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Desktops and workplaces

Personalization parameters are not linked with the working station and can be adjusted individually for each user account. Therefore, if you wish to have individual personalization settings, use a separate user account for each working station. You can also configure workstations to automatically log on to a system with the credentials of a particular user (tab “General Settings”) see Setup an automatic user logon

It is possible to use the same account to log in at several workspaces at the same time, but with this use, where the logged in with the same users, negative effects may occur. Here is some of them:

  • you cannot run some programs at the same time, for example, browsers Chrome, Mozilla.
  • you cannot have different account settings, and changes to settings on one will affect both workplaces.
  • due to the use of a shared cache, there is a possibility of data loss when saving documents.

In this connection, it is recommended to create a separate account for each workplace.
To do this, click Start / Control Panel / Accounts and Family Safety / User Accounts / Add or Remove Accounts / Create Account, then enter a name for the new user account, select its type and click Create Account. You can also add an account directly from ASTER - see. Setup an automatic user log on

You can completely prohibit the simultaneous entrance to workplaces under one user, for this you need to apply a special setting sameuser0.

To run workplaces you have to link a monitor. However you may simulate a connected monitor by means of a dummy panel, or if the monitor has several interfaces (for example, VGA+DVI), you may connect one monitor several times, in doing so you may switch between workplaces just by selecting a required signal on the monitor.

In order to assign several monitors to one working station, you have to use a separate graphics card for it, as a working station with several monitors cannot share its graphic cards with another working station. However, NVIDIA Surround and AMD Eyefinity technologies give us the possibility to use extra monitors for a working station on the shared video card, and the working station can use only the monitors with the shared video card.

These technologies allow uniting several monitors, with the system treating it as one monitor, which might be assigned to one of the working stations in ASTER settings. However, one has to realize that the monitors, “grouped” in this way, present a single continuous screen and, consequently, cannot work in different modes.

Sometimes it is necessary to start the program automatically, the parameters of which depend on the number of the ASTER workstation. Ways to do this are described below:

  1. ​​​​​​ Run asterctl.exe with the -wpn option. The seat number is returned in the exit code, which can be used to set the launch parameters for other programs.
  2. Put the “asterctl.exe -autostart” command in autoload for all users when installing ASTER. When started with this option (-autostart), the asterctl.exe application searches for files that begin with the string 'runonlogin' in the ASTER installation folder. The found files are launched, and the number of the workplace is specified as a parameter. You can run the founded files by the command:
cmd.exe /s /c "start / b " " "executable" workplaceNo

where executable - the founded file(s) 'runonlogin*';
workplaceNo - current workstation number

Examples:The iTalc program for correct work on all workplaces needs to be run with a parameter containing the port of connection to the program client, which should be different for each seat, for example, 4001 for the first workstation, 4002 for the second and so on.

Launch iTalc for case 1: the file must be placed in the user's startup:

rem ————— Start iTALС client————————–
@asterctl -wpn
@set AWP=%errorlevel%
@echo ASTER Workplace number is %AWP%
@rem Start iTALC with a seperate port for each workplace
@Start _ckgdoku_QUOTckgdoku> «C:\program files (x86)\iTALC\ica.exe» -ivsport 400%AWP% -isdport 480%AWP%


Starting iTalc for case 2: the file must be named, for example, as runonlogin_iTalc.bat and placed in the folder with ASTER

rem ————— Start iTALС client————————–
@echo ASTER Workplace number is %1
@rem Start iTALC with a seperate port for each workplace
@Start
_ckgdoku_QUOTckgdoku> «C:\program files (x86)\iTALC\ica.exe» -ivsport 400%1 -isdport 480%1

1. RDP connection.

The terminal computer access will work correctly only when TS is unblocked, i.e. the local user is not disabled when the login is remote. * The personal profile for RDP connection must have a password (RDP connection peculiarity)

2. Connection with such software as RAdmin, TeamViewer, UltraVNC, etc.

Remote access programs working in the utility mode and/or using the mirror-driver cannot be used for connecting to extra working stations in ASTER. In order to get the possibility of remote control of all working stations, one has to use administration programs that can run as custom applications, and not as utilities, in other words, several copies can work simultaneously.

The situation is as follows when we are talking about a particular program:

Radmin is truly single-user software that can work only with the first working station in ASTER.

*For x64 systems extra settings are required for proper operation. (The case when the mirror-driver is displayed in the ASTER control panel).

In the ASTER Control panel, on the Video tab, you need to assign monitors to places in the usual way, and for the mirror driver, delete the place number. After applying the settings (required) in the registry editor, you need to find the parameter named <0000_mtxk_terminal>. There may be several of them, but one of them will have the value 0xffffffff (4294967295). Change the value of this parameter to 0 and restart your computer. After that Radmin should work.

TeamViewer works properly in all working stations. You should by no means install the HOST version. It might also be started without installation. The drawback is the impossibility of connecting to several working stations simultaneously. If you run it in several working stations you will be able to connect only to the last launched client TeamViewer.

UltraVNC and similar software allow connecting to working stations independently. However, a further set of the software might be required in order to be able to use different ports/connection screens, as well as ASTER settings for the application of different IP addresses.

Energy-saving modes are incompatible with ASTER and in most cases do not work correctly when using a shared video card, therefore, they must be disabled in the Power Supply snap-in (Win + R » powercfg.cpl » Enter) by selecting [never] in the settings power supply. The use of individual video cards for workplaces does not guarantee the correct operation of energy-saving modes with ASTER, but the chances of this are much higher.

Using a screensaver is an alternative to putting the monitor in sleep mode. The screensaver turns off the monitor by sending a special command and the monitor turns off, if the monitor supports it. If it does not then it will show black background. You can set screensaver after you have installed ASTER - for this copy the “PowerSaver.scr” file from the ASTER installed directory to the “System32” folder and enable screen saver settings in the Personalization Settings window.

These settings are designed to eliminate, as well as identify some problems in the program. They should be used only on the recommendation of technical support.

To open the “Special Settings”, select the item with the same name in the context menu of the system block on the “Workplaces” tab

Special Settings Item

In this menu item, you can set the degree of detail of the log files maintained by the GUI. To set a log verbosity, select the item with the same name in the context menu of the system block on the “Workplaces” tab.

Set Log Verbosity Item

Selecting this item will open the “Log Setup” dialog box with three items:

Log Setup dialog box

The first two items, “Trace” and “Debug”, are used to debug and search for problems. They should be included only at the request of the technical support team, since they contain a large amount of information and, therefore, greatly increase the size of the log files and somewhat slow down the execution of the GUI.

When selecting the “Info” item, the successfully executed user actions are recorded.