Licensing, Cloud and Web Services Wiki How to ensure usage from only one user on a shared workstation

How to ensure usage from only one user on a shared workstation

Overview

A workstation with a Windows client operating system (e.g. Windows 7, 8, 10, etc.) can be shared either physically or virtually via Remote Desktop to control product usage. The workstation will only allow one active Windows user session at a time.

Problem

If a user disconnects from a Windows user session instead of signing off, any open Bentley products will continue to run and log usage. This can also happen when another user signs in with a different Windows user account and disconnects the first user. Windows will disconnect the first user's session but will not sign out immediately since any unsaved work could be lost. This explains how multiple remote machines can log usage simultaneously on a Windows client operating system.

Solution

Configure local group policy to automatically sign off disconnected sessions after a defined time period using the following configuration steps:

Open the Windows Start menu, and search for:
Edit group policy
In the window that appears, expand Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Remote Desktop Services > Remote Desktop Session Host > Session Time Limits on the left sidebar.
Double-click "Set time limit for disconnected sessions" from the list on the right to edit it.
Select the Enabled radio button.
Choose a value from the "End disconnected session" drop-down menu. A value of "1 minute" is recommended to shut down all Bentley products on a disconnected session almost immediately.

Warning Warning: Any unsaved work in a disconnected session may be lost when Windows signs out of the session.

Information Important: Users initiating a lengthy process such as an analysis should not disconnect from the remote session. Otherwise, the process will be aborted when Windows signs out of the disconnected session.