Question: Can ZEMAX be run as a Remote Desktop session?

Yes, however the Sentinel  key driver by default does not allow ZEMAX to run under Window’s Remote Desktop feature. You must turn this feature on, under File...Preferences...Miscellaneous:



To allow ZEMAX to run under Remote Desktop, select this option to "On", then exit and restart ZEMAX. This feature requires version 7.0.0 or later of the Sentinel driver. (We recommend the current version,  available from the downloads page). When Remote Desktop is set to "On" only one instance of ZEMAX at a time can run.

The reason this is not the default setting is that in the unlikely event of ZEMAX crashing, the remote desktop enabled driver does not allow ZEMAX to run again for several minutes, until the driver resets itself. Also, the remote driver only allows one application at a time to connect to the key, preventing multiple versions of ZEMAX from running.

To modify the setting without running ZEMAX (for example if you are already connecting over a Remote Desktop session), edit the ASCII text file ZEMAX.CFG found in the same directory as the ZEMAX.exe executable file. Look for the line in the file that starts with RDSK. The syntax is RDSK 0 for Remote Desktop off and RDSK 1 for Remote Desktop on.