Unattended/silent 1.0.8.2 installation; summary: miserable

[wfaulk]

I am admittedly not an expert when it comes to unattended installers, and UltraVNC admittedly has a few things that makes a silent install harder, but the current state of affairs is miserable. In particular, the documentation is virtually nonexistent.

During installation, if one installs the service, it seems to automatically start the service, too. Which, in turn, pops up the settings window. The only way I've found around this is to tell the installer to not install the service at all (/tasks="!installservice,!startservice") and then follow it up by installing it "manually" (winvnc -install; net start uvnc_service).

There's not apparently any way to suppress downloading of the additional files (Vista stuff and Mirror Driver), which makes silent installation on a machine not connected to the internet impossible, as you have to acknowledge the failed download. For that matter, why are those files not included in the installer to begin with?

UltraVNC won't start when there's not a password configured. This is a good safety feature, in general. But if you have UltraVNC configured to require MSLogon authentication, the lack of a static password is meaningless. The necessity to deploy a meaningless password actually makes the system somewhat less secure, as it's potentially possible to discover that password, and if MSLogon somehow becomes disabled, that leaves the system open, rather than having it then require a password.

MSLogonACL won't create HKLM\SOFTWARE\ORL\WinVNC3. You have to create it manually (reg add HLKM\SOFTWARE\ORL\WinVNC3), followed by the MSLogonACL import. But why can't we just provide that information to the installer? Supplying "BUILTIN\Administrators:0x3" is likely to be what the majority of us want anyway, and more extended lists are hardly much more difficult.

And, despite the fact that much of this only marginally works to begin with, there's barely any documentation for most of it. Where are the components (/components=ultravnc_server,ultravnc_viewer) documented? Earlier versions imply that there might also be a component for the driver, too, but I haven't been able to guess it. And the tasks? (/tasks=installservice,startservice,acl,properties,cleanreg,associate,desktopicon) I'm not even sure if all of those work. I wasn't ever able to make properties or acl do anything, even with the equally undocumented AclFile and PropertiesFile options.

(Incidentally, the constant authorization dialog under XP is also a nightmare.)

Really, guys, how hard is this? If any other VNC server supported Windows logons, I'd drop UltraVNC like a hot potato.

For any other people finding this post, despite admonitions that repackaging software is not the greatest idea, I think that it's the only reasonable solution for UltraVNC 1.0.8.2. I've spent hours trying to make this work, and it's just not happening any other way.

[Bonji]

UltraVNC is definitely focused on functionality first and usability second. This is very advantageous for people that are technically proficient and need features over everything else.

If you are unable to bend the sometimes unwieldy UltraVNC to your will, then it's possible you'll have to find another product to meet your needs. RealVNC's Enterprise offering is the most stable and feature-rich VNC offering available that I'm aware of, but there is a monetary cost associated with it (and has all UltraVNC features in it if I remember correctly).

If you want a polished interface, complete feature set, consistent support, and thorough documentation, then it sounds like a professionally developed solution will be the best choice. If you're looking for something free, then I wouldn't expect a product to deliver on all counts, all the time.

UltraVNC may not be the perfect VNC solution, but it is the most capable free VNC solution I've seen to this point.

[supercoe]

Well said Bonji, I just wish more people would understand that commercial software exists to offer premium support.

wfaulk
You spend less money with UltraVNC but more time, if you'd like to contribute to make the project better please do. You've seen we need help, please don't bitch about it from the sidelines. Instead, ask questions and you'll have all the help you'll need.


During installation, if one installs the service, it seems to automatically start the service, too. Which, in turn, pops up the settings window. The only way I've found around this is to tell the installer to not install the service at all (/tasks="!installservice,!startservice") and then follow it up by installing it "manually" (winvnc -install; net start uvnc_service).

I don't do much with unattended installs but I'd imagine you wouldn't get this prompt if you had a configured ultravnc.ini copied to the install directory.


There's not apparently any way to suppress downloading of the additional files (Vista stuff and Mirror Driver), which makes silent installation on a machine not connected to the internet impossible, as you have to acknowledge the failed download. For that matter, why are those files not included in the installer to begin with?

Answered in the FAQ:
[topic=17101][/topic]


Really, guys, how hard is this? If any other VNC server supported Windows logons, I'd drop UltraVNC like a hot potato

Wow, if you really have to ask how hard it is to develop a piece of software such as UltraVNC you wouldn't understand the answer. With an attitude like this I'm sure nobody would miss you.
Why don't you instead focus on the parts of the software that do work for you and offer suggestions to improve things instead of acting this way?
If you don't prefer how UltraVNC handles things you can change it to the way you deem fit. Please don't demean others work because you don't like the learning curve.