SC + Vista Compatibility - WORKING!!!!!!

[Caramel]

....::::UPDATE::::....

This thread has gone nuts... To be perfectly honest i am no longer really working in the tech support industry much anymore but needed to fix up an SC for a friend (and of course did not have a copy of the setup anymore ... ) jumped on here to take a look (and grab a copy) and was impressed/shocked at the thread remaining quite alive and at the top of the list (suprised it is not sticky yet... *moderator hint*)

anyway while i am here i wanted to update the url for a d/l of the setup

Decided to use JDaus' kindly hosted version @
http://vnc2me.org/downloads.html?func=fileinfo&id=5

(JDaus i hope this is ok... you did post yourself further on in thread just bringing to top)

Any issues I can help with PM me in forum as i am not around much anymore but still get PM emails (don't expect a fast respose tho).


orig post:

after much research and scripting I have come up with a working SC for vista.


involves a bit of scripting and an install of the uvnc addon driver (automatic if vista detected)
also disables reg key to enable the viewer to see (but not interact with) the "cancel/allow" prompts on UAC protected systems.

readme included.



all you have to do is edit the helpdesk.txt and replace icons etc if you want to and run the compile.cmd

[bevtech]

Thanks for your contribution to the uvnc project.. We all appreciate it..)

[JaleXNet]

testing...

with aero activated --still very slow (with transparent or not)

with basic graphic --perfect

thank you


PD: sorry my english

[bevtech]

aero is going to be slow no matter what very graphic intensive to do 3d..

[Caramel]

i was under the impression that the addon driver turned off aero but i could be mistaken (not got an aero vista to check)


Any more feedback - I would like to know if what i have done has been worth it..

also if anyone has problems or suggestions i am open to discussion.

btw around 50ppl have downloaded it so far !!!!

[Greta]

I have no vista to check at the moment but when I look into your code I see you set some registry keys and install a driver. The question I have is do you need administrator privileges to do this or may a simply user also install this. Second question is where need I the diver for.

[Milday]

I'm testing this on a LAN with a Vista machine with AERO enabled. It's taking about 10-15 seconds to refresh, which is still faster than it has been running for me.

Thanks,
Milday

[JaleXNet]

i was under the impression that the addon driver turned off aero but i could be mistaken (not got an aero vista to check)

yes , is turned off the first time, but on restat the computer and load again SC, appear a CMD box with error, and aero is not turned off. in next try SC, aero is turned off and working...

PD: if SC is execute with double click or click as administrator, is the same..

PD2: sorry my english again, only speak spanish.

[Caramel]

I have no vista to check at the moment but when I look into your code I see you set some registry keys and install a driver. The question I have is do you need administrator privileges to do this or may a simply user also install this. Second question is where need I the diver for.

yes you do need admin unfortunately, but then you need admin to run the normal SC as the 7z package elevates you anyway. Vista sees it as being a program installer.

The driver helps with the screen resfreshes as without it the client viewer never gets any refresh unless you force it.

[kroli86]

thx, very much , is more better that we can cr8 sc simple with "create.cmd" without filr upload.:d THX THX THX , i repear very much computers.

[Caramel]

i have been having a small issue with this not being quite as smooth after rebooting the vista machine and running it again...


has anyone else seen this happen...
could anyone shed some light on it?

could it be that the driver does not stay correctly installed?

i could remove the driver after running and then install each time... might give it a shot

if anyone else has any suggestions i would be most welcome

[redge]

yes, while vncviewer connected to server and driver installed and enabled, e aero is auto disabled and convert to vista basic then, session finish, come back as the vista you have really.

[Caramel]

verified problem

if you completly remove the driver (requires reboot)
and run my version again it works flawlessly

can anyone tell me how to re-activate the driver or remove it without reboot?

re-activation would be the better solution...

i will have a play around myself but any info would be good

-----------------

btw the "uninstall.bat" does not seem to remove the driver at all...

[BlackConvoy]

Tested on Vista Ultimate x64, get "Driver failed to install"

[Caramel]

yeah i would say that the driver is not x64 compatible

is there even an x64 driver available yet?
...


btw still having problems with connection after a reboot - the driver does no fully activate again - i need some way of reactivating the driver (re-install over the top does not work)

removal of the driver after disconnect works but requires a reboot...
(and i have not been able to script that yet tho i don't see it being impossible)


is there any sort of call that can be made to the driver to activate it?

the initial install must do something that makes it run at a different level to what it runs at after reboot?

can anybody help - i am at a loss to fix this and it is the only downside to this method which otherwise works perfectly.

[JaleXNet]

testing on xp sp3 RC v3244, work perfect...

[Radeon]

Hi Caramel,

Over the past few weeks, my friend and I have managed to come up with a solution to the Vista Desktop Composition (Aero) problem using a percentage of your scripting and a little application we created that disables the Desktop composition in C#. The application simply passes a command to the DWM dll (dwmapi.dll) telling it to disable Aero until the application is closed. We came up with the idea as we use a lot of graphic design programs which early releases that claimed “vista compatibility” simply turned off the desktop composition. After a little searching on the net, we found a c# command which did exactly what we wanted, so we just created a mini project and that was it. We modified your command to then run our application (aero.exe) if vista was detected and to kill our application if the connection was closed or killed. By doing this, it solves the problems everyone seems to be having.

We are more than happy to post our solution if you are happy with the modifications we have made.

Please let us know if we can do so.

Cheers

[Caramel]

Radeon,

go for it....

the code is there to share... i would like to try your proggy myself i am starting to get frustrated with trying different things and have kinda put it in the too hard basket for the moment



btw if anyone is wondering why i don't use pchelpware frankly the viewer side is crap. I support clients all day every day and leave the viewer listening sc is the simplest and best method on the viewer side. If pchelpware had a viewer that sat in the tray and did not die every time the client d/c's it would be the solution.

[Radeon]

I have uploaded our version of the Single Click Vista to Mediafire which you can get from:

Code: Select all

Link removed

Use Caramel's link further in the thread as it uses a better autoit wrapper

I have modified the Readme.txt to correspond with the changes we have made.

Please do try this out and get back to us with any feedback.

Cheers,

[pgmoney]

If all you want to do is disable Vista AERO, you don't need a separate program to do it... you can do it in a batch file or directly from the winvnc.exe program in VC6.

“Rundll32.exe dwmApi #104" - disables
“Rundll32.exe dwmApi #102" - enables

or the VC6 way...

Code: Select all

ShellExecute(GetDesktopWindow(), "open", "Rundll32.exe", "dwmApi #104", NULL, SW_HIDE); // Disable Aero - PGM @ Advantig

ShellExecute(GetDesktopWindow(), "open", "Rundll32.exe", "dwmApi #102", NULL, SW_HIDE); // Enable Aero - PGM @ Advantig

[Radeon]

Hi pgmoney,

We have already been there,

That does not disable Desktop Composition (Aero) it simply turns off transparency, leaving the 3D rendering enabled and changing nothing with regards to speed over the connection.

ours is best suggestion we have found without modifying the the winvnc.exe.

Have you tried our sc_vista at all?

regards,

[pgmoney]

Hi pgmoney,

ours is best suggestion we have found without modifying the the winvnc.exe.

Have you tried our sc_vista at all?

No, the RunDLL is not the best way and isn't the way we do it either but figured it might help somebody.

Yes, tried it on one system but it gets a permission error and no graphics change, not sure why yet and haven't had time to try it on any others.

Edit: After more testing, the error happens when using RDP to run the Vista laptop which was logged into Server 2008 but it seems to work ok standalone. I'll try to track down if it's RDP or Server 2008 or a combination of both causing the problem when I get more time.

[Radeon]

Looking at you last post, it mentinons that the RunDLL is not the method you use. Can i ask what method you do use? It looks like you sell support software based UVNC? is that correct?

[fangthorn]

GREAT WORK Guys!
This is just what I need to support my users.
One thing, though, the icon for "SingleClickVNC.exe" displays correctly on a windows XP box but not on Vista.
Is this just something peculiar to my setup (Vista Ultimate SP1 RC) or is it a Vista incompatibility?
Thanks

[Radeon]

Did you build the SingleClickVNC.exe on a Vista Machine or an XP machine?

For some reason, the icon change does not run correctly at build time if done on a Vista Machine. If you can, try building it on an XP machine and see how things go.

Is the build working well for you on vista?

[fangthorn]

Did you build the SingleClickVNC.exe on a Vista Machine or an XP machine?

For some reason, the icon change does not run correctly at build time if done on a Vista Machine. If you can, try building it on an XP machine and see how things go.

Is the build working well for you on vista?

If I build on an XP machine the correct icon shows up on XP, but Vista shows the default.
If I build on Vista the default icon shows up on both.
Otherwise the program seems to be working fine, although I am still testing.
Thanks

[pgmoney]

Looking at you last post, it mentinons that the RunDLL is not the method you use. Can i ask what method you do use? It looks like you sell support software based UVNC? is that correct?

Since OneClick enables SC to reconnect even after reboot we have to do it a bit differently than you to ensure it stays off between reboots. Essentially check the desktop size and resolution, if it's in parameters that SC can handle without degrading performance, we simply disable Aero. If the desktop is too large or is outside SC parameters, we save the current settings then change the resolution to less colours and/or decrease the size of the desktop to be within SC capabilities. Lowering the resolution usually auto-disables DWM anyway and improves SC performance since there are less colours to calculate. When the session is over we restore the resolution to it's original state, restore the wallpaper and force a refresh.

OneClick is an add-on for SC and it's free unless you are charging people. I figure if you are going to charge people for your services using our software it's only fair that you pay us something for our services too.

[zeroasterisk]

Windows LiveOne Care brings defeat!
-----------------------------------------------------------
I have just been working with a couple of our people - trying to get VNCSC to work on Vista. I used the [SingleClick_Vista.zip] version and the [advantig.com/oneclick] version... both worked with regular ultravnc (though to be honest I liked the advantig admin interface better)... The [SingleClick_Vista.zip] version seemed to install a driver and be a little more complex for the end user, but this is only from reports... no idea... </digression>.

So - both options worked great on Vista.

Except for one of our people... after a few days of troubleshooting, we determined that the problem was the [Windows LiveOne Care Firewall]. We were prompted to "Allow" the program, and we clicked "Allow"... but it never actually worked... (some screenshots available as requested)

When we went into the settings and disabled the [Windows LiveOne Care Firewall] for one hour... both the [SingleClick_Vista.zip] and [advantig.com/oneclick] files worked fine and connected beautifully.

So - does anyone have an idea what the problem is with the [Windows LiveOne Care Firewall]? What's the beef? Any suggestions?

Contact me for troubleshooting details as able.

[pgmoney]

Windows LiveOne Care brings defeat!
determined that the problem was the [Windows LiveOne Care Firewall]. We were prompted to "Allow" the program, and we clicked "Allow"... but it never actually worked... (some screenshots available as requested)

When we went into the settings and disabled the [Windows LiveOne Care Firewall] for one hour... both the [SingleClick_Vista.zip] and [advantig.com/oneclick] files worked fine and connected beautifully.

So - does anyone have an idea what the problem is with the [Windows LiveOne Care Firewall]? What's the beef? Any suggestions?

I don't have much day-to-day user experience with Live OneCare but I've seen similar behavior with other firewalls that even turned off they don't really turn off due to corruption or install errors. Updating the software or reinstalling usually fixed them I can automatically turn of OneCare when you run OneClick but from what I've read in our notes, even after turning off OneCare it sometimes doesn't stop blocking until reboot. Besides, automatically turning off someones firewall isn't really a nice thing to do. I would try re-installing the OneCare product to see if it helps.

[Radeon]

Windows LiveOne Care brings defeat!
-----------------------------------------------------------
. The [SingleClick_Vista.zip] version seemed to install a driver and be a little more complex for the end user, but this is only from reports... no idea... </digression>.

When you say you tried out the SingleClick_Vista.zip, is that the revised one by us or the original created by Caramel? The reason i ask is because Caramels does install a driver yet the revised one by us does not.

If you only tried the one in the first post, then give this as try as i am after some good feedback.

Code: Select all

Link removed

Use Caramel's link further in the thread as it uses a better autoit wrapper

Cheers,