MagicTwin
I'll get the MagicTwin software's negatives out of the way quickly. It requires Windows XP (Home or Pro) and won't work with any other version of Windows, or indeed any other OS. That means you need a Windows XP license to get anything out of it. I mentioned the cost aspect on the previous page and unless you're simply looking to save space, cost is the reason you'll be buying a MagicTwin board. Windows XP generally isn't cheap at the time of writing, although there are methods of purchasing it without a large outlay, if you're a student for example and your educational establishment has an Academic license with Microsoft.The second negative is that it's only certified to work with certain hardware combinations. The board I'm reviewing today requires a graphics card (there are MagicTwin boards with onboard graphics) and it's only certified to work with certain dual-display NVIDIA graphics cards and further than that, only certain revisions of NVIDIA's graphics drivers. You'll generally be fine with any GeForce FX and recent drivers, but that might not always be the case, due to the way MagicTwin hooks in with the OS and the display driver. Other cards, including ATI's graphics adaptors, aren't certified at all and might not even work. I couldn't persuade my 9800XT to work with it, with any driver from CATALYST 4.0 to 4.3.
With those caveats out of the way, carry on reading if you're still interested.
According to the manual, the way to MagicTwin nirvana is a fresh installation of Windows XP, with all the latest hardware drivers installed, Service Pack 1 applied, and no other applications installed, with two (or more) user accounts precreated. Then it's time to install MagicTwin. You're prompted for the usual name and email address, along with a couple of codes. Your graphics adaptor is queried and you're warned if it's something the software isn't happy with, but you're allowed to continue if it's not. Then your OS is queried and you're asked to make sure you own the license for Windows XP before continuing. The final choice is whether or not you wish to install the management console, a generic MMC-style app, for managing your MagicTwin installation. It's wise to do so, and you're prompted for an admin password when you do.
Bam, you're done. It copies files, you reboot, the next login screen is MagicTwin'd and you can simultaneously login two people to the same installed copy of the operating system. That's where the hardware comes in.
You need two sets of keyboards, mice and monitors for it to work. The required PS/2 dongles are supplied with all MagicTwin boards to allow two sets of PS/2 HIDs to control each MagicTwin station (station is the preferred term for each login session), but it can assign USB-connected HIDs to either station really easily, so PS/2 devices aren't a requirement.
Let's see the software in action.
