How do I make VNC faster/usable with Windows 7?

Question

We always have been using RealVNC at work, sometines UltraVNC and both used to work nicely.

With the shift of our (and our customers) PCs to Windows 7, the VNC tools are horrible.

Not only are the screen refreshes a lot slower (or not happening at all) when I connect to a Windows 7 PC with RealVNC or UltraVNC, it also seems that the remote PC is getting really sluggish with screen updates etc. and sometimes Win7 is displaying some kind of compatibility message. (we have noticed this when we use RealVNC to collaborate remotely in the office)

Do we just have messed up setting, or is there some inherent problem with VNC running on Win7? (the remote/server PC is Win7 -- the client is XP or Win7)

Solution 1

It would seem that what I described in the question was either an artifact of some of our machines or the recent UltraVNC versions have got better.

Anyways: I'm currently using UltraVNC X64 1.0.9.6.2 and it does work decently on my/our Windows 7 machines. When someone connects, windows is switched from Aero to basic mode, but everything else seems working fine.

Oh and the now payed-for version of RealVNC claims to fully support Win7 (whatever that means), but I've never tried it.

Solution 2

The Aero effects seems to really slow down any kind of remote desktop/VNC.

I always used to use RealVNC/TightVNC, then Remote Desktop (RDP) built into Windows XP+... Working within an IT Support Specialist role.

But now I work within a company with a mixture of our sites in rural areas - some of which are now only recently on broadband (Just! Some of them are less than 1mbit!) I use Teamviewer, it's been the most stable and consistant with the dodgy connections i'm using.

Comments

[Psycogeek]

Are there any reductions in display and effects junk that you already apply? are you going to tell what settings your using with the VNC now? like the desktop and capture method settings?

[Martin]

@Psycogeek - just using the defaults up to now. If you know of any Win7 specific tweaks let me know :-)

[Psycogeek]

I was thinking of switching the display to a raw featureless no effects classic type of display, setting the VNC to not render or turn off the wallpapers , making sure the VNC is tuned for least ammount of work required (refreshing only nessisary data) vrses it failing at showing all the screen changes. and even setting to less display bits to have to calculate and pass. just the usual stuff that decreases the work and the quantity of data required to show. I only play with Tightvnc which has a few more options for speeding up a less pretty display.

[Psycogeek]

Yes. reduce first what has to be captured and sent out.

[Martin]

Yes, teamviewer is a lot better. We started to use it internally, but it's hard to push it to customers (paranoid IT departments). (RealVNC, UltraVNC, RDP etc. are used over VPN for these customers.)

[HaydnWVN]

I would look at what options you can run with the VNC service, i recall previous ways to strip out desktop backgrounds and colours; look for a way to strip out Aero and view Windows7 as 'Classic' over RDP or VNC :)

[HaydnWVN]

Have consistently had annoyances with Teamviewer, not to mention the time out limitations... For support requests I still use it, but for machines I administer remotely (and need unattended access to) I'm now using LogMeIn free.