This is a neat solution if you happen to have more than one network adapter (for example a LAN and WLAN) that you want to use simultaneously (without enabling / disabling any of them), and keep your various applications running without problems (many of them get confused in such scenarios).
Unfortunately, this works exclusively on earlier versions of Windows (XP, 7) and only in 32-bit flavor (from my personal experience, it could work on later versions, but it's pretty buggy and unpredictable). If I remember corrrectly, Microsoft has made some serious changes in the TCP/IP stack implementation between the Windows XP / 7 and Windows 8 (and later)
The secret ingredient here is a useful tool called ForceBindIP.
In order to get it running, the following has to be done:
- download and install it
- set static IPs to your network adapters
- it doesn't have a GUI - therefore just add ForceBindIP 1.2.3.4 (where 1.2.3.4 is the static IP address that you want to use with the app.) to the app. shortcut target field, like this:
C:\Windows\SysWOW64\ForceBindIP.exe 192.168.13.2 C:\Windows\System32\mstsc.exe