Douglas Spencer ([info]dougs) wrote,
@ 2008-09-09 22:37:00
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Things I'd like to see in Windows
You can tell a machine running [a sufficiently recent version of] Windows to use "fast user switching", which means I can log in as an Administrator (or another user) to do something without having to log myself out.

You can also get two screens plugged into a Windows machine, and extend your desktop across both screens, which means I can run one application on one screen and another on the other.

What I'd quite like at the moment is to have one screen logged in as me, and the other screen logged in as an Administrator (or another user), and to switch sessions by sliding my mouse from one screen to the other... and Windows can't do it. I have to keep switching users, and I can't look at both sessions at the same time.

Boo to Windows!

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[info]johncoxon
2008-09-09 10:34 pm UTC (link)
On the subject of computers, I bear bad news - you gave me a 400GB drive, and I've been trying to format it as HFS+ for use with my Mac. I therefore format it in Terminal and it is all fine and shiny, but when I try to mount (with the GUI), Disk Utility either hangs or gives an error. I then try to verify the disk and Terminal tells me that it's an unrecognised filesystem. I am at a loss - I've tried this twice and it hasn't work, and Windows on the same machine isn't having any luck either (gave an error when it reached Formatting: 100%). Any suggestions?

The other one formatted, mounted and let me put stuff on it fine, so I can still do what I want to do, but I thought you'd probably want to know about this one...

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[info]johncoxon
2008-09-09 10:41 pm UTC (link)
Scratch that - five minutes later it appears to be working fine. I'm about to test it by putting things on it.

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[info]dougs
2008-09-09 10:46 pm UTC (link)
I would refrain from deleting the originals until you've tested your copy thoroughly.

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[info]dougs
2008-09-09 10:49 pm UTC (link)
Both disks have been sat doing nothing, turned off, in my server cupboard for some months. I formatted them (NTFS) before the con, but didn't do anything else with them... so I could reasonably describe both of them as "condition unknown".

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[info]evilmattikinz
2008-09-10 07:49 am UTC (link)
Err could you not terminal service/remote desktop yourself into the same machine so you are running say an administrator in an MSTSC.EXE (seeing as it keeps getting renamed but the exe doesn't) window on your own machine and the rest of the desktop as the ordinary user?

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[info]andrewducker
2008-09-10 08:17 am UTC (link)
Only on the server versions.

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[info]dougs
2008-09-10 08:23 am UTC (link)
I've heard tell of a hack which allows this on workstations, somewhere in the security policy bit of the registry, but Google is failing me at the moment.

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[info]andrewducker
2008-09-10 08:29 am UTC (link)
http://www.golod.com/2005/10/enabling-multiple-remote-desktop-sessions-in-windows-xp-professional-and-media-center-edition-2005/

http://www.mydigitallife.info/2008/06/14/install-and-enable-remote-desktop-in-windows-xp-home-edition/

http://www.mydigitallife.info/2008/06/13/enable-multiple-concurrent-remote-desktop-connections-or-sessions-in-windows-xp/

my google-fu is mighty :->

Edited at 2008-09-10 08:32 am UTC

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[info]evilmattikinz
2008-09-10 10:31 am UTC (link)
oh, i thought it was fairly standard procedure for xp at least, are you talking even older?

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[info]andrewducker
2008-09-10 08:18 am UTC (link)
The desktop is a process being run by the current user - so it cannot be shared between different users.

Of course, you can right-click on an icon and "run as" if you want to escalate your privileges for an app...

Edited at 2008-09-10 08:19 am UTC

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[info]dougs
2008-09-10 08:25 am UTC (link)
It can't be rocket science getting one desktop process (an instance of explorer.exe IIRC) running separately on each screen.

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[info]andrewducker
2008-09-10 08:31 am UTC (link)
Absolutely - and the answer would be to run the second one as a process inside the first one. For which Terminal Services would seem to be the best hack to do it.

If there was a big demand for it, it'd probably be done by now...

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[info]gaspodia
2008-09-10 09:57 am UTC (link)
I thought you could remote desktop into your own machine? I'll ask our resident techie if that is possible.

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