Multiple users on Windows about espanso HOT 8 OPEN

I see #721 got closed; I’m not sure I agree with that closure and hope that doesn’t happen here. It appearsthat the -unmanaged option is only documented for Linux so I’m not even sure why it is considered a suitable fix on MacOS. Furthermore the fact that it prevents espanso from starting automatically seems to undermine its viability.

I’m aware of an increase in non-sophisticated users (due to work-from-home situations) employing multiple accounts for work/personal compartmentalization on the same machine. That’s been my use case for years but today my gf and even my mom do it. Both windows and Mac make multiuser environments very accessible to the general public, i.e. people who’ve never heard of GitHub.

I think espanso should “play nice” with fast user switching out of the box. If not today — when the user base is presumably more able to create workarounds — then definitely before trying to appeal to a broader audience. I’m a technically-inclined diy type, but not skilled in computing; If I hadn’t been able to coerce a working .bat file (which I know is extremely simple stuff) out of AI I wouldn’t have a suitable workaround and would have had to seek another utility. Which I don’t want to do, because espanso (and its community) is awesome!

from espanso.

Is #919 any help?

from espanso.

Just trying to help, and thought it might be useful.
I agree, it needs to be fixed.

from espanso.

Interesting, I've never tried to use an app in different windows accounts. Thanks for submitting!

from espanso.

Is #919 any help?

Thanks for flagging this, but I don't see anything there that helps.
Both of my users A and B are admins because they are both me, just "wearing different hats".

I ran the installer "for all users" from user A, which absolutely did what I expected. I have no trouble launching Espanso under either user -- so long as that is the only user logged in (i.e. I have not 'switched' from the other user). This works whether I launch Espanso manually or by setting it as a Startup App the conventional way.

My issue appears to be the same with both the portable and installed versions of Espanso. I'm sticking with the installed version since it's more convenient to keep updated for both users.

My current workaround is a .bat file that runs upon switching users via Task Scheduler. It kills all extant processes named espansod.exe then launches that user's copy of Espanso out of AppData\Local\Programs\Espanso. That did not work until I set Task Scheduler to run the .bat as the current user (run-as-user = USERS group). That had been defaulting to whichever user was logged-in while I was editing the Task, so the .bat would only work properly when I switched-to that user.

HTH?

from espanso.

Thank you for checking and publishing your workaround.
We'll keep this open.

from espanso.

Is the macOS solution just added to #721 any help?

from espanso.

Is the macOS solution just added to #721 any help?

I don't see a 'solution' there, just an update from the author.
FWIW it does sound like the behavior on MacOS is identical to what I see in W11:
After switching to user B I see user A's 3 espansod processes running and if I try to start a new instance of Espanso a new process briefly appears and is then killed. Just like in #721.

Basically espanso will only "work" if it's been started by the current user with no other instances running. This is completely consistent with the error message nudefireninja quotes further up the thread in #721 which tells me this use case's difficulty isn't really "unexpected" -- It's just not designed for.

Now I've got my workaround, I'm happily espansing like before. It's just not a great situation for users that don't touch the command line but do use 'fast user switching'. If the Espanso development roadmap includes adding a GUI for a broader userbase, it'd be a good idea to solve this use case so non-commandline users don't run into it.

from espanso.