A new software package has been designed to quickly convert a Windows PC into a network computer, without changing any application or operating system software.

New Moon Software, Inc.'s Liftoff package consists of server and client code.

The server software sits between a server-based 32-bit Windows application and Windows NT. When the application calls the operating system, Liftoff directs the call to NT Server or a remote PC running the client portion of Liftoff and either NT Workstation or Windows 95.

This approach lets MIS groups shift applications to powerful NT servers, on which the software can be installed and maintained more easily than on hundreds of separate clients, said Frank Mara, vice president of marketing. With Liftoff, heavy computational work is handled by NT Server, while the client operating system handles processing of graphical elements.

``Neither the user nor the client PC needs to know where the application is running,'' Mara said.

The Liftoff software installs in a matter of minutes, according to the vendor. The server code runs as an NT service and makes use of NT features such as security and network connections. The client code takes up just 250K bytes of space. The client and server components communicate via New Moon's proprietary network protocol, though, the software runs over TCP/IP and SPX/IPX nets.

A graphical application lets systems administrators configure Liftoff to define user access rights to applications. Users can access multiple servers and applications, as well as cut and paste applications.

Rival products - most of which are based on Citrix Systems, Inc.'s multiuser version of NT - also create a Windows application server that can be accessed by remote PCs. But unlike the others, New Moon runs on standard NT.

Another difference is that New Moon works with Windows APIs instead of the lower level device drivers. This allows for more efficient net communications in that Liftoff sends only a menu operation or other user interaction command to the remote PC, where the command is executed by Windows. By contrast, the Citrix model executes the same command on the server and sends over the network all of the graphical displays and bitmaps to the client over the network.

Liftoff will be available June 15. It will cost $4,995 for 10 concurrent users and $995 for each additional five-user license.

Source: Network World