Limiting instances of apps run

[Guest]

Hi all
I have asked this before but got no reply, so...

I have (rather annoying) users who insist on opening Outlook more than once
placing extra strain on my TS Server (Win2003). Is there any way of limiting
the number ofinstances each user can run, or it that pushing the boundaries
of TS a little bit?
Thanks for any help anyone can shed on this

 

[Vera Noest [MVP]]

This is not a native feature of TS, and I don't know if there are
any 3rd party add-ons that do this either.

I guess that you could write a script which checks for existing
instances of outlook in the user session, before starting outlook.
Bit messy, though.

Personally, I would go for user education.
Or: find out *why* they are doing this. In my experience, this is a
sure sign of applications responding too slowly (users start to
doubt if they double-clicked the application icon at all, and
double-click it once or twice more, to be sure :-(

_________________________________________________________
Vera Noest
MCSE, CCEA, Microsoft MVP - Terminal Server
TS troubleshooting: http://ts.veranoest.net
___ please respond in newsgroup, NOT by private email ___

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the info Vera.

As it happens, it's not speed of response.. I have users who want to view
calendars or public folders while in their inbox - not realising they can it
all from the same application. They have been told time and again -
education for my users is like water on the sun - kind of wasted really.

But thanks anyhow!

-------
Tech Admin
West Midlands, England
Stressed and Tired!

 

[Vera Noest [MVP]]

OK, I understand.
Then you might want to *enforce* their learning process
I've no idea how difficult this would be, but I think that I would
try to create a script which checks for duplicate processes in the
sessions and maybe pop-up a warning screen?
You could schedule the script to check every 15 minutes or so (or
run it continuesly, with a built-in delay time). Shouldn't have a
too high performance impact, I think.
Either run it system-wide, or start it in every user session in a
login script. Probably easiest, each user checks only his or her
own processes.
A bit clumsy, maybe there are existing utilities which can do
something similar, but it just might solve your problem.
_________________________________________________________
Vera Noest
MCSE, CCEA, Microsoft MVP - Terminal Server
TS troubleshooting: http://ts.veranoest.net
___ please respond in newsgroup, NOT by private email ___

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the info - not a bad idea. It might get me through til I get a
more permanent solution in place. I don't have many users on our TS Server
anyway, so this might just to do it

-------
Tech Admin
West Midlands, England
Stressed and Tired!