Win FrontView+ -Info for 2nd Screen - iMon replacement
(2017-12-04, 14:51)NathanJ Wrote:
(2017-12-04, 12:48)GlennNZ Wrote:
(2017-12-04, 10:29)NathanJ Wrote: ... I still can't load it as another Windows user profile. I would like to switch users, so the process would still be running as the first signed on user, up to in my case a maximum of 3 simultaneously logged in users. I have set my PC to perform maintenance tasks like backup, then power down overnight to conserve power while everyone is sleeping, then start up daily at a certain time. This then automatically logs in with my administrative login, with the screen saver / power management set to ask for username and password on exit of screen saver / screen shutdown. This allows me to load programs at boot-up, but still allows my housemate to login without administrative privileges once the screen saver is first activated by switching to his user profile.
So, when I switch to my housemate's profile, it says that there is another instance of FV+ running, and closes the process (which is what it is supposed to do). Obviously with it storing stuff in the %appdata% folder, it was only intended to be used for one user, but that's easily worked around by copying the directory from the first %appdata% folder to the second user's folder, then changing any necessary settings.

Therefore the issue lies with not being able to run multiple instances.

So, my options are to somehow change it referencing the %appdata%/Frontview+ folder to point to a folder that is accessible by all users, then configure every instance of Kodi to have the same remote control settings. Or you would need to change the code to allow for multiple user profiles on the same machine. I can't see any settings files in the program files\FV+ directory to do the first, so I'll have to handball this one back to you.

Ideally I'd like to have 3 user profiles on my Windows PC. My administrative one, my housemates's non-administrative one, and one child profile for when guests have kids and want to only access kid related stuff. I'd like to have all three Windows profiles be able to have the FV+ screen running.

So, there's a new challenge for you Smile

Thanks

Nathan

Hi Nathan,

No such solution is possible I’m afraid.

I think the bigger picture here is you seem (and I’m certainly no expert) to have interesting use of profiles versus user accounts. Unless there is some mis-wording here.

Essentially I believe the correct setup would be to have seperate user accounts that logon/logoff the computer; with only run running at once. FrontView can be setup, installed (with appropriate admin rights) and then run by all user accounts - just not at the same time. Profiles as I understand it are more cross network settings to be applied to multiple computers.

Either way - FrontView can’t run multiple instances. I also don’t think you will find Kodi (certainly Dsplayer version) will run at the same time multiple versions. (To many low level display hooks needed). With Frontview it is not a simple matter of changing directory targets; there are assembly names; process names/Ids; socket connections; remote connections; server/local logons all of which can only be setup once. Sure anything is possible and all that could be retargeted and rewritten to a FrontViewA, FrontViewB etc version but that is a massive amount of work that probably would still fail because of low-level screen display or socket issues.

Glenn  
Semantics, but yes, using different "user accounts" (which are exactly the same as user profiles, but as you said, allow for roaming profiles across networks) as it is only on the one PC. I'd rather have different user accounts than different Kodi user profiles so that I can restrict access outside of Kodi as well.

Basically, Kodi and Frontview are being run on the same Windows PC with the 7" touchscreen display built into the PC case. So, it is acting as a HTPC, but also acting as a file server and running Deluge, DuckieTV, and NextPVR. I have a Raspberry Pi in another room, which also has Kodi and accesses the same media files via network shares and uses Trakt to maintain watched status and ratings across the two, and then access the NextPVR to stream TV from the HTPC to the Raspberry Pi's Kodi install.

So, my administrative user account runs those programs, and I want them to continue running when other user accounts are being used, hence the want to switch user accounts rather than log off user accounts. If I duplicate the settings of all of these programs across user accounts then each individual user account would be a possible point of further problems if someone were to change those settings while logged into that user account.
 FYI Kodi (for Windows) has no issues running in this scenario (so far), and allows completely different configuration of settings, kodi profiles, file locations etc, because it also stores that information in the individual user account's %appdata% directory. So the only potential conflict between simultaneously logged in user accounts is accessing the same file at the same time, as it is accessing the files directly from the HTPC's hard drive. Realistically, the computer isn't going to be going to screen saver mode with an open file because Kodi prevents that, and it's exiting the screen saver that triggers the ability to switch user accounts by asking for logon credentials. And no user is going to press Ctrl-Alt-Delete and switch user accounts mid media playback, because I am the only person who will know all the user account passwords to be able to do that.

Probable solution is going to have to be to restrict Frontview+ to one non-administrative user account, and then configure Kodi profiles under that user account and everyone just access Kodi on this PC from that user account. Undecided

Or, I guess do a script that can be run with admin privileges to kill the process, then start it again under the currently logged on user account (which, funnily enough is what I used to do as a scheduled task to stop imon from locking up randomly).

Thanks for your time. If I find a solution, I'll let you know.

Nathan 
 Good Luck.

I suspect you'll run into other problems having multiple instances running; particularly with multiple logged in users.

An alternative may be to run each administrator task as a service under Administrator user  (although there does seem like you have a few).  Then have one logged in limited user running everything.

But as I said - good luck finding a solution

Glenn
Reply


Messages In This Thread
RE: FrontView+ -Info for 2nd Screen - iMon replacement - by GlennNZ - 2017-12-05, 03:11
Logout Mark Read Team Forum Stats Members Help
FrontView+ -Info for 2nd Screen - iMon replacement3