Wondering on how to remote a PC with multiple users login

[TukangUsapEmenq]

My work is using a PC for 'more heavier loadwork' (but, well, see the specs yourself), that one can remote onto it, perhaps with maximum of four users simultaneously, to draw 3D with SolidWorks.

 

Question is, how in the heck they did it without any 3rd party program? I'm genuinely curious on this.

 

Spoiler

 

(I checked, it's a fake GT 730 unfortunately lol)

 

(I mean, I didn't really expect this CPU could do the load fine tbh, SolidWorks are actually usable lol)

[Eigenvektor]

Windows has Remote Desktop and server/workstation editions allow more than one user at a time

[LAwLz]

I am 100% sure they are using "Remote Desktop Protocol", that's why you see "RDP" mentioned everywhere in your screenshots.

[Kilrah]

But normally you can't RDP more than one user at a time unless you're on Windows Server and even then not more than 2 unless you have bought specific additional remote access licenses, hence the question since this seems to be Win7 Pro...

[Kisai]

1 hour ago, TukangUsapEmenq said:

My work is using a PC for 'more heavier loadwork' (but, well, see the specs yourself), that one can remote onto it, perhaps with maximum of four users simultaneously, to draw 3D with SolidWorks.

 

Question is, how in the heck they did it without any 3rd party program? I'm genuinely curious on this.

 

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(I checked, it's a fake GT 730 unfortunately lol)

 

(I mean, I didn't really expect this CPU could do the load fine tbh, SolidWorks are actually usable lol)

That's likely Windows Server or a Citrix server. But also RDP "emulates" a 3D adapter, while there might actually be a real GPU in the system for doing the processing, it's not being used by the terminal services itself. The software itself might be able to use it as a render device without using it as a display device..

 

It's been known, for like, 20 years that RDP is "usable" enough you could actually play a 3D game with it, but only if you enjoy 4fps. This is because it transmits only the parts of the screen that change, and "3D" things tend to change significant parts of the screen, 60 times per second, where as soildworks or autocad would only be doing that when you move the camera in the software. Just moving the mouse cursor is insignificant.

 

Which is to say, you can have multiple users logged in on a regular Windows Pro system, just their "connection" is suspended when another user logs into it (eg it becomes headless.) If two people try to login to the same system, it will boot the other person off if it's not Windows Server or a Citrix Server. That's a license-related issue, which is why it can only be done with Windows Server.

 

That said, the reason one might even do this is to circumvent the licensing system in place for the software (eg Solidworks) that is tied to the machine, or hardware attached to the machine (eg a 3D printer, or a license dongle.)  Some expensive-but-single-purpose engineering software tends to be done this way because you might have 300 employees who need access to X product, but only need the product for some non-trivial legally required step. You don't buy 300 copies, you buy 1 or 2 copies and have the license tied to the server. If someone needs it, they RDP into the server and use it. (Adobe/Microsoft) Cloud licensing has largely made this unnecessary since the cloud will just say "you can have up to X many employees using the software, regardless of where they are, and what hardware they're using", simplified billing/installation-wise, but also obnoxiously harder to maintain which then goes back to using software on terminal services to avoid having to push updates to 300 people who might not even use it more than once a year.

 

[Eigenvektor]

1 hour ago, Kilrah said:

But normally you can't RDP more than one user at a time unless you're on Windows Server and even then not more than 2 unless you have bought specific additional remote access licenses, hence the question since this seems to be Win7 Pro...

A quick Google suggests there are DLL hacks that work around this limitation. Which I would assume is not something we can/should discuss in more detail.

[wseaton]

The RDP session limit in windows is just a license limit. Has nothing to do with a limit of the OS. Microsoft just doesn't want this feature running on desktop operating systems. You cam also run a server OS on a standard desktop. I used to have 50 users running in RDS / Citrix using entire desktops on a single dual processor pentium 3 server. I dare say on today's hardware 4 user sessions are possible

 

There's a host of greyware out there that enables this on desktop operating systems. 

 

Frankly if I was forced to use solidwosolidworks in an RDS session I would look for another job.