Why can't VNC Server be managed over remote desktop?
From here:
it says that VNC Server cannot be managed over remote desktop. Is there a reason for this? I use RDP for remote access when managing the PC itself, and would like to deploy VNC Server while connected over RDP since RDP is still far faster than VNC.
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Brian RDP sessions are virtual whereas VNC Server runs on the console of the machine. This is how VNC can be used for supporting users remotely.
If you have an Enterprise subscription, you can license (and cloud join) via command line/group policy. For Professional and Home subscriptions, please run vnclicensewiz to cloud join - once the server is licensed/cloud joined, you can connect using VNC Viewer and you'll see the VNC Server icon in the system tray.
I hope this helps.
But surely you should be able to manage the VNC server from an RDP session, especially one on a consumer Windows RDP, not terminal services. This is the difficulty I am having.
Our recommendation is to connect to VNC Server via VNC Viewer once it's been licensed and manage it there.
You can, of course, manage the VNC Server settings directly in the Windows registry if you're comfortable doing that. They are all under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\RealVNC\vncserver for Service Mode.
All parameters are detailed on https://help.realvnc.com/hc/en-us/articles/360002251297-VNC-Server-Parameter-Reference-
If you're setting VNC Server permissions, we recommend the use of the VNC Permissions Creator, available at https://www.realvnc.com/download/file/perm.files/VNC-Permissions-Creator-6.6.0-Windows-32bit.exe (or from the VNC Server download page, https://www.realvnc.com/en/connect/download/vnc/)
To follow on from Andrew, you can start VNC Server in "User Mode" to get access to a GUI to configure VNC Server, and then copy those settings in the Registry.
Go to C:\Program Files\RealVNC\VNC Server and run vncserver.exe
On the window that appears, click Menu, Options, and then configure things how you'd like them, then close all of the VNC Server windows you opened
Open Registry Editor and go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER Software RealVNC vncserver to see all of the settings
Take a screenshot, then go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE Software RealVNC vncserver and re-create the settings by adding new String values
This involves editing the Registry so you should only do this if you're confident in what you're doing. It would be nice to configure the Service Mode instance of VNC Server over RDP, hopefully that's something they're working on.
While a bit hacky, that should achieve what I want. I often have RDP access before physical access, so this should help. What other remote deployment options are there?
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