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Fast User Switching on Windows XP with VNC?

Posted by Cliff on from the why-doesn't-it-work dept.

A not-so Anonymous Coward asks: "I have searched the web for links on how to make VNC work with Windows XP fast user switching, and all I have seen is people saying that they cannot get it to work. I would now like to ask the Slashdot community to give it their shot, and see if they cannot find a way to make your standard VNC utilities cooperate with Windows XP fast user switching. For those who don't know what the problem is; when using fast user switching, if you switch users (without logging out) from the first user to log on then VNC comes up with a blank screen. Hopefully someone can come up with a fix for this." It sounds like (and I might be way off base here)Windows isn't necessarily running multiple desktops for its fast user switching, and once the switch occurs from the user running the VNC process, that VNC then somehow loses rights to the desktop. It would be interesting to note if VNC sessions will work once the desktop is switched back. Has anyone else tried getting this to work? Have you run into the same problems, or were you able to find a solution?

5 of 86 comments (clear)

  1. Why not use in the built-in Remote Desktop? by jpsowin · · Score: 4, Insightful

    In XP Pro, Remote Desktop is built in--which is a lot faster and smoother than VNC, plus it just works good.

    And if you're using VNC because you want to access the XP machine from linux, then just emulate the Windows98 Remote Desktop software M$ offers for free with WINE or Crossover Office (which I have had great success with in general).

    1. Re:Why not use in the built-in Remote Desktop? by wonkamaster · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Actually it could very well be in compliance with Microsoft licensing. Consider the situation in which you dual-boot, the PC is licensed but there is no way of transferring that license to the Linux partition (or even to another Windows computer should you decommission the PC for that matter).

      Considering that TS CAL licensing is based on user (but enforced per computer) if you have a license for a Windows computer you are licensed for Linux. There's just no way of telling the Terminal server that you are. With rdesktop there is. Can it be used to "pirate"? Sure. But since M$ doesn't provide a way of transferring the licenses (without calling their support and pleading your case anyway) and provides no way of indicating that you're licensed on multiple desktops even with recent service packs, I for one am quite glad that rdesktop includes the capability.

  2. Re:Makes me wonder by donutz · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Makes me wonder if I can load VNC on PocketPC yet...

    YES: http://www.cs.utah.edu/~midgley/wince/vnc.html

  3. Service or an App by RedWolves2 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Are you running VNC as a service or in App mode? We run VNC on servers at work and if we have it set up as a service I can login to the box using VNC as soon as the box reboots...If I have VNC running as APP mode I can only login when the box is logged in as a user then I get kicked out if I log out.

    Try running it as a service there is a Administrative tool in the VNC Programs folder that will install it for you.

    HTH

  4. Re:Makes me wonder by dead_penguin · · Score: 2, Insightful

    ...it's better to use Microsoft's own Terminal Services Client for PPC instead. It's significantly faster, although not cross platform, of course.

    Maybe Microsoft's client isn't cross-platform, but there are alternatives: www.rdesktop.org.

    Earlier versions (1.1) gave me some problems with random crashes, but 1.2 seems to be rock solid. Makes life at work a lot easier, especially with the new 'tsclient' GUI front-end for it that comes with KDE.

    --

    It's only software!