I am Setting up the PNA-X to force users to login with Username and Password , and Time out after idling along with a user Lock out for failure on password attempts. It appears the settings on our PNA-X (Fast Switching disable) preventing users from Switching account locking the PNA to the user that is still Logged in.
I'll like to allow fast switching, to prevent the system from being locked between users, or the logged in user themselves inducing a lockout of there account and forcing a Hard Reset of the machine or waiting a lengthy time for the Lockout to reset. But I want to verify that there no unintended consequences, since assuming the settings were set to intentionally prevent multi users logged in at once and running the PNA Firmware/Application at the same time? Would disabling the auto start of the PNA application and noting with the other users that they can't have the application run twice be enough?
I found this windows 7 Microsoft discussion that seem relevant How to Unlock Windows 7 Enterprise when another user has locked the screen? though the solution is less than ideal running a 3rd party compiled code since the original source is no longer posted.
Hi David,
You could run into some issues on the PNA if you allow fast user switching. the problem is that the PNA firmware executable ("835x.exe") runs as a singleton (i.e. there can only be one copy of it running at any given time). So let's say user A comes in and turns on the box and logs in. The 835x.exe will be started with the credentials of user A. now if user A locks the PNA but leaves 835x.exe running and user B comes along and using the switch user feature logs in with user B's credentials, the 835x.exe will still be running with user A's credentials and depending on the permissions and group settings of the two different users, there could be errors in the 835x.exe. If you enforce a process whereby each user closes the PNA firmware application before locking the box, then enabling fast switching won't be a problem, but if someone leaves the application running, then the new user will most likely have to kill the 835x.exe process from task manager and depending on their permission level relative to the previous user, they may not be able to.
So the answer isn't a definitive "NO", but it is more like "buyer beware".