Controlling Win 7 from Win 10 not functional

from Stardock Forums

Hi,

I've successfully set up my win 10 and win 7 as secondary and primary, and it worked fine.

Now I want the win 7 as secondary and win 10 as primary. I am able to set up and connect up, and although I get a black screen on the win 7 machine, I read another post here where the recommendation was to use ctrl-alt-backspace and this brought me to a visible screen after you hit ctrl-alt-delete on the win 7 machine ("task manager" menu). Sometimes I hit cancel and it locks, but sometimes I get the main window on connect and it is frozen.

I had the same situation sometimes with the win 10 machine when it was secondary, but I would disconnect and reconnect that this would get me back my interactivity.

I've tried this technique of connect/disconnect for both machines a number of times and it doesn't work.

On secondary computer directly accessed, everything works fine. The remote mouse is working too because some menus had appeared, accidentally selected.

 

Not sure what else to try. It's just not working.

 

Matt  

multiplicity
10,802 views 20 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top

Hello,

I have forwarded your report to the Stardock support team for their review and recommendations.

Please keep an eye on this thread for any updates.

We really do appreciate your feedback, thanks.

 

AzDude
Stardock Community Assistant

Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top

Hello,

Sorry to hear you are having trouble.

Does the remote have a monitor plugged into it and is it on?  If not, it is possible to do so?

Sean Drohan
Stardock Support Manager

DeskScapes - Bring your desktop background to life.
Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top

Quoting Matt, reply 3

I don't use the second monitor on the secondary machine. But, sure, I can turn that on. 

What's next?
End of Matt's quote

I think you are missing my meaning.  What we want to test is if the Secondary has an active \ on display (its own, not any other), do you still have the issue?

Sean Drohan
Stardock Support Manager

Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top

Quoting Matt, reply 5

The secondary is a gaming laptop -- so always on. Does that answer your question?
End of Matt's quote

Not exactly. 'On' for a laptop could mean it's on but with the lid closed (bad for this test - we want it open, logged in, and with only its native display).

Also, we would want to know if there is more than one video card in said LT (Intel and some other).

Sean Drohan
Stardock Support Manager

Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top

Hi Sean,

OK, well let's assume I'm a professional software engineer with 30 years experience. So I'm not running with the monitor closed or the machine sleeping. I've cleaned this machine of all extraneous applications and drivers and like I said, the configuration from windows 7 to windows 10 works fine.

So now the configuration and state of the computers is identical from that working state, and now we are just switched, running KVM mode from windows 10 to windows 7.

Both laptops have 2 nvidia cards and 2 intel cards. The intel card runs during 2d operation of each laptop. On the win 7 machine, as part of this effort to fix remote operations, got a driver refresh from mid 2019, which is my latest update for the GTX770M card. However that's not a factor, because it is not running when this problem is happening (just nvidia updaters).

Today as I wrote this I tried connecting again and I can connect, but the only thing I can bring up is task manager from the lock screen -- then the win 7 machine will bring up task manager on its main screen, but I cannot get any interactivity whatsoever.

Hopefully I've provided some additional information to you just now, you never know what might trigger a sudden insight -- right?

Thanks,

Matt

Reply #8 from Stardock Forums Top

Quoting Matt, reply 7

OK, well let's assume I'm a professional software engineer with 30 years experience
End of Matt's quote

Then you are well aware of the pitfalls of 'assuming' anything in support.

Quoting Matt, reply 7

Today as I wrote this I tried connecting again and I can connect, but the only thing I can bring up is task manager from the lock screen -- then the win 7 machine will bring up task manager on its main screen, but I cannot get any interactivity whatsoever.
End of Matt's quote

Then it's almost certainly a documented firewall issue:

https://forums.stardock.com/486104/multiplicity-support-faq#movemousesecondary

Sean Drohan
Stardock Support Manager

 

Reply #9 from Stardock Forums Top

Sean,

Quoting sdRohan, reply 8

Then it's almost certainly a documented firewall issue:
End of sdRohan's quote

Arrgh! I hoped that would have worked, but I've turned off both the windows and kaspersky software firewalls and tried again and unfortunately, that's not it.

Matt

Reply #10 from Stardock Forums Top

You can see the mouse cursor; yes, just not interact with the desktop, yes?

If you have not already, turn the Windows firewall on and have it be the only firewall active.  Then run the portfix batch I wrote noted in that article.

Let me know.

Sean Drohan
Stardock Support Manager

Reply #11 from Stardock Forums Top

Sean,

 

Yes, I can see the mouse cursor, but there's no interaction.

 

>turn the Windows firewall on 

I have a snapshot of the configuration screen, and I know how to configure the ports and exceptions, however it is moot. With NO firewall, Multiplicity has access to all ports. Anything you would configure on a dead firewall is like writing on the wind.

 

With the firewall OFF, there is no software checking and regulating incoming or outgoing traffic.

 

Matt

Reply #12 from Stardock Forums Top

Matt,

We might be getting to the point where you clean boot each PC, under new Admin accounts, to see if there is a 3rd party conflict or settings issue:

https://forums.stardock.com/486104/multiplicity-support-faq#cleanboot

Sean Drohan
Stardock Support Manager

Reply #14 from Stardock Forums Top

Sean,

I tried a clean boot through msconfig, which as you know disables all services and drivers. Multiplicity would not run, as you would expect. I fixed this by simply starting the Multiplicity service. Then multiplicity starts up on the secondary.

However now there is a problem with connection from the primary.

Do you have a list of dependent services that must be started in a clean boot situation so that Multiplicity can connect?

 

Reply #15 from Stardock Forums Top

Quoting Matt, reply 14

Multiplicity would not run, as you would expect. I fixed this by simply starting the Multiplicity service.
End of Matt's quote

That is why we supplied the batch file in the article - to restart it.

Quoting Matt, reply 14

Do you have a list of dependent services that must be started in a clean boot situation so that Multiplicity can connect?
End of Matt's quote

Other than typical networking protocols (which would start under a clean boot), only the MP service should be required.

Sean Drohan
Stardock Support Manager

Reply #16 from Stardock Forums Top

Sean,

Is there anything else you would like me to try? It could be me, but I'm starting to think this problem is a goner and requires some good coder debugging love.  I assume you guys have a test lab set up for multiple operating systems.

I'm at the point where I might just reinstall the operating system. I only need 5 or so core software development tools installed to use the machine. But I will just install the bare machine and multiplicity so we can eliminate all those assumptions you mentioned.

What do you think?

Regards,

Matt

Reply #17 from Stardock Forums Top

Quoting Matt, reply 16

I'm at the point where I might just reinstall the operating system. I only need 5 or so core software development tools installed to use the machine. But I will just install the bare machine and multiplicity so we can eliminate all those assumptions you mentioned.

What do you think?
End of Matt's quote

The scorched earth remedy is something we avoid in support for a couple of reasons: We dont find the actual problem and its a PITA for the client.

That said, it often does resolve most issues - putting the PC in a clean \ default state.

I would ask how important it is for you to have any formatted PC have Windows 7 again, an OS that MS themselves no longer supports.  If Windows 10 was an option, please use it. 

Please let us know.

Sean Drohan
Stardock Support Manager

Reply #18 from Stardock Forums Top

Sean,

I really don't want to re-install everything -- I've been looking over some specialized installs that are now over 6 years old that I would lose plus I want to test my software on this machine and that won't change with time.

So instead I'm going to try a virtualbox win 7 and just install Multiplicity first to see if that works. Is there any pitfalls to this approach -- I mean, does Stardock support VMs running multiplicity?

Thanks for your 411.

 

Matt

Reply #19 from Stardock Forums Top

Quoting Matt, reply 18

So instead I'm going to try a virtualbox win 7 and just install Multiplicity first to see if that works. Is there any pitfalls to this approach -- I mean, does Stardock support VMs running multiplicity?
End of Matt's quote

We are really fond of the Win10 Pro Sandbox feature but that does not help you with Win7.

If you are trying that on the Win7 box, any underlying issues would still be there.  If you are going to try on the Win10 box, with a Win7 VM to KVM to, my concern is the generic video driver for any virtual environment. 

Sean Drohan
Stardock Support Manager

Reply #20 from Stardock Forums Top

I have gotten nVidia drivers to work before in a VM under linux, but that's a different animal. I can try that quickly to see if I can get functionality. I'll give it a shot now and get back with you.

 

Thanks,

 

Matt