SUPERVISORY CONTROL SYSTEM FOR NETWORKED MULTIMEDIA WORKSTATIONS THAT PROVIDES REMOTE LAUNCHING OF FILES

摘要

A supervisory control system for a networked multimedia computing system that addresses the foregoing limitations associated with currently existing systems provides a teacher or network administrator at a master workstation with the ability to open a specified document on selected remote workstations in the network. If the document is not already present on the various remote workstations, the teacher can first transmit it to each one that does not already have it. At the remote workstations, the document is stored at the same location as it is in the master workstation, to facilitate finding it on subsequent occasions. When a command is sent to open the document, it is identified by specific attributes that enable it to be distinguished from other documents that may have the same name. With this feature, a teacher can easily reset an entire computer lab so that each student will be at the same position for the beginning of a new class, for example. This same feature can also be used to launch application programs at destination workstations, as well as quit applications on selected workstations.