How can my woman and I access an application on the other person's desktop / profile in WinXP?

January 9, 2004 8:35 AM

My woman and I use the same WinXP computer with different profiles (both running as Admins). How can we access an application that's running on the other's desktop? (More inside)

I find that if she logs on first in the morning, the firewall (the free Sybase one) shows up on her desktop, but not on mine. If, later, on my own desktop, I run a networked application that the firewall is unfamiliar with, it simply won't work; if I haven't had my coffee yet, I won't be able to figure out why.

This isn't a firewall question — She'd also like to be able to skip They Might Be Giants songs when Foobar2000 is running from my desktop.

(Is this also a problem on other OSs? 'Cause it seems like it would be.)

posted by skryche to computers & internet (4 answers total)

That's not possible. Unless an application has a daemon (service) process and a user interface process (as most firewalls do), it can't migrate between users' desktops. Perhaps the firewall client process doesn't start for your user? If installed properly, it should start up when you log in. Perhaps running one of the executables in the firewall program folder and putting the correct shortcut in the startup menu will help. No dice with Foobar2000, though. You'd need a listener plugin and a client app (most likely via TCP/IP) to do that.
posted by azazello at 9:29 AM on January 9, 2004

Log out once you are done using the computer. Don't switch users, log out completely.
posted by riffola at 11:03 AM on January 9, 2004

"My woman and I ..."

hahahah.... how's are the connection speeds in Yemen anyway?
posted by specialk420 at 5:34 PM on January 9, 2004

Ask MetaFilter is as useful as you make it. Please limit comments to answers or help in finding an answer.Wisecracks don't help people find answers. Thanks.

I've tried to do something vaguely similar -- remote controlling a session on the same box -- using VNC, but alas, it pretty much doesn't work. Beyond a solution like that, you're pretty much out of luck. Even Windows' rudimentary security is enough to prevent one user from controlling applications owned by another. (Actually, it's difficult enough to control other applications in the same session)

On other OSes, no, this isn't a problem, since most of them use X which has some abstraction between the concept of a user and the display an application is on.
posted by majick at 6:08 PM on January 9, 2004