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Microsoft to let multiple pupils work from single PC

Ina Fried CNET News

Published: 13 Nov 2009 10:24 GMT

Microsoft is working on a new product, due out next year, that will let multiple students work independently and simultaneously off a single PC.

Although each student will have their own mouse, keyboard and screen — and be able to work on their own application — the computation will be done by a single PC running a new version of Microsoft's Windows Server operating system. The new product is being dubbed Windows Multipoint Server 2010.

Windows Multipoint Server allows multiple students to work off a single PC, each running their own applications with their own keyboard, mouse and display

"Over the past few years, we at Microsoft have been exploring the area of shared resource computing — a new computing category that allows a customer to tap into a computer's excess capability to let a single computer support multiple users simultaneously," Multipoint Server general manager Ira Snyder said in a blog post. "In the world of education, shared resource computing has great potential to extend the reach and utilisation of affordable computing for students."

For more on this story, see Microsoft to schools: Share a PC on CNET News.