Raspberry pi 2 how to use as a thin client

Hello Vivek,

AFAIK, the Raspberry PI is not enabled to support WIndows 7 as well. As a matter of fact, - if it will be possible, but I think no - the only version of Windows 7 that it can support is the embedded version. The last updated news about the Windows environment running on the Raspberry PI 2 are starting from Windows 10 IoT version, a special version without desktop interface.

The last try to install something elder than W10 is the Windows 8 with no success (you can find the discussion link here: Windows 8 consumer preview )

You can find all the related discussions to Windows 10 IoT on Raspberry PI with the following search : http://www.element14.com/community/search.jspa?q=raspberry+windows+10

Enrico

Vivek, if you are using Windows 10 I would say Enrico is right, if it's Rasbian you may be able to download or compile a version of VNc/or Rdesktop or something. Either way I wouldnt expect it to be quick or the best way of achieving your end goal.

What are you intending to use the system for when you have connected it up to the windows 7 box?

Thank you @John Alexander, you have just replied to the last half of the question

Enrico

True, but in all these things the important thing is why you are doing it sometimes if you tell people the complete story they can tell you a much more efficient  way of completing the problem rather tahn giving you half a solution .

What you dont say is what you want to access on the Win7 machine

Files ?

Full remote control of the PC

a web server

an API

please elabourate as the answer to each is very different and only one will cause the PC to be usable by only one PI at a time

There is NO windows desktop for the PI, of any version

Windows 10 IoT on the PI is an appliance based application core, not a desktop and therefor does not even have a true browser or any other desktop apps (Think Toaster, Alarm System, Heating Controller etc)

any app written for the PI, either under Raspbian or Windows 10 IoT that leverages APIs on a remote machine via say TCP/IP can access a server based app on ANY windows based host if the host supports the protocol too. it is just a case of programming it. Remote take over of the PC is a different matter, this requires a client app on the PI that can access the PC running the other half of the app. Open VNC is such an app i believe but it is not available to run on Windows 10 IoT, but there is plenty of support on Linux

Hope this helps clarify

He said he wants to use the 'pi as a "thin client" for the windows machine. This is entirely possible.

A certain company in Redmond makes lots crappy software, but they've made a few good things. The design of the NTFS filesystem and the design and implementation of the rdesktop protocol.

This allows you to use a desktop on a Windows (or other OS) machine at a different screen than the physical one. It works quite well: it works reasonably fast over pretty lousy links.

At first, I would suggest that you get your pi up and running a normal desktop environment. Tell it to boot to graphical mode using raspi-config or something like that. Next use "sudo apt-get install rdesktop" to install the rdesktop app.

then start a terminal (I don't know where to find things using the menus, so bear with me.), and type: rdesktop -u <username> <windowsserver>

Now you should be able to log into your windows7 machine.

Next, you should be able to make a little script that you can run from the command line:

#!/bin/sh

X &

sleep 2

rdesktop ....

and start that from /etc/rc.local , but before you reboot: disable the "graphical startup" again.

Now, there is only one problem left. That certain company in Redmond, as far as I know has not made that Windows7 machine able to handle more than one client at a time (or a client and one at the physical screen). You may need special paid-for add ons and/or special licences from Redmond.

Yep as I said but we have little or no direction from the question author to what they want or meant so really we have already reached the impasse.

Hi Vivek,

Windows 7 is not designed to support multiple users. This means that only one session can log in at a time.

You can have a look here:

http://www.nextofwindows.com/how-to-enable-multiple-concurrent-user-in-remote-desktop-windows-7

This possible solution replaces a part of Windows to enable multiple users.Big warning: This is an unofficial patch which may corrupt your Widows installation. If you are interested in this option, please use a test install of Windows to try it out.

Salvador

Again, were assuming he wants an RDP session, the question does not state what the server/PC is to provide, only that access to to from multiple PIs is needed, thats why we are at an impass with out the additional info