MultiPoint Server Targets Education

Windows MultiPoint Server 2010 is a new Windows OS-based solution for the academic market that connects several student work stations to a single computer, allowing multiple users to run different Windows programs simultaneously. The computer contains multiple graphics cards for connecting workstation displays, and the keyboards and mice connect using USB ports. Because the components for each student cost less than giving each student their own computer, MultiPoint Server may allow schools to provide more students with computer access.

Greater Computer Access

Microsoft calls MultiPoint Server the first product in the emerging category of shared resource computing, but it appears to make Windows work like the minicomputers with dumb terminals that Windows Servers replaced. Although Windows MultiPoint Server is built on the Windows OS and uses Remote Desktop Services (formerly Terminal Services), it is not a member of the Windows Server family.

Like Home Server, MultiPoint Server has been simplified so that nontechnical users can set up and manage the computer, while students use the connected devices to work on their own projects at their own pace. Information stored on the computer can be shared by all the users. (For an illustration of how devices might attach, see “MultiPoint Server 2010 Connections“.)