on the resource pool and you can create new resources and new users at the same time if you enabled the registry entry and you are working with a Project Server site in Project Server classic permissions mode.

Resource Pool Open in Project Pro 2013

Project Pro 2013 opens to the Resource Sheet view. This is the view that you use to enter resource information. You should create all of your resource custom fields prior to entering resources; otherwise you will find yourself going back and forth attributing your resources.