[michaelbails]

Hi,

I'll do my best to have this make sense:

We have a simulation system which runs a piece of hardware and is controlled by a netbook running Windows 7 (with either professional or home premium). On the netbook, there are three pieces of software running. The main control program for the piece of hardware (a lung simulator), a monitoring program for a ventilator (pulls ventilator data into a small software package), and a third program that is for "student" entries. The main control program and the ventilator monitoring program are controlled by an "instructor" who sits in-front of the netbook. The "student" will have an ipad or android (or equivalent) and we want them to have access to the third piece of software running on the netbook. But, we don't want them to have any other access to other programs.

I've done quite a bit of research and noticed that if you are running a windows server, this can be possible through terminal services and user policies, but we don't have a server running, just a win7 netbook. There was a VNC product that claimed they have single window viewing/control capabilities, but upon further research, they scrapped it due to bug issues.

Does anyone know how I could accomplish this task? There are programs like Log-me-in and VNC, but we've been unable to find a means to allow the "student" to access ONLY the one application and nothing more.

Best regards,

Michael Bails
IngMar Medical, Engineering
Pittsburgh, USA

Edited by michaelbails, 06 July 2011 - 08:40 AM.

[Advertisements]

Your best bet is to create a separate restricted user account with access to only the programs you want.
You can also run the software in an isolated virtual machine and let the student control it.

[devper94]

Your best bet is to create a separate restricted user account with access to only the programs you want.
You can also run the software in an isolated virtual machine and let the student control it.

[michaelbails]

Your best bet is to create a separate restricted user account with access to only the programs you want.
You can also run the software in an isolated virtual machine and let the student control it.

Hi,

Thanks for the reply. If I create a separate user account, can the "instructor"/administrator user and the "student" user be logged in at the same time to the netbook? I'm not running a win server, it's a win7 netbook with either home premium or professional OS. This same question is to your virtual machine concept. With an isolated virtual machine, does the instructor lose view of the third application so that only the student can see it? How would the student holding the ipad / android unit "log" into the netbook virtual machine or secondary user account?

Thanks in advanced.

Michael Bails
IngMar medical

[devper94]

If I create a separate user account, can the "instructor"/administrator user and the "student" user be logged in at the same time to the netbook?

Yes, Windows supports multiple users logging on at the same time. However, if you want to monitor the student's actions, you two will have to log in with the same account (you will connect from the netbook, the student will connect from his iPad or Android)

With an isolated virtual machine, does the instructor lose view of the third application so that only the student can see it?

No. The administrator can monitor the virtual machine in real time from the real system, and can stop the user at any time.

How would the student holding the ipad / android unit "log" into the netbook virtual machine or secondary user account?

You can configure the VM to connect to the network, then proceed to open the port for the remote control program, and let the student connect to the virtual machine.
If you want to connect to the secondary account, you can simply start the server with that account; anyone connecting to the server would only take control of that account.

Basically, the two solutions are the same: restriction of privileges. But when using a virtual machine, you can limit access to data/resources, and if your system is fast enough, even allow multiple students to connect at the same time, each having one personal VM that can be reset after the session.

Edited by devper94, 07 July 2011 - 09:17 AM.