Hi there,I am trying to setup some Vista HOme Basic Computers with a NComputing X550 Terminal Services Device.Only problem is that in some GENIUS'S opinion NOBODY usingHome basic would ever want to use Group Policy Editor, so of courseMS DIDN"T include it in Home Basic!!I need to know if there is a work around or some 3rd party software that will allowme to do this on these computers.I can't understand why this would have been left out of the Basic version, but not the others. It's not like this would ever benefit any users of Home Basicnow would it.I have 4 machines I am trying to setup with these devices.Thanks in advance for any assistance.Coy

WELL I MUST SAY I AM SHOCKED!!!!NOBODY, not even the Great Minds at MS can evenfathom an answer to this question!!!HMMMM This begs the question, who is writing all this code???

To be blunt, GPEdit isn't a typical home-user tool - most (read: the average) home users will never need to touch it, nor would they know what it's for. It was intended, primarily, for Domain management.XP Home didn't have it either; nor does Vista Home Premium.That said, all that GPEdit is, is a GUI frontend to the Registry.The MS Group Policy reference for Vista & Server 2008 (containing all policies, as well as the Registry keys that they modify) can be had here.HTH,Chris[If this post helps to resolve your issue, please click the "Mark as Answer" or "Helpful" button at the top of this message. By marking a post as Answered, or Helpful you help others find the answer faster.]

Thanks Chris.This will work in VIsta Home Basic so I can set up terminal services to use the Devices with multiple users accessing the machines at the same time?COY

Unfortunately, no.Terminal Server (what you're looking for?) is limited to, well, Server operating systems.Remote Desktop (server-side) in Vistais limited to Business, Enterprise, and Ultimate. (All versions, though, do come with the RDP client.)Or, are you just talking about allowing multiple users to connect to network share(s) on the machine in question?[If this post helps to resolve your issue, please click the "Mark as Answer" or "Helpful" button at the top of this message. By marking a post as Answered, or Helpful you help others find the answer faster.]

OK what I am trying to do is use 1 Desktop PCand have up to 5 other users connected to it using a X550 Device from Ncomputing as a virtual desktop.see Specs here: http://www.ncomputing.com/Products/X550ProductPage/tabid/362/language/en-US/Default.aspxIt allows multiple users to connect to the same machine uisng network cablesbetween the devices (monitor, keyboard, and mouse) each user has their own logonDo you think its possible to do this with RDP??Thanks COY

Oh, OK.Not the same as RDP. And, no, you can't do anything even remotely like that with RDP on Vista (or XP, either), because a desktop OS doesn't support multiple concurrent sessions. That's limited to Server.[If this post helps to resolve your issue, please click the "Mark as Answer" or "Helpful" button at the top of this message. By marking a post as Answered, or Helpful you help others find the answer faster.]

SO then I do need Terminal Services!WTG MS!!! SHEESHWell I guess I will have to downgrade these machines to XP Proso we can use it!!!MOre labor and costs!!!IKE

?????I just read the product manuals (as you should do as well, Ike.)XP Pro on the host machine isn't going to help you:only works on Server 2003 R2, or Linux, due to the need to support multiple concurrent logons.User Guide, page 8.Therefore, an XP Pro downgrade isn't going to help you. A Server 2003 upgrade (which is quite a few pesos) is what you'll need.Now, I feel the need to ask: why do you feel that you need this device? And, you do understand just how steep the system hardware requirements are, to run 5 user sessions simultaneously, right?[If this post helps to resolve your issue, please click the "Mark as Answer" or "Helpful" button at the top of this message. By marking a post as Answered, or Helpful you help others find the answer faster.]

OK Your not understanding me.THESE NCOMPUTING DEVICES are designed SO THAT YOU DON"T NEED TO INSTALL SERVERS!!They use terminal services and windows desktop sharing to work.I finally downgraded the machines to XP Pro SP3 and they work EXCELLENTLY.THanks to all who tried to help!!IKE

(wow - I thought this thread died 6 months ago.... ) Ike, I understood you perfectly. I got exactly what you wanted to do. I also read the TFM for that product.So, you're yelling at me for citing it why now? That you got it working on an OS that isn't supported by its manufacturer is, well, great. But, killing the messenger is not necessary. To quote the manual again: Minimum System Requirements Host PC The host PC operating system can be Windows Server 2003 R2 SP2 (Standard or Enterprise Edition, 32-bit) or Ubuntu Linux. I'd suggest that, in the future (both hear, and in The Real World), you might want to drop the attitude and abusiveness when someone is offering help (especially free help)! to you. Still, you're welcome for the help (whatever it may have been.) Regards,Chris[If this post helps to resolve your issue, please click the "Mark as Answer" or "Helpful" button at the top of this message. By marking a post as Answered, or Helpful you help others find the answer faster.]

Not and expert by any means on this, I run two sets of the N computing set-ups with one workstation and three N's off each. We run XP on the workstations acting as a simple server and those two main stations are connected to our business network on 2003 server. Then of course the three stations off of each, I get 8 computers off of two machines. They work fine for us...most of the time. Krigues

I would really like a copy of the above linked "MS Group Policy Reference for Vista & Server 2008", but the link in (essentially) dead, as is many others, on other sites I have looked at.... Anyone got a current link to this reference, please?

Megabyte, here you go: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=18c90c80-8b0a-4906-a4f5-ff24cc2030fb&displaylang=en (side note: easily found by Googling, and limiting the results to Microsoft.com. Howto: search vista group policy reference site:microsoft.com ;) ) HTH, Chris [If this post helps to resolve your issue, please click the "Mark as Answer" or "Helpful" button at the top of this message. By marking a post as Answered, or Helpful you help others find the answer faster.]

If Microsoft was trying to protect ignorant users from screwing up their system, they should have considered that those users probably know nothing about group policy in the first place. Instead of permanently disabling it they should just have hidden it. Just plain stupid that in order to have more control over your PC you have to spend more for a higher version. Another Vista blunder to anger users into getting Windows 7. Quck $$$ for Microsoft.

Um, digger? Same "problem" would be had in Win7: gpedit is only available in Professional and higher. ;) Oh, and the same "problem" also existed in XP: gpedit wasn't available in Home - only Professional (which includes Media Center and Tablet editions, as they were each a superset (built on) Pro.) So, blunder how? -Chris[If this post helps to resolve your issue, please click the "Mark as Answer" or "Helpful" button at the top of this message. By marking a post as Answered, or Helpful you help others find the answer faster.]

Ok, i run Vista home, i refuse to grab win7, i cant stand it. ive used it maybe 5 or 6 times and im not a big fan of 7 at all. im very familiar with XP pro and vista home, if i wanted my gpedit back, that way my friends cant come over and screw my machine up, should i upgrade to vista pro/ultimate or downgrade to xp pro? im thinking xp pro because of the extremely light system requirements, i currently have 4g ddr2 ram but any1 who has ever used vista knows that it eats a large amount of ram just to run. but 4g runs vista just fine. i have a machine with a quad core and a machine with a dual core, from what i understand about processors and operating systems im capable of running 64bit versions of operating systems. vista pro/ultimate 64, or pro 32? only reason ive stayed with 32bit so long after the release of 64bit OS's is because alot of programs and browsers werent running 64bit calls, they would have to make a 32bit call and a 64bit call would have to be made at the OS level for the programs to run right. ive gone off trail a lil bit, back to my original question, gpedit.msc... down to xp pro or up to vista pro/ultimate, and if vista do i want 32 or 64? I am a college student in the computer networking systems field, im still a year from my degree so i thought id ask some more experienced people. I do not oppose anyone who would respond with a linux 32/64bit OS, tho id probably not use it. im familiar with debian/fedora products but i prefer MS, their certs+my degree will make my career, not linux certs. Tho i believe the knowledge and experience of as many OS's as you can get, free or proprietary can only benefit anyone who uses any OS...except maybe mac users, tho they r running linux and just dont kno it. Thanks for any and all advice on the OS decision. as long as Win7Pro and higher isnt listed ill be happy with any advice i get, thank you. PS ive been running xp pro in my vmware lately just so i have all the management features, problem with using that as my main is, vista takes 1 of my 4g to boot, so im down to 3, vm only utalizes half of what u have available(from what my instructors have told me, possible they r wrong) so im down to 1.5g. still nice on xp pro, but gaming and stuff suffers. and even with a lock out or security set up on other accounts, all you have to do is minimize vmware, and ur free to do whatever you want. is there anyway to lock vmware so u cant un-maximize it? and should i just stick to my xp vmware?

Before I answer the question ("Which OS to get?"), let me clear up a few misconceptions that you have. First, memory management in NT6 (Vista, Win7, Server 2k8, and Server 2k8 R2) is a lot different than it was in NT5 (2k, XP, Server 2k3) - "high" memory utilization is normal. The OS now uses RAM the way it should, instead of keeping most of it available, and paging to disc constantly. Fret not, it'll unload things from RAM should something higher-priority need it. It works quite well. Put it another way: why would you spend the money for 4+GB RAM, only to have 60% of it sit unused 80% of the time? ;) Second, Vista isn't "eating a gig of RAM just to boot." You 'lost' RAM because you went with a 32-bit OS, which is physically unable to address more than ~3.25GB RAM (exact number depends on the specific system config.) Full explanation here. If you go with a 64-bit OS, you'll get the RAM back. Third, the 64-bit versions of Win7 and Vista both do have a 32-bit version of IE - it's just not the default (64-bit is.) Search your Start menu for Internet Explorer, and you'll find the 32-bit version (it lives in %ProgramFiles%(x86)\Internet Explorer.) My honest recommendation? Win7 Pro x64. I know that you said that you don't like it (and, you're entitled to that opinion.) But, if you're going into the field you are, you're going to need to learn it. And, it's a lot easier if you actually use it day-to-day. You probably already know Vista rather well (and, what you learn in one translates to the other rather easily), and also probably also know XP quite well by now. Most businesses skipped Vista, and are starting to replace their aging XP workstations with Win7 boxen. Bonus to Win7 Pro: XP Mode. It's a built-in (optional Windows component, but free download) virtual XP enviroment (and, a fully-licensed one at that - you don't need to provide the guest OS.) If you just won't go to Win7, then Vista Ultimate (Business just had too many things stripped out) x64. But, again, I'd really recommend going Win7. You'll also get more features in Win7 Pro than you would in Vista Business, without the Ultimate pricetag. HTH, Chris[If this post helps to resolve your issue, please click the "Mark as Answer" or "Helpful" button at the top of this message. By marking a post as Answered, or Helpful you help others find the answer faster.]

Thank you for the advice, i knew that 32bit OS's were only capable of addressing so much ram, however, i did not know about the different ways thw MS OS's utilize the ram. I have a Win7 64bit OS but its just a free home version provided by my schools agreement with MS. So its missing... well everything that allows you to set up and monitor just about everything. I understand where you are coming from when you say to learn the new OS i have been trying to make myself work with it more. And you are right, Vista->7 isnt too much different, im just sick of trying to unlearn an OS to pick up a new one. MS feels they need to re"hide" everything everytime a new OS is developed. i thank you for the information on the utilization of ram in the diff MS OS's i'm headed to look into that a little deeper now. Suppose i should just grab Win7 64 Pro or Ultimate, its only like 60 bucks with my student discount and my schools liscensing agreement. happens to be the best thing about my school, i get all the programming tools like vb.net, c#, c++, python, and a few flowchart programming tools aswell, all from MS for free via dreamspark. Thanks again for the advice, Chad

I'll spot you that - they do like to, ah, move things from one OS to the next. It's no different than it was going from Win2k to XP, or from XP to Vista (and, I think that Vista>Win7 is a lot less drastic than XP>Vista was.) Such is the march of time, though. ;) As to Pro vs. Ultimate: that's a decision that only you can make. For the most part, unless you need Bitlocker and/or 1.3 million additional languages, Pro should do you fine. That said, take a look at the Wikipedia article on the differences (it's far more comprehensive than MS's wee little chart.) $60 for an MSDNAA (I'm guessing?) license for Pro, though, is pretty hard to pass up. :) HTH, Chris[If this post helps to resolve your issue, please click the "Mark as Answer" or "Helpful" button at the top of this message. By marking a post as Answered, or Helpful you help others find the answer faster.]

Pro it is, as far as a learning tool and what to expect troubleshooting/admining win7... i dont need ultimate, i am grabbing 64bit not even sure if i can get 32. but i have a pc being built atm, 8g ddr3 should run great... got it for gaming, but im sure it will take over as my catch all pc as this one did over my last one. thanks again for the help, im sure ull see me on here more in the future. Chad one last question for a while, MS reccomends getting the A+/Net+ certs before grabbing the MCP. I just recently passed a 70-270 course, or tested out of it anyways, should i still grab my A+/Net+ certs before obtaining my mcp? I've heard the A+ cert is like PC for dummies, and the Net+ can be difficult but still isnt too indepth? What are your thoughts.