Maximum Users Message
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Written by Sean McNie
Updated over a week ago

It's basically how your server releases/closes the number of instances of the Essential Forms program open on a network. The "maximum users" problem happens if the program is not getting closed properly. If it's crashing, or a user is hitting ctrl-alt-del to close it, or is powering off their computer without closing the program first, or the network is timing out before the process is finished closing, etc., then the program has no way to subtract from the current user count. If this happens frequently enough, the current user count eventually gets pushed up to and then over the maximum.

The program does have some ability to reset the user count on its own, by getting all users out of the Essential Forms program, then starting it back up on one machine, often enables the program to reset the user count to 1. On that one workstation in Essential Forms click View > System Information, take a look at "Network", check the "Current Users" should be "1", "Maximum Users" would be "5, 10, 15, 20..." how many you have a license for. This is something you can teach the user to do on their own if the maximum users warning appears frequently.

Here's the background & resolution:


What can cause the “Current Users” count to reach “Maximum Users” is contingent on a number of factors:

-Users leaving Essential Forms open overnight with forms open. It’s a good practice to close the program when not in use on the network.

-Users clicking the Essential Forms shortcut multiple times because of slow-loading, launches multiple user sessions.

-Users clicking the red X rather than File>Exit when closing the program. File>Exit closes the program in a cleaner fashion.

How can I reset the counter back to Current Users “1” (try in this order):

-Have everyone close out of Essential Forms and then launch Essential Forms on one computer, click View>System information take a look at Network, Current Users it should be “1” and Maximum Users “5”. The program has an ability to reset the counter with everyone out of the program.

-Go into "Computer Management" on the server, then System Tools> Shared Folders>Open Files and close all Essential Forms files that are open. Granted this will end the user’s sessions in the Essential Forms program. That should reset the counter.

-Reboot the workstations.

-Reboot the server.

-Open Task Manager (Click keys CTRL+ALT+DLT). The "Processes" tab can also be useful in avoiding server reboots--if it appears everyone has the program closed, but the user count isn't resetting, it may be worth checking the Processes tab on each workstation and closing Efwin32.exe from there if it doesn't go away by itself after a minute or so.

-Check the installed anti-virus to see if it might be holding up the application from closing.

There really isn't much we can do other than these suggestions. As a Window program, we have to rely on Windows carrying out our instructions in a timely fashion. If it's slow to do that, there really isn't a "hurry up" command we can send to Windows.

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