Netop MyVision Basic Review
April 12, 2012 by weemooseus and tagged administration, free, Lab Monitor, programs, software, technology, tools
Netop MyVision Basic , a Review
Recently I began looking for a product to monitor my lab’s computers. I have 30 student computers running Windows XP with 512mb ram, and a teacher’s computer running Windows 7.
One of the first products I looked at was Netop’s MyVision Free. However, when one downloads the software, it installs Netop’s MyVision Basic as a 30 day trial which reverts to the free version at the end of the trial. All of Netop’s products are PC and Mac compatible and will work in a mixed environment.
I found installation of the software easy and configuration to be a dream compared to others that I have installed. I did have to repair the install on two computers.
When I configured each class, the arrangement of the computer capture screens on the teacher monitor was easy and fun to do. What I missed was the ability to rename the computers to make them easy to monitor as I have my computers physically numbered and the students are assigned a computer via a seating chart.
In use, the software worked fairly well, students’ computer screens were easy to see and direct supervision provided a large viewable screen. Assisting students was easy and chat was fun to use as was the ability to lock the Internet to gain students’ attention. Some features missing on the basic version were the ability to log in, shut down, restart, or run a specific program on all computers at once. Most of these features are available on the Pro version of the software.
At the end of the trial period, I uninstalled the software as I found it slowed the network to a crawl constantly updating connection and popping up a small notice each time it did. The performance hit was unexpected and the popup would cause some programs to minimize or crash completely. I suspect that the limitations are the ram of my user stations and the constant updating of connection, (which is not adjustable).
Netop’s salesman tried to get me to use the Pro version, but I have neither the time nor money to invest.
I would recommend Netop, but one must meet or exceed the hardware requirements and I am a little worried that network speed might be compromised. It might be best to try the Pro version first.
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