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Re: Windows GUI programs (e.g. notepad) start but are invisible after ssh login


On 7/1/2010 4:15 AM, Thorsten Kampe wrote:
* Larry Hall (Cygwin) (Wed, 30 Jun 2010 17:09:49 -0400)

<snip>


The short answer?  You can't or at least you shouldn't.  The
longer answer is MS doesn't want to allow this functionality
and has disabled the ability to access a desktop from a
service as of Vista.

Sorry, that's nonsense. The option is there in Vista, Windows 2008, Windows 7 and Windows 2008 R2.

Yes, the option is there. It just doesn't work like it used to for XP because of the session changes. So what was simple to enable before is now infinitely less so.

It's not clear why but given the fact that MS is removing support for
this anyway, the best way to get a reliable way to do this is to lobby
MS for some support. ;-)

Microsoft has not removed support for it (but may in future releases). The only thing that has changed is the way the desktop interactive application is displayed. This is all pretty well documented here:

"Users may choose to:
* Respond to the dialog box immediately by clicking a button to switch
to Session 0, interact with the task dialog box, and then return to
their session.
* Be reminded again in 5 minutes. They continue to be reminded until the
dialog box closes."

This is all pretty well documented here:
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system/sysinternals/session0changes.mspx


Thanks for the pointer to this document. It has a nice description.


The quoted lines above relate to GUI that a service creates and uses.
In the case where a user wants to run a Windows app from ssh, it's the
Windows app and not the service that's creating the GUI.  While it's
theoretically possible that all Windows apps could adopt the client/
server model the white paper suggests, it's not practical or likely,
even if it would provide a solution.  That's not to say that there
is not a way to make this work post-XP in some more limited way without
modifying Windows GUI apps that users want to run from ssh.  I'm just
pointing out that it doesn't work by default and enabling the desktop
interaction switch also doesn't resolve the issue.  So I think it is
fair to say this is a topic of research at least.  Corinna may have
already been down this path and if so may be able to speak more
specifically about any possible options here.  But I'll still stick
with my original short answer until someone shows me a clever existing
facility that restores the original functionality.

To the original OP, I suggest if you're logged on using fast user
switching with <Vista, you might retry launching notepad from your
ssh session when you're also logged in directly to the machine in
question (don't use fast user switching).

--
Larry Hall                              http://www.rfk.com
RFK Partners, Inc.                      (508) 893-9779 - RFK Office
216 Dalton Rd.                          (508) 893-9889 - FAX
Holliston, MA 01746

_____________________________________________________________________

A: Yes.
Q: Are you sure?
A: Because it reverses the logical flow of conversation.
Q: Why is top posting annoying in email?

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