Aug162012

Can I make software on one PC available to others across a network?

Michael Jan Moratalla asks:

Is there a software (application or OS), or process that can give my local users centralized software usage?

This is the situation I have a server with a lot of software and I want that software (particularly an online game) to be available to my connected clients so that if I update it it will also be updated to all.


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System: Windows
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8 Answers -

0 votes

Bruce Epper

August 17, 2012

What kind of server (OS)? If you are using a Windows server, it can be configured as a Terminal Server to allow this type of capability. Even WinXP has a lightweight Terminal Services server that could be used (Remote Desktop) but it allows fewer simultaneous users. The various *nix distributions also allow the same type of remote access.

0 votes

Anay Chaubal

August 17, 2012

does that application have multi user license? does it have ability to run off an application server?

you could use a computer as an application server and have your guests use the apps off it, however, the apps should also support the same functionality to run multiple instances for other users.

0 votes

Mike

August 17, 2012

In addition to what Bruce said it will also depend on the application.

For example you won’t be able to run a single installation of Steam on multiple devices. Steam keeps a file that has the current users information locally stored for offline mode(clientregistry.blob) and it would conflict running the single installation from multiple computers.

Other applications might rely on local registry entries that do not automatically rebuild unless you install the application locally.

Terminal Services are one option but it would require a powerful server especially for games.

0 votes

Kevin Fegan

August 23, 2012

Some programs will work fine with this, others will not.

Some programs putsome files in “User” path and those files will typically not be available to other users and across a network.

Also, some programs do not play nice with UNC paths… they want paths with “Drive letters”. You can use “Subst” to give a drive letter alias to a UNC path, but that can get cumbersome.

0 votes

venkatp16

August 26, 2012

it basically depends on the application that you want to share. It should support multiuser interface like server/client environment.

0 votes

Jordyn Bushaw

September 9, 2012

Yes, make sure you have network sharing turned on.

0 votes

Nikhil Chandak

November 13, 2012

Yes , I think u can , but ur network sharing must be turned on
and to make a software , u must know programming

0 votes

Abba Jee

November 25, 2012

yes,depends on the software & you need to share them over network