I also think that the remote audio feature optional with ‘Remote Desktop’ is great because it allows me to listen to my licensed computer specific .wma files since they’re being played on my machine. With VNC, if you select to play an audio file, does it just play on your speakers at home? I know that napster allows you to download your songs onto 3 computers anyway, but using remote desktop works as well. Video’s don’t stream in quite quick enough for a smooth picture so I normally copy&paste or use my ftp to get any large files I want.

I’ve also fooled around with various VNC programs and I like the web java applet features they have. That’s an excellent idea if you can’t install the client software on whoever’s pc you’re using. A bad thing about Remote Desktop is that it’s only offered in the professional edition of Windows XP. Another thing that’s nice about VNC is that it’s easy to change the listening port for each computer behind the router so you can check out multiple computers at work or something using the one IP address like xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:????. With Remote Desktop you have to actually change the listening port in the registry from the default 3389 to whatever.

Can you change the remote screen saver with UltraVNC? You can’t with Remote Desktop. VNC does a much better job when you’re using a dual monitor display setup because you can just push on the border to move farther right or left. Remote Desktop must have been designed limited to a single monitor because I’m often having trouble finding windows that open on the other monitor. I’m still experimenting with both but I love having my home and office outlooks on my two monitors in front of me at the same time.

Woah, my comment is getting long! Anyway, computers are sweet! Thanks for your blog article. I always enjoy reading and learning your opinions and ideas on computer things. You have tons of knowledge buddy! Correct me if I was wrong about anything.

In regards to your “leaving application open” while using Remote Desktop, I should clarify what I meant. You are right, if you log in remotely, run some programs, disconnect, and reconnect remotely again later, those program (from your remote session) will still be running. However, if you log into your computer using the main console (as in, not remotely) and run programs, if you’d like to check on the status of those program running on the console’s session, it is not possible.

I hear what you’re saying about the wma licenses. Digital Right Management is a problem, not because there aren’t solution out there that work, but because the solutions are not effective. Would you go the local music store and buy a CD if you knew you could only play it on 3 different CD players? Home stereo, car stereo, portable CD player, that’s 3, so what If I get a new stereo? This could be a posting on its own so I’ll move on.

You make a good point on configuration of listening ports. An add-on for UltraVNC which I mentioned was Repeater. It allows you to access multiple computer with VNC Servers in your LAN remotely, and you only need to forward 1 port.

Dual monitor support is often overlooked unfortunately. I use my home computer as a media center attached to my TV in the living room and the display is actually consider a secondary monitor. When I log into my computer remotely using UltraVNC, I can choose to view the whole display (both monitors) or just my primary computer console. If the computer you are using to connect from remotely has a high enough resolution, or in fact has a dual monitor set up, you can have both remote monitors showing at once.

I can’t get UltraVNC to see my other monitor. I use my laptop to connect to my PC but only see the main screen (right hand). I cant get to the left one. I have ried pushing, clicking, etc.

mstsc /console

connect to console:i:1

Hope this helps someone else.

Dave