Although there are only a handful of remote desktop (or remote access) protocols, there are hundreds of programs to choose from, both commercial and free. Each one claims to edge out the competition with a certain feature, but no free app is more flexible and capable than UltraVNC.
The concept of remotely viewing and controlling your computer caused quite a stir when it first came to light. Business men freaked out about the enormous time and money-saving potential, and lucky companies GoToMyPC and PCAnywhere were among the first on the scene (their marketing departments were hard at work).
Now that faster internet access and multiple computers are common among home users too, the increasing demand for free remote access programs has produced some great results. What home user in their right mind would pay $20/month for GoToMyPC, when UltraVNC is better and free?
UltraVNC is packed with features, frequently updated, and constantly pushes the open-source VNC protocol to its limits - file transfer, chat, NT authentication, and much more. Make sure to install the mirror driver for maximum speed and minimum CPU usage: After install, go to the program folder and unzip the drivers.zip file, find your OS folder and run install.bat. Reboot and you should be ready for action.
UltraVNC is a work in progress, and is not perfect or bug free yet. There are issues with Aero and alpha blending, and over slow connections... well, good luck. UltraVNC is still Windows only at this point, but the VNC protocol in general is not OS-specific - Linux/Unix users, check out TightVNC; Mac users, you've got VNC support built-in (OS X 10.4 and up).
Download latest version:
UltraVNC v1.0.8.2
| Homepage: | http://www.uvnc.com/ |
| Supported OS: |  |
| Portable version: |  (Writes to registry) |
| 64-bit version: | |
| Active project: | |
| No strings attached **: | |
** No spyware, ads, nags, registration reminders, etc.
Other Remote Access freeware to keep an eye on:
- LogMeIn Free - personal use only
- mRemote - supports several protocols
- TeamViewer - personal use only
- Terminals - supports many protocols
- TightVNC - for Linux, Unix, and Windows users
- ZeroRemote - tiny, portable, fast!
NOTE: If you are a true non-commercial user, check out proprietary, personal-use-only apps TeamViewer and LogMeIn Free for even faster and smoother response times.
