Using portable Dopus inside Remote Desktop session

Hi,

I was wondering if it is possible to use Dopus portable in a Remote Desktop session?

I'm using Remote Desktop from my XP workstation to connect to a Windows 2003 server, and i cant (am not allowed) to install Dopus on this server.

So i was wondering if there's a way to use the portable version of Dopus. I dont have physical access to the server, only to the workstation. So i can only insert the USB drive in my workstation.

Thanks in advance,
David.

I don't think it will work, at least not the default way Remote Desktop mounts local drives and not in the test I just tried.

Remote Desktop mounts the drives as a network share so they no longer look like USB sticks. An exported Opus on a USB stick will only run from the same USB stick. Running it over Remote Desktop is like copying the files off the USB stick and putting them in a network share, then running Opus from that, which won't work.

Remote Desktop can pass through USB devices but it seems to exclude USB drives from that. (I'm connecting from XP SP3 to Vista SP1 so features may vary with other versions of Windows.)

What may work instead is taking your normal Opus install (i.e. on a harddrive not a USB drive) and sharing that folder, then running dopus.exe on the server via that share. I just tried that and it worked, but I tried it on a machine that also had Opus installed normally so it wasn't a complete test.

Edit: Opus needs to register some COM objects to work fully, but only for UAC support (not relevant with Server 2003) and Zip support on 64-bit Windows (might be relevant but if you're using 32-bit Server 2003 then won't be an issue). So using a normal install over a network share should work, at least in theory.

The best option would be to convince the company to license Opus for all their servers so that it is already installed for your convenience :slight_smile:

Hi Leo,

Thanks for your reply, I've tested it, using it for a while now and it works just fine.

Yes, that's the long-term solution.. I'm working on it but it will take some more time :slight_smile:

Regards,
David.

Is this method proposed by Leo supposed to not ask for a license key? because in my case it did... I hope I won't have problems with my two normal installations!!

I wouldn't really recommend that method -- sharing the installed Program Files folder fron one machine to another -- anymore. That suggestion was a decade old, and even then was only there as a last resort to try which may not work.

You would need to install a licence if you did use that method, either way.

Installing it normally on the remote machine would be better.

Err I got impatient and did it anyway.. I have a double license and 2 usb keys (the double license is already being used in 2 machines + 1 laptop). I installed it on the remote machine, what does this mean now ? what do I have to do so that I don't destroy my previous setups? just uninstall the remote machine's installation?

It's a pity though, it would be nice (and would make some sense) to be able to make use of one of the usb key licenses, I can't physically access that remote machine...

btw shouldn't the edits you do on your reply be protected from prying eyes (e.g. me). I know I wouldn't be too comfortable about that..

I'm not sure what you mean. What are you worried will happen? The two machines will not share any configuration if you're only sharing the Program Files folder between them.

USB key licences are for USB keys, and get tied to individual keys to make it harder for someone to make a copy of Opus that could be zipped up and used on any computer in the world. If you can't physically access the machine, a USB key can't be plugged in. (Unless it can be forwarded to the machine at the device level, not as a network share. This works with virtual machines, for example.)

No, people need to be able to see what was edited to know what changed between versions they read, and versions other people replied to. If it wasn't possible to see the edit history, we would disable editing entirely.

We can hide individual edits if needed (e.g. due to containing sensitive data that shouldn't be public) and quick edits to posts no one had read yet will also be hidden automatically.

I'm not sure what you mean. What are you worried will happen? The two machines will not share any configuration if you're only sharing the Program Files folder between them.

I have a license for 2 machines+laptop, and I am now in a situation where Dopus is installed in 3 machines+laptop ! What happens in these cases?

OK got it for the USB licenses. Is there any way I can get a license for one more machine? (and not 5 total?) I think I used to have a 3 machine license a few years ago (but maybe it was 5!)

thanks very much for the excellent support, as always :sunny: :smiley:

If you aren't using Opus on the machine that is just sharing the Opus program files, there's no need to enter a licence on that machine. Uninstall to remove the licence, then just run the installer when you want to update the shared files, but don't run the program itself.

As long as Explorer Replacement isn't turned on, not having a licence installed won't cause a problem if the program is installed but doesn't get run.

If you want to add an extra licence:

The online ordering system only supports one, two or five install licences but if you want three, four or any other number just drop us a line to sales@gpsoft.com.au and we’ll sort you out.

(From Common purchasing, upgrading and licensing questions )

Thanks for the reply. I did run Opus on all machines (and that's the intended use: run on two local machines and run on a remote desktop VM), but nothing happened, hence the post. I took it for a second that you meant that if Opus is not set as explorer replacement, I can afford to run in 3 machines NON-concurrently, but that's probably not the case.
On top of that, the problem is, I did install the license because otherwise it said that there is no license when I started it (and nothing happened, as I said).

I don't mean to give you a headache, could you just confirm that I need to get a third license with my current setup? :pensive:

You need a licence for every machine you use Opus on.