Why cant I run iTunes concurrently on 2 windows accounts on same pc

[Kezug]

I have Windows Vista with 2 user accounts. If I am running iTunes on one account, I am not able to launch iTunes when I switch to the other account (leaving iTunes running on the first account).

Why is this a limitation? And is there any way around it?

I specifically would like to have both running at the same time on one computer so I can use the Remote App to control/switch between the 2 libraries without having to go to the computer to end iTunes on one account, switch to the other account and launch iTunes on that account.

 

[wrecklass]

I suspect it is mostly an iTunes design issue. They probably put a lock file under ProgramData and that will not allow two instances to be launched at the same time. I also suspect that if you could do this both copies of iTunes would try to bind to the same port and one would fail.

 

[DontUnderstandMyIpad]

You could always run iTunes in a virtual machine, like Virtualbox. Though depending on your hardware running a virtual OS might slow done things a little.

Surely running a virtual OS, just to run iTunes twice is a bit of an overkill, performance wise, but I don't know of any other form of running iTunes twice on the same pc.

 

[playadunk]

I too have this problem, I'm moving away from an iMac where I WAS able to run iTunes concurrently in 2 user accounts.

It is a royal pain to have this limitation and I will likely not use iTunes as much because of it.

Thanks Apple (NOT!)

 

[DrHouse]

I have Windows Vista with 2 user accounts. If I am running iTunes on one account, I am not able to launch iTunes when I switch to the other account (leaving iTunes running on the first account).

Why is this a limitation? And is there any way around it?

I specifically would like to have both running at the same time on one computer so I can use the Remote App to control/switch between the 2 libraries without having to go to the computer to end iTunes on one account, switch to the other account and launch iTunes on that account.

Just by the look of installed libraries and softwares, iTunes on windows is using a lot of services. Probably the design of the software prevents it from serving more than one instance of iTunes at the same time. A bad design, for sure as it is possible to do it. But keep in mind that probably 90% of windows users do not have a clue about having multiple accounts on the same machine, so maybe Apple decided not to put too much effort on supporting the multi users feature of windows.

Also, are you accessing your account in a RDP session or locally? Some software can misbehaved when running in a RDP session depending on how they were installed. I know, that sounds strange but believe my experiences . That's why I run Ubuntu on my laptops

VicoPad addict!