Windows requirements

Supported platforms

Synergy/DE 12.1 is supported on the following Windows platforms.

Note

Windows Nano Server is not supported. All other versions of Windows Server 2016, 2019, and 2022 are supported as long as the WoW64 feature is installed.

Note

You can install 32-bit Synergy on either a 32-bit or 64-bit system; you can install 64-bit Synergy only on a 64-bit system. However, not all products are supported on a 64-bit system. See the document “Synergy/DE on 64-bit Windows” (PDF) for more information.

Patches

Regardless of Windows platform, you should always load all Windows critical updates.

Microsoft .NET Framework requirements

Microsoft .NET Framework version 4.7.2 or higher must be installed before you can install version 12.1 of the following products: Synergy/DE (32-bit and 64-bit), Synergy/DE Client (32-bit and 64-bit), Synergy DBL Integration for Visual Studio, xfNetLink .NET (32-bit and 64-bit).

The version of the Framework installed by default on Windows is a minimal version, intended only for running .NET applications. For .NET development, you will need the full version, which is installed with Visual Studio.

When running Synergy .NET applications, you’ll need to install the version of the .NET Framework that your application targets.

Minimum processor requirements

The minimum requirement for Synergy/DE version 12.1 is a 32-bit machine with an Intel Pentium 4 or Athlon 64 processor supporting SSE2.

Environment setup

The installation program installs a default synergy.ini file in the DBLDIR directory. You should copy this synergy.ini file to another location and set the SFWINIPATH environment variable to point to it. You can then add environment settings to the file as necessary. For more information on synergy.ini, see Synergy initialization files.

On 64-bit systems, neither the 64-bit nor the 32-bit installation sets the usual Synergy environment variables or adds anything to the path. Synergy/DE tools derive their environment from the executable’s path. To run applications and utilities from the command line, we recommend you run the dblvars64.bat or dblvars32.bat batch files. For more information, see the document “Synergy/DE on 64-bit Windows” (PDF).

Installation considerations

Before installing Synergy/DE, you should consider whether you want the software to reside locally on each machine or reside on a shared machine accessed by one or more clients. These two choices are mutually exclusive: components can either be run locally or accessed from a shared drive.

Important

To run a Synergy .NET application, you must have Synergy/DE installed locally unless you are deploying a Windows Store or ClickOnce application.

A shared configuration makes maintenance easier because all Synergy/DE files are installed on the shared machine. Although you may occasionally have to upgrade the client machines, in general you will need to upgrade only the shared machine.

Note

See the installation instructions that accompanied your distribution for detailed instructions on installing Synergy/DE to run locally or from a shared drive.

In addition, you should consider how you want to license your Synergy/DE software. Synergy/DE software is licensed with License Manager, which can be configured for local licensing or network licensing.

Running Synergy/DE from a shared machine

The shared machine can be any of the supported Windows platforms listed in Supported platforms.

The client machines can be Windows 8, 8.1, 10, or 11, but cannot be a terminal server machine, which includes all Windows Server machines.

The client may be a 32-bit Synergy/DE client installed on a 64-bit machine.

Local vs. network licensing

If you plan to run Synergy/DE locally, you can use either local or network licensing. You’ll be prompted to choose the license type during installation. If you plan to run Synergy/DE from a shared machine, you must use network licensing.

Local licensing uses License Manager to manage licenses on a single machine. License product keys must be installed on each machine.

Network licensing uses License Manager server to manage licenses for multiple machines (license clients). With network licensing, you are required to install product keys only on the license server machine. The license clients then obtain their licensing from that machine.

See Choosing local or network licensing (Windows) for more information.