Vista Primary XP secondary

from Stardock Forums
I'm running Vista Professional upgrade from my primary machine and trying to remote an XP SP2 professional desktop off the same switch.

Before updating my version to 1.2 pro my desktops would see each other but as soon as I moused over from the primary to the secondary I would lose my mouse in limbo and be forced to CTRL ALT DEL and switch users in order to steal my mouse back. After upgrading my primary machine does NOT automatically detect the secondary machine, however I can set the IP manually and it claims to successfully connect to the secondary but I cannot mouse over to the machine.

Something else of note might be that when I set the config to lookup IP each time on the primary it defaults to the primary machine's ip instead of the secondary's.


I've had it working before, I'm not sure what caused it to stop working all of a sudden but using my other computer is a huge headache now.
multiplicity
6,697 views 18 replies
Galactic Civilizations IV
Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top
What does linux have to do with his question?

I have run into similar problems, and everytime it goes back to my firewall. I always need to make sure my firewall will allow MP or it will not allow it to work with the second machine.

Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top
yeah, I thought that would be it as well. I forgot to mention in my original post though. I have checked to make sure that both of multiplicity's processes are accounted for in the firewall. And I added the port multiplicity uses as well. Which is why I'm completely stumped. I've reinstalled the program (just uninstall and reinstall) and I get no visible change.

Are there any trace settings or registry entries leftover after an uninstall that might be affecting the new install?
Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top
I have alot of "flakyness" with vista as my primary and xp as 2ndary. I frequently have to logoff and log back into my vista machine to make my 2ndary work. Plus annoying things like hitting cntrl alt delete siezes the control onto the primary where it doesn't with 2 xp machines. Also multiplicity just doesnt seem to work at all if the vista account is not logged in (doesn't run as a real service now?)
Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top
I'm having the same problem. Received a new computer today with Vista on the primary and XP on the secondary. The mouse frequently becomes "lost" when moving between screens and I either have to CTRL ALT DEL or if I move it around enough I can see where it "highlights" actions on the primary screen but is still invisible. If I try to activate a highlighted function, it suddenly pops back into existance again (usually). Is there an upgrade or patch needed to make older versions of Multiplicity Vista/XP friendly?
Reply #7 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Is it any one app that is always running when the mouse gets "lost"?
What version of MP?
Reply #9 from WinCustomize Forums Top
1.20 is out and availalbe.  Might want to give that a shot.
I use SDC to back up and restore if things go wrong with the upgrade.  I suggest you do the same.
Reply #10 from Stardock Forums Top
Did a bit more troubleshooting and it does it 100% of the time while loading a program, moving a large file, downloading something...etc. So far no problems while playing WoW.

I purchased 1.10 - is 1.20 a free upgrade or will I have to purchase it? thanks.
Reply #11 from Stardock Forums Top
I had similar issues to what you are describing on two XP machines.. I did the free upgrade to 1.2, and my problems went away.
Reply #12 from Stardock Forums Top
I have the same issue on my Primary Vista, and Secondary XP.

I've installed version 1.20.

The application it normally happens in is Visual Studio 2005 - I use the system to remote debug onto my secondary PC.

Unfortunately its unusable in its current form - however, it did seem to work correctly when I first installed it, its only when I've logged on the following day, that it is now doing what Rrouland described - the pointer ghosting behind toolbars on the primary when it should be on the secondary.

Regards
John

Reply #13 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I purchased 1.10 - is 1.20 a free upgrade or will I have to purchase it? thanks.


It's free.
Reply #14 from Stardock Forums Top
I also use Multiplicity 1.2, Vista primary/XP secondary, and I consistently have the "lost mouse" problem when I have Visual Studio 2005 open. It works most of the time when VS is closed (aside from the CTRL-ALT-DEL issue, which I workaround by hitting ESC).

It would appear that VS2005 is doing something that causes Multiplicity to flake for a while. It seems to work okay if I minimize VS2005 before trying to move the mouse to the XP machine. It was annoying enough that I had to enable the feature to only switch screens when I have the SHIFT key pressed...otherwise I would inadvertently move the mouse off-screen and lose it for several minutes, which was more than aggravating!
Reply #15 from Stardock Forums Top
Argh..I also had this happen with Photoshop CS2 open today. So it's not just VS2005.
Reply #16 from Stardock Forums Top
I can replicate this with Stardock Central and TweakVista as well. Which is weird since they are both Stardock applications so you figure they'd play along with Multiplicity.

An added annoyance for me is that once I get any application that causes this "lost mouse" functionality it also (about 80%) of the time makes it so that I loose the ability to move any icon/file on my Vista box (which is the primary PC). I have to reboot my machine if I want to move around any of my icons or move any files around.

From what I can tell only older programs that weren't written for Vista specifically have this problem. As long as they aren't the selected program (meaning they can be running, just not the active program) you can move the mouse back and forth between the primary Vista box and the secondary XP box without any difficulties.

As an aside if does NOT happen with Firefox, Internet Explorer, PlayNC Launcher (launcher for any NCSoft game), or Fileplanet's Download Manager.

It DOES happen with Stardock Central, TweakVista, Steam, Ventrilo, and Teamspeak 2.

This is with MP 1.20 Pro

I've tried to list applications that were free to download and use. So hopefully that will give the programmer(s) something to try and track down.
Reply #17 from Stardock Forums Top
I've had this happen a couple times, but I've been able to use the hotkeys to get the mouse back to the primary machine.
Reply #18 from Stardock Forums Top
As to the previous poster (Reply #17) I am able to get control back, as well. It's more of an issue of a) it happening to begin with (especially with Stardock's own programs) and b) most of the time when it happens it causes my Vista primary to loose the ability to move anything outside of windows.

A I said above it'll lock down my ability to move icons on my desktop, or to drag and drop and icon from one window to another (luckily I can see right click cut/copy/paste if needed) until I reboot said machine.

I just updated to the latest beta version that's on SDC and this is still happening.