Can't run two instances of eventghost in two user accounts

[zeflash]

I already posted a msg in the general support forum, but maybe it's better to do it here to get an answer.

I have a laptop that I share with my wife. We each have a separate user account, and both are logged in at the same time most of the time.
I'd like to have eventghost running for her and for me, but something is wrong and it's not working.
When EG is started in one account, it doesn't start anymore in the other one. A second process for the current user gets created, but doesn't do anything, no UI, nothing.

IT would be great if the app could be run independently in each accounts; right now I have to juggle between accounts to first close EG in the other one to start it in the current one. Not ideal

[zeflash]

Nothing to say about this? I'm surprised!

[CollinR]

What functions are you wanting EventGhost to perform?

[zeflash]

I thought is was pretty clear from the first post;
I would like to have eventghost running properly in both accounts at the same time. Right now it's not the case, when it runs in one account it prevents the other one to start it

[Bartman]

I have such a setup running on another machine and I did not encounter any problems. It is a rather old version though..

[zeflash]

Interesting. In my case, my account has admin rights, my wife's doesn't. When I installed it in my wife's account I think it asked me an admin authorization, not really sure.

I'll try to reinstall everything again see if it makes things work better.

[Bartman]

Why did you install it in a second account? The setup on virtually all applications does require admin rights, but the software should be installed only once.

[zeflash]

Ok, my mistake. I redid the whole installation after uninstalling everything (and losing the config file I hadn't backed up )
Let me be really specific. I'm on vista 32, UAC is on, my account has admin rights, my wife's doesn't.

I installed EG on my account, Setup went fine.
I then ran EG. In process explorer, I noticed it created two processes, both under my account's credential. One is a job (takes about 28MB), the other only takes 4.5MB.
I then switched to my wife's account, EG was now available in all programs. I started it, and nothing showed up.

Running process explorer again, I now see 3 eventghost processes: the previous two I talked about under my account. and a new one under my wife's account, using 4.5MB.

So I kill everything on both accounts, start EG again on my account, I only see one EG process, 28MB, window showing up. Switch to the other account, start EG, nothing's up. Back in my account, close EG normally, and now I see a new process running on my wife's account, 28MB. Switch to my wife's account, and there you now have EG running normally - but telling some errors have been logged; here's the content of the log file:

Code: Select all

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "EventGhost.pyw", line 34, in <module>
  File "C:\Program Files\EventGhost\eg\__init__.py", line 23, in <module>
    import Cli
  File "C:\Program Files\EventGhost\eg\Cli.py", line 127, in <module>
    e = win32com.client.Dispatch("{7EB106DC-468D-4345-9CFE-B0021039114B}")
  File "win32com\client\__init__.pyc", line 95, in Dispatch
  File "win32com\client\dynamic.pyc", line 98, in _GetGoodDispatchAndUserName
  File "win32com\client\dynamic.pyc", line 78, in _GetGoodDispatch
pywintypes.com_error: (-2146959355, 'Server execution failed', None, None)
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "EventGhost.pyw", line 34, in <module>
  File "C:\Program Files\EventGhost\eg\__init__.py", line 23, in <module>
    import Cli
  File "C:\Program Files\EventGhost\eg\Cli.py", line 127, in <module>
    e = win32com.client.Dispatch("{7EB106DC-468D-4345-9CFE-B0021039114B}")
  File "win32com\client\__init__.pyc", line 95, in Dispatch
  File "win32com\client\dynamic.pyc", line 98, in _GetGoodDispatchAndUserName
  File "win32com\client\dynamic.pyc", line 78, in _GetGoodDispatch
pywintypes.com_error: (-2146959355, 'Server execution failed', None, None)

And obviously if I now try to run EG in my account, it's not showing up either, just like before but with inverted roles.

It's interesting to see that in your case it works. What's different? are you using vista? do both accounts have admin rights or just one? Which version of EG are you using?

[Jazz]

I have got exactly the same bug as zeflash described in his last post. I'am using latest release 0.4.1.r1540. Did someone managed to workaround this issue? Or maybe developers could possibly fix it? This bug is pretty old.

[eatmeimadanish]

The issue is running EG in session 0. In Vista (and windows 7) the system likes to run everything in a protected session. When you run as admin, Session 0 is started (console) and is now at the kernel level. This will impact all user accounts. Try running EG normally in both sessions, without elevated permissions, and see if that gets you better results.

[Jazz]

I do run EG in both session as normal users, without elevated permissions. Running EG in one session as an admin does not change anything. The problem still persist in EventGhost 0.4.1.r1544.

[eatmeimadanish]

My point was that running EG as any kind of admin could be your problem. You are more than likely going to need to virtualize the second EG in a windows XP layer (try running in compatibility mode) and see if that works better.

[Jazz]

Finally, I’ve managed to find workaround to this problem. In the Task Scheduler I’ve created two tasks:
1. that launches EventGhost by executing command:

Code: Select all

"C:\Program Files (x86)\EventGhost\EventGhost.exe" -h -e OnInitAfterBoot

at user log on or on connection to user session from local computer,

2. that stops EventGhost by executing command:

Code: Select all

taskkill /im EventGhost.exe /f

on disconnect from user session from local computer (now I’m looking for some more elegant way to end EventGhost).

In both tasks I had to change user account set to be used when running the tasks to group Users (by default it is user used to create the task).

This solution prevents running many instances of EventGhost on many accounts.

[prorokrak]

Hi, I had exactly the same problem: Win7 x64, two accounts, one admin, the second one user. If the EventGhost was run in one account, it could not be run in the second one account (no matter if it was admin or user account). The user who logged in to his account as the first was the only one who could use EventGhost - quite weird in these days of multiusers systems.

Your post showed me a way, while I adjusted your solution a bit.
First I use this:

2. that stops EventGhost by executing command:

Code: Select all

taskkill /im EventGhost.exe /f

However, I run this command not when disconnecting from user session because I couldn't use EventGhost when an account is locked. I run it on connecting to any session. This required another adjustment:

In both tasks I had to change user account set to be used when running the tasks to group Users

Because I need to kill processes running in another session I had to run above mentioned command with admin rights. Therefore, I used credentials of the user with admin rights (although Administrators account should also work).

Basically, my solution looks like this:

On logon/connect to any account I run two tasks:

1. Code: Select all

   taskkill /im EventGhost.exe /f

   run with admin credentials

2. Code: Select all

   "C:\Program Files (x86)\EventGhost\EventGhost.exe" -h -e OnInitAfterBoot

   run under "Users" account (this command is run after a short pause needed to give time to the first task to end the processes of EventGhost)

What I like on this solution is that it enables me to share the settings of EventGhost in both accounts.

What I DON'T like on this solution is I have to be very careful not to forget to save any changes made in EventGhost. Otherwise, all my changes would be lost. Therefore, I would prefer if EventGhost could be run in separate accounts just as other programs do.