Pro Pack Licensing

[Chris Surrey]

My Win 10 PC is currently running RM + Pro Pack. If I were to get a second RM disc from a well known Liverpool box shifter and install on my laptop as an alternative to the PC, I would obviously need another Pro Pack as well to utilise those functions it contains. But if I were to use the laptop as a slave to the PC, what would be the position? Would it drive the Pro Pack functions from the PC and would I need a second Pro Pack licence?

[Chrissaf]

Chris I was holding back waiting for someone who uses ProPack AND Master / Slave working to reply. No replies as yet. I would suspect to use features on the Slave that are only available via ProPack, you would need a ProPack license on the Slave as well. The logic for this is, the Slave needs an activated licensed RM copy on it to access the normal (non ProPack) RM functions i.e there is no license pass through (license adoption) from a licensed Master to an un-licensed Slave that might be in Evaluation mode. So why would Hornby licensing policy be any different with ProPack. This is of course only my guesstimate opinion as I don't use RM in this way. But it seems to make sense to me from a Hornby perspective point of view.

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Others have suggested a workaround in other replies on this forum that involves using a 'PC Anywhere' TYPE software product. Such that the Slave actually sees the screen and keyboard of the Master RM PC. That way you don't need any RM software on the Slave at all, and the Slave can do anything in RM that you can do when directly sitting in front of the Master PC, as you are in effect operating your RM Master PC but from a remote PC location.

[RDS]

@Chris

I have the setup you are describing and I can confirm that Chrissaf is correct that you need a 2nd copy of ProPack to see the functions on the Slave PC.  I have not considered any 'PC anywhere' type software and I have not got a 2nd copy of ProPack myself.  There are many aspects of the networking feature that need fixing before another ProPack would be worthwhile.  That does not mean it does not work but not everything is fed back to the Slave.

[Chris Surrey]

Thanks Chrissaf and RDS. Those were my thoughts too. Team viewer is the best remote access software I have found as not only is it free but it allows you to use the main and slave PCs at the same time just as I would imagine two versions of RM would. It's what I use on my tablet to get round the fact that the Chrome browser version issue makes the Hornby handheld solution unusable on Android. 

Was only enquiring about two versions of RM to avoid having to deregister RM on my PC and reregistering on the laptop when the layout goes to exhibition as I don't want to trudge around with a full desktop system. But a small price to pay to save buying yet another Pro Pack!