Download TightVNC 2.8.53

There are several programs to control computers remotely. TightVNC is one such program and, as the name implies, it uses VNC† ‘Tight’ refers to the use of compression, so that the program also performs well over slow connections. TightVNC is suitable for Windows Vista and higher. Older Windows editions and Linux users can version 1.3.10 to use. In version 2.8.53 the following changes and improvements have been made:

Server and Viewer for Windows:

• Added support for Unicode clipboard transfers (UTF-8). The latest public version of the standard RFB protocol (3.8) does not support Unicode text, so we implemented this via a new TightVNC protocol extension. This feature will work when supported at both ends of the connection.

Server for Windows:

• Added support for Echo messages to let viewer software check responsiveness of a server. This may be used for detecting network failures faster when there is no other traffic between Server and Viewer, and will work only with viewers that support and use this new protocol extension. Echo messages will be supported in our latest SDKs but normal TightVNC Viewer does not use them yet.
• Protection against brute-force attacks has been improved. Previously, the server allowed no more than 10 authentication failures per 30 seconds from the same IP address. Now the algorithm is more complicated: 1-second timeouts after 2 attempts, 1-minute timeouts after 8 attempts, and 1-hour timeouts after 14 attempts. In other words, it would allow no more than 38 authentication attempts within 24 hours per one IP address.
• Now it’s possible to connect to an active RDP session.
• Performance has been improved in modern Windows systems (starting with Windows 8). Dragging windows over the desktop should render many times faster, due to the added support of CopyRect encoding with Direct3D and Desktop Duplication APIs.
• Performance of file transfers has been improved. In particular, listing contents of large folders should become much faster.
• Fixed a crash in server running in application mode that could happen when Windows shows UAC (User Account Control) pop-up prompts. This problem is specific to reverse server-to-client connections (sf bug #1507).
• Fixed clipboard transfers. In certain cases, the server did not send clipboard contents to viewers since it wrongly decided there were no clipboard updates for those particular viewers (sf bug #1403).
• Fixed crash for large displays, with total resolution over 134 millions of pixels, eg 16384 х 8192 and more.
• Potentially fixed incorrect handling of mouse cursors on certain Matrox video cards.
• Fixed a memory leak (rather a potential one which would not show up during normal operation).

Installer for Windows:

• New “ServiceOnly” configuration option has been added, to prevent TightVNC Server from starting in application mode.

Viewer for Windows:

• Fixed AltGr handling for Korean keyboard layout.