Making Two Pc's out of One

Multiseating Windows

For those who don't know what this is, multiseating is the task of using one computer for multiple end users at the same time, ie one PC connected to two (or more) keyboards, mice & monitors.

Since my other computer somewhat died (I think the motherboard decided to screw itself up), I've been somewhat interested in this idea.

Apparently this is rather trivial in a Linux environment (just edit a few config files) but a fair bit more difficult to do on Windows (probably due to lack of software).
I did a bit of searching but only managed to find three programs which can do this:

SoftXpand

BeTwin

AsterXP


None of the above are free unfortunately.

AsterXP and SoftXpand also only work on Windows 2000 and XP (32-bit) only. BeTwin has Vista/Server 2008 versions (both 32-bit and 64-bit) but doesn't work on Windows XP x64 (from that, I infer that it also doesn't support Windows Server 2003).

SoftXpand appears to be the most advanced out of the three, offering features like load sharing. I tried it on a clean install of XP SP3, however, since I cbf using my legit key (it's only a temporary install) and used AntiWPA (for some reason, XP decided not to give me the 30 days grace period), SoftXpand appears to cause a sort of log out where AntiWPA doesn't get activated. So basically, I got a "please activate Windows" message every time I tried to use it.
Probably could've tried with a proper key, but since it only works on XP 32-bit anyway, I couldn't be stuffed.

AsterXP v2.5 kept crashing when I tried starting it up, but v4.5 worked well. It's rather basic, but works quite well actually. It bridges the monitor, mouse and keyboards correctly, however it doesn't handle audio, so the two terminals are somewhat stuck with mixed audio (it may be possible to assign audio away in some places, ie those which allow you to select an output device). However, I did manage to network a game between the two, so it's fairly reasonable.

BeTwin is the only one of the three which had Vista versions, as well as the XP/2000 version.
Trying on the XP SP3 it works reasonably well. It's got a bit more features than AsterXP - it can have the separate terminals running different users, and it can separate audio (you do need a second audio device though). It seems that the account the secondary terminal logs into has to have a password though - weird, but not really that big of an issue. The main issue about BeTwin however, is that it disables Direct3D, which kinda kills games and probably some video stuff too. Running the DirectDraw test from the DirectX Diagnostic utility seems to be a little laggy too. It doesn't appear that you can invoke BeTwin to start - it just automatically starts up when Windows starts (note that I haven't really checked the startup processes though), so the possibility of using your computer normally, with Direct3D, then starting up the secondary terminal when you don't need to game, doesn't seem possible.

I then tried BeTwin on Windows 7 RC1 x64. Could get it to install by using compatibiilty mode, however, when the program was started, it would complain about some "Invalid time", "Unable to get License Info", "demo version" message thing. Since it appeared to be some issue with the trial protection segment of the program, I tried looking for a crack to see if it could get around it, but couldn't find one for the Vista version. So in short, I couldn't get it to work on Windows 7.

I then tried on Vista Ultimate x64 (no SP). Not sure if it's an issue of Vista, or BeTwin, but I kept getting BSoDs when booting about two-thirds of the time. I did finally manage to get it to work, both terminals active. The theme turned from Aero to Vista Basic, so I went to check if the Vista version also disabled Direct3D. The DirectX Diagnostic utility reported that Direct3D was active though, so I went to try a game, but then got a BSoD, so I just gave up.


So unfortunately, there doesn't really appear to be a *good* multiseat solution for Windows yet Sad AsterXP works well if you're on XP 32-bit and don't have many sound issues. SoftXpand probably works well too, if you're also on XP 32-bit and not using AntiWPA (ie legit copy, still in grace period or different crack) - I might try it some time later. BeTwin on XP is good if you don't need video/gaming capabilities on each terminal. (if you could get it to work on Vista though, confirm if still allows Direct3D - I don't have much hope that it does considering the theme change)

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