ghacks Technology News

Add Remote Desktop Access to Windows Vista Home Editions

The Remote Desktop Connection feature in Windows Vista Business, Ultimate, and Enterprise editions enables easier remote access to any resource or application that your organization has made available to you. As you can see the Home editions are missing the feature which could pose a problem for some users of those editions.

We have to rely on third party products to add Remote Desktop functionality to Windows Vista Home Basic and Home Premium. The software that we are going to use is called TightVNC. It takes up about two megabytes of disk space on your system and requires some basic configuration to work.

The current user properties can be edited during the installation of the program. You should supply a secure password, set a port or port range that should be used and edit the other options that are visible in the configuration menu. I would advise to remove the option to disable remote keyboard and pointer (view-mode only).

Congratulations you have added remote desktop support to Windows Vista Home Basic and Premium.

Enjoyed the article?: Then sign-up for our free newsletter or RSS feed to kick off your day with the latest technology news and tips, or share the article with your friends and contacts on Facebook or Twitter.

Related Articles:

Windows Vista Editions – Do you know the differences ?
Enable Vista Aero in Windows Vista Home Basic
Windows 7 Editions 1: Windows 7 Home Premium
Windows XP SP3 Update Breaks Windows Home Server Remote Access
Enable Windows Aero In Unsupported Windows Editions



About the Author:Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand. You can follow Martin on Facebook or Twitter.

Author: , Monday February 12, 2007 -
Tags:, ,


Responses so far:

  1. madcow says:

    but vnc is not remote desktop….

    • rorschach says:

      Exactly, this article should be removed so nobody else searching for an rdp solution on Vista Home editions ends up wasting their time here.

  2. paul says:

    The problem with Tight VNC is that any UAC prompts close your VNC session so its only good for as long as nothing requiring admin permissions is attempted during the session, or if UAC is turned off.

  3. John says:

    PcHelpWare is your solution, search for it :)

  4. Rakesh says:

    TightVNC still requires a TightVNC server to be running on the machine that you want to remote to right? So how is this a substitute for remote desktop?

    Correct me if I am wrong.

  5. Maarten says:

    You should NOT install TightVNC as a service, as it will give you a black screen. Still, do not forget to configure the Windows firewall (if you’re using it) to allow port 5900 TCP incomming. Also, Windows Defender classifies TightVNC as possibly unwanted.

    All in all not a really workable alternative to real Remote Desktop, sessions are slow and the screen get doesn’t get updated automaticly in my situation.

  6. C says:

    PcHelpWare is not Remote Desktop either. I can’t find anyway to add Remote Desktop to Vista other than upgrading to Vista Business.

  7. John says:

    this tip es stupido

  8. Shawn says:

    Ok, so I have ultraVNC, same thing really. Very very easy to set up.

    It works but only if

    A: There is no password screen– I must be logged in as a user and ready to go and

    B: I dont try to do anything that requires security.

    Whenever I try to use a website that say would open a program windows wants to ask if its alright and POOF, bye bye VNC untill I get to work the next day.

    Vista is freaking overkill in some cases.

  9. Joe Shome says:

    This is a totally useless tip! VNC is NOT remote desktop.

    BTW Tight VNC does NOT WORK on Vista.

  10. Alexis says:

    Tight VNC don’t work on VISTA. RealVNC either. Both give you only black screens or problems. And VNC is not remote desktop.

    Home premium and home basic only have remote assistance.

  11. yoshiki says:

    As temporary end run, I commented out one part of source (in SDisplay.cxx) of vnc4.1.2.

    in function isRestartRequired()

    // – Check that we are in the input desktop
    // if (rfb::win32::desktopChangeRequired())
    // return true;

    Even if UAC dialog appears, a client is not cut off.

  12. andrewwan19890 says:

    Do you have a compiled/build of your modification yoshiki?

    Please put it up on the web.

  13. andrewwan1980 says:

    Yes, for RealVNC (and probably TightVNC) to work then you need to add “C:\Program Files\RealVNC\VNC4\winvnc4.exe” to your Windows Firewall exceptions list (or any other firewall program you have). Also, stop/unregister VNC Service (you’ll find shortcuts to use). Then start (or add to Startup menu) the User-Mode VNC Server. You can also add a password to the VNC Server.

    Now what’s all this about UAC? How can we get around this UAC business?

  14. CaraDmoco says:

    yep, misleading post. This has nothing to do with remote desktop.

  15. Mater says:

    Has anyone got around the UAC problem when running any vnc server as an application not a service (called user mode in some of the vnc flavours)??

    Anyone??

  16. Shah says:

    As far as I know VNC is a remote desktop, but it is not the same RDP with one Microsoft RDP. VNC cannot connect to Microsoft RDP as the system port is totally different. correct me if I’m wrong.

  17. Kiran Patel says:

    How do I install Remote Desktop Connection?

    You don’t need to install it. Client version of Windows, Remote Desktop Connection is installed by default in all – home or ultimate. Server is what is missing.

    Open Remote Desktop Connection by clicking the Start button Picture of the Start button, clicking All Programs, clicking Accessories, and then clicking Remote Desktop Connection.
    NoteYou can also open Remote Desktop Connection by typing “mstsc” in the Search box on the Start menu.

  18. dennis says:

    I agree with the above and moste importantly
    IT’S S.L.O.W ….

  19. d s says:

    Here is a how-to for Vista Home Premium und the free UltraVNC, its great and quick:

    http://www.we-u.com/?p=103

    I could not get vnc Server to work.

  20. burtb says:

    here is a patch available to fix this problem Download:

    http://www.bjoern81.kicks-ass.org/include.php?path=article&contentid=49

  21. UserDL says:

    I guess the real answer is: Microsoft figured anyone stupid enough to buy a PC with a bundled operating system is too stupid to actually be able to use it. I am pretty happy with my new HP Laptop but the OS (Vista Home Premium) precludes me from doing any real work. Like remote desktop to my work pc and send emails so the bosses think I am at work when instead I am at the beach or home playing video games. It truly is my fault for buying a pc with Windows preinstalled.

  22. Phil says:

    This worked for me:

    Connect on the LAN:

    From: XP laptop
    To: Vista Premium Desktop
    With: UltraVNC 1.0.2

    Just don’t run the UltraVNC server as a service. An alternative is to put it in the windows startup section. You may have to tell Windows Defender to allow VNC server to run. Either do it on the notification screen, or via the control panel (Windows Defender -> Tools -> Software Explorer). And of course, firewall and router settings must allow connectivity.

    My laptop has a normal display, and my desktop is widescreen with aero and it will be displayed on the laptop – albeit with edge scrolling.

    Hope this helps.

  23. Adam says:

    Obviously, Remote Desktop does not work on Vista Home versions. Use RealVNC instead. The Vista version of RealVNC is not free, but it works perfectly well.

    So forget about “Remote Desktop” or upgrade to Vista Bidness.

  24. Birdy says:

    I’ve not tried this myself, but I’m about to. I know this kind of hack enabled me to use Remote Desktop Connection on Microsoft Windows XP with multiple users simultaneously.

    Now someone hacked the termserv.dll to enable Remote Desktop Connection in Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium.

  25. Birdy says:

    Victory! Simply download termsrv.zip, extract it somewhere on your Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium computer and run premium.bat.

  26. Macca says:

    Post sp1/no dll hacks etc.
    I was frustrated too that I could not remote from my laptop with vista premiun to my desktop with ultimate. I could remote the other way of course.
    Last night I forwarded udp and tcp ports 3389 on my router using the desktops address and was able to remote to my desktop from my laptop using the free rdc download from microsoft.
    Hope this helps someone else.

  27. mircea says:

    hy
    I have instaled termsrv.zip,,the servicess are running the port is listening but is stiil not working the remote connection.I forgot to tell you i have vista home premium.Someone can help me?

  28. Filipe Fumaux says:

    mircea,
    U’ll need to open the ports on firewall. If u r using a router ull need to fw the connection to ur machine.
    Maybe can help u: http://www.unet.fi/fransblog/2007/08/30/enable-remote-desktop-connection-on-vista-home-premium/#comment-42199

  29. Mr.Wyzerd says:

    Any of you ever heard of Teamviewer?

    I’ve used most remote control products over the last 15 years. This one rocks for managing remote systems. Performance depends on bandwidth, central server for internet, VPN for added security, local LAN for privacy; yay!

    Sure there are a few annoyances, like the nag screen and it only runs on windows (but XP and Vista and some earlier), but, its the easiest to setup, can run as a service with a fixed password, or not. Small (1 MB) client module for quick, new client, support. Connections can change mid-stream, file transfer and remote presentation (one-way sessions).

    It is a different license model; license is purchased once; period. Free RSS updates, no maintenance (read support, who needs it anyway).

    Really, what do you want, free for non-commercial use; max, only $1400 for life otherwise?

    If you’ve got feedback to the contrary, please share it; maybe I’m living in a cloud.

    Thanks,
    wyz

  30. Mr.Wyzerd says:

    Oops, Teamviewer does do OSX too.

Leave a Reply   Follow Ghacks   Subscribe To Comment Rss

Subscribe without commenting

© 2005-2012 Ghacks.net. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy - About Us