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How can different users use ONLY the programs they have a license for on a network?

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DPK

Senior member
Can a network with multiple computers be set up so that User A is able to use paintshop, photoshop, and Frontpage while User B can Acrobat and Netscape while logging into different computers each day? What I mean is, how is it possible to allow different users to use ONLY the programs they have a license for while logging into different PCs attached to a network.
 
Isn't Roaming Profiles just for settings? Can different users use different programs? Does the software need to be installed on each computer for the user to be able to use their program?
 
Programs don't support this without additional coding and/or a special verison of the program that is set up to use a networked license server.

Pretty much all off-the-shelf commercial software use an installation and licensing scheme that is tied to the registry on a specific PC. Product activation makes this even worse since you can only install on 1 or a few machines before automatic activation is disabled.

You could always switch to linux and open-source apps.

IT folks here might also chime in with third-party tools that augment / side-step the normal, built-in licensing, but I'd guess those schemes all involve installing applications to every one of your PCs, then at startup of an application the third-party app intercepts and checks a license server (halting startup if the license is in use). This works for simpler licensing but won't work for newer apps like Office XP that have limited-installs product activation.
 
PS or switch to using Terminal Services for some applcations since then the PC is really a thin client to a box in the next room. Not sure how well this will work for something screen-intensive like PhotoShop though.
 
Originally posted by: DPK
Isn't Roaming Profiles just for settings? Can different users use different programs? Does the software need to be installed on each computer for the user to be able to use their program?
Click to expand...

No. I have my own login where I work. for instance: I have a licence for Front Page with my login. I can go to any machine in the country (same company of course) and front page follows me. I log off and it goes away, including the directory structure. The information is downloaded on the fly when I log in.
 
Evadman, what is that process called (or is that still ropaming profiles)? Does the PC you log into download and install the program each time?
 
We use Keyserver at the computer labs I work at. The program knows how many keys you're licensed for and dishes them out over the network as need be.
 
We have a nice setup where I work called Citrix. Like terminal services I guess. You've got a server with all the applications installed on it. Then the users go to an intranet page in their browser and log in. As the server administrator you set what programs will show up on their desktop to run. It is very fast since all that is being transmitted is the video information. All the work is being done on the Citrix server. It isn't cheap though.
A simpler way is to just give each person access to the program folders for the programs they are allowed to use on the server. Of course if it's a licensing issue you have where you've only got 5 licenses but 10 people that use it at different times then if the software doesn't manage licenses you'll need to find a way to limit how many people access the program at one time. Maybe that keyserver program sparky mentioned would work better for that.
 
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