Download UltraVNC 1.0.3 RC1

The folks behind UltraVNC have put the first release candidate of the 1.0.3 branch online. The new beta is available from this location be downloaded for Windows. UltraVNC is a branch of RealVNC and allows you to control another computer remotely. This can be a computer within the (own) network, but it is also possible to take over a PC via the internet. The developers of UltraVNC in this first RC1 of 1.0.3 have mainly worked on supporting Windows Vista while also making some changes to the way UltraVNC stores settings. More information about this can be found in this document:

The buildin winvnc service is replaced by an external service. Vista require an isolation between the service and the desktop application. For security, applications started by a service, should by started as the same user as the desktop owner, this prevent other applications trying to gain admin access via winvnc.

v1.0.3 RC1 doesn’t use any more the registry for option saving. It was too complicated to get the registry permissions right, and because winvnc.exe needs to be started as system, password and ports could change if user and system have different settings We are thinking about reserving the use of ultravnc.ini file for Vista only and keep the registry for others Windows versions. We could also support both modes. Actually v1.0.3 with registry works under Vista but users must configure both WinVNC “default” and “User” settings even when then don’t install the WinVNC service…

• WinVNC settings File: ultravnc.ini
• Location: same directory as winvnc.exe
• If you want to prevent normal users to change the file, you need to set restrictions on the write access of this file

The viewer now autoreconnects when the desktop security changes or when the user login/logoff. The default delay is 10s (no viewer screen refresh). If the autoreconnect ever fails you still can manually reconnect and should be able to gain access to all (logon/screensaver/default/UAC) security desktops.