“Believe it or not, you don’t need to purchase Win4Lin or Virtual PC to easily access your old Windows OS that you still find yourself relying on. As a matter of fact, if you already own a Windows machine, you’re already halfway there. Enter the headless PC. Today, I’m going to share with you a technique that I feel has been lost, thanks in part to virtual PC options, such as VMware and Win4Lin. It’s a utility that many of you may even still use to this very day – VNC.”
I’ve done this for remote access before, but I find Windows Remote Desktop (Terminal Services) to be much faster and nicer in general than VNC. I don’t know if the server is available in XP Home but it’s a standard part of XP Pro, and the client should be a standard part of Windows XP as well.
Also if you would like to do something similar with a Linux box you can check out using FreeNX and the NoMachine NX Client. I use this to get from my Mac to a headless Ubuntu server.
Also, if you’re running Windows 2000 or higher, Virtual PC is available for free download from Microsoft.
If we’re talking a server running Windows, then I generally agree that RDP is preferrable because of the speed and other features (E.g., automagic mounting of drives local).
VNC still has a few advantages, though. For one, there’s listen mode, which allows a VNC server to send a connection request to a listening VNC client. Especially nice because it doesn’t require any specific ports to be opened/forwarded on the server’s network.
The second big one for me is the multi-platform compatibility. I’ve run the VNC server on Windows, OS X, classic MacOS, Linux, and BeOS – not something that can be done with RDP.
Third is that VNC allows “shared sessions” (not sure if that’s the proper terminology). With VNC, the local user can follow along with what the remote user is doing, so it works as a decent remote training tool. There’s no way to do that with RDP, that I could find; the remote user logs in, and the local user is logged out.
Third is that VNC allows “shared sessions” (not sure if that’s the proper terminology). With VNC, the local user can follow along with what the remote user is doing, so it works as a decent remote training tool. There’s no way to do that with RDP, that I could find; the remote user logs in, and the local user is logged out.
RDP can do this, just not using the Remote Desktop client on Windows (unless connecting to a Server). On Windows Server this can be done via Terminal Services. On Windows Client, this is done via Remote Assistance.
Edited 2006-09-28 05:18
I agree with the RDP solution. Speed all the way. But my boss still swears that pcAnywhere over SPX is the fastest. I can’t stand it, personally. Give me RDP or VNC (In that order). And with all three enabled on our network, you’d think it wouldn’t matter if we just didn’t install pcA on the new boxes…
If you’re local you’re better off using a KVM.
Very few instances would restrict the use of a KVM locally.
A KVM switch with acceptable Video qualities is very expensive.
Older model KVM’s seems to have issues keeping PS2 devices alive on legacy systems, e.g. Windows 98. But if you pay a pretty penny, I know there’s some good KVMs out there, even KVMs that run over IP.
Mine cost 49.99 canadian, and it has perfect video. They can be found, I bought mine at Radio Shack, of all places.
I still would prefer to save electricity and space by resuming a paused vmare session to use windows. The vm can also be copied to laptops and other pcs running vmware. Also runs faster than on old hardware lying around.
+1.
Plus, vmware server is free. (as beer)
– Gilboa
How is stating the most obvious is worth an article? Of course it is an option to replace an windows installation by not replacing it. Hey, i have a brilliant idea for an even better “virtualisation” alternative.
Don’t just use two PCs but also two Monitors, Mices, and keyboards. It has the advantage that your “virtualized” windows machine will run at native speed even with 3d acceleration. And you can even use it parallel to your Linux-box. Wow, incredible what technology archives today.
My thoughts (almost) exactly. VNC is not a poor man’s virtual machine, but a poor man’s KVM switch or remote desktop.
If we’re talking about a poor man’s virtual PC, how much poorer than free does it have to be? There’s Qemu and VMware player/server, also very free of charge.
Don’t just use two PCs but also two Monitors, Mices, and keyboards. It has the advantage that your “virtualized” windows machine will run at native speed even with 3d acceleration.
Man, get with the program. Use http://synergy2.sourceforge.net to share one mouse and KB between the comptuers. Here at work, I have a Linux Desktop and a Windows Desktop. One KB and mouse, three monitors (2 on Linux machine, 1 on windows machine). And (this is the best part), you can cut and paste text between the machines.
I don’t know how much less there is than free. Just download VMWare.
Some people prefer Free to free, of course. That may be one reason…
Believe it or not, you don’t need to purchase Win4Lin or Virtual PC to easily access your old Windows OS that you still find yourself relying on, because you can download MS Virtual PC for free. And you can user vmware player, qemu…
Edited 2006-09-28 05:13
Who said that ? I use it everyday at home and work, it fast and reliable.
There is nothing to do with virtualization software.
You cannot say that 2 real PC with VNC is like 1 PC with vmware/xen/win4linPro/colinux …etc…
If you think so then I guess your wife accept lots of wire and fan noise that mine is not happy with 😉
Edited 2006-09-28 08:30
It kind of bothers me when I read an article about a software package and the URL of the software homepage isn’t even given. For reference, both of these seem present the same pages:
http://ultravnc.sourceforge.net/
http://www.ultravnc.com/
I’m not sure why my post was modded down, it seems relevant to the discussion, I guess good, inexpensive KVMs are not an alternative to the crap this article is suggesting. A Good KVM is always better than a remote desktop or a VM, you get full 3D, full sound, and no lag if the network is busy. Oh well
comparing remote access software to emulation software is a bit odd in my opinion
this is quite comical
btw: i dig vnc, we use ultravnc’s singleclick software for customer support here, it’s not fast but it’s free and easy for our end users