Non-RDP remote desktop solution (for LAN

I was too cheap to buy Windows 7 Pro and went with Windows Home Premium, so now I'm looking for a replacement for RDP (Remote Desktop). It's been a while since I've used VNC, but the performance was always pretty poor even on a LAN.

I'm going to take a look at TightVNC and UltraVNC, but is there anything else I should look at? I'm looking for something as good as RDP if such a thing exists. It doesn't have to be free but less than US$50 would be great.

David Hayes

Posted 2010-01-27T22:58:10.770

Reputation: 1 485

Your title is misleading. You say you want a Remote Desktop Client, but based on the body of your question, it sounds like you actually want a remote desktop solution, with the server running on your Windows 7 Home Premium machine and the client running on some other unspecified type of machine. – rob – 2010-01-28T01:09:25.197

That's a fair comment, I'll change the title. – David Hayes – 2010-01-28T21:23:22.893

Ok, I was browsing and came across this question. It SEVERELY messed with my head and made me wonder when the heck I asked it, and why I changed my pattern of purchasing and opted for home instead of business. Need more coffee to deal with this today. – DHayes – 2010-02-25T17:14:29.250

lol, that made me laught, way too common a name! – David Hayes – 2010-03-06T00:43:36.377

Answers

TeamViewer not only works over the Internet but also over your local network:

You can use TeamViewer on your local network over IP addresses or computer names. By default this feature is deactivated because software firewalls may open an acceptance dialog when TeamViewer listens is configured this way.

To activate the LAN mode in TeamViewer:

In the menu click on extras and then on options.
On the general tab activate the checkbox 'Accept incoming LAN connections'

Other than that, TeamViewer requires no configuration.

TeamViewer is free for personal use, a portable version is available (doesn't have to be installed).

Molly7244

Posted 2010-01-27T22:58:10.770

Reputation:

1I love teamviewer. – John T – 2010-01-28T01:16:41.637

1Since he stated he had used VNC in the past before and the performance was inadequate, I think it's worth mentioning that TeamViewer is based on VNC and may be subject to the same performance issues. That said, TeamViewer is pretty slick compared to some of the uglier VNC implementations. – rob – 2010-01-28T01:19:19.137

TeamViewer is faster than any VNC solution i have tried, version 5 has improved again. – None – 2010-01-29T01:57:47.850

What's wrong with mstsc, which is the RDP client built into all versions of Windows since 2000 at least? We use it a lot over a LAN and WAN and I find it performs better than echovnc which we also run to support remote clients.

Windows Vista and, I believe, Windows 7 I've heard perform quite poorly with RDP out of the box. This is something to do with some autotuning in the IP stack.

The following apparently makes the world of difference:

netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=highlyrestricted

See blog post Remote Desktop slow problem solved.

Matt H

Posted 2010-01-27T22:58:10.770

Reputation: 3 823

Despite the misleading title, it sounds like he's asking for a remote desktop server, not just a client. – rob – 2010-01-28T01:20:42.503

No RDP in Windows 7? There's a hack for that. Usually lasts until the next Service Pack install.

I haven't used this one myself, but I've used the Vista one (from the same place, TheGreenButton.com forums) in the past to get the concurrent desktops on Vista Ultimate and it worked like a charm.

I'm not sure if the referenced version requires you to obtain your own RDPClip DLLs from Server 2008 or what, but it doesn't appear as such.

According to that thread there may be Audio issues with Home Premium, but there may also be a solution elsewhere in that currently 8-page long thread. :)

For $90 there's also DameWare Mini Remote Control, which works very well (considerably better than VNC in my opinion).

HTH.

Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007

Posted 2010-01-27T22:58:10.770

Reputation: 103 763

Cool will try that! – David Hayes – 2010-01-30T02:13:18.137

Am I wrong in thinking that if you just need a client then you could use the mstsc.exe RDP client built into Windows 7? The client comes with the Home Premium version, but I don't know if you can enable remote connections the way you could in Windows XP/Vista. If that's the client, what's the server? Or do you need both? According to Microsoft, you can connect to other computers running XP Pro, 2k3 server, 2k8 server, or Vista Business and Ultimate with the client included in Windows 7.

This link from Microsoft has specifics on the RDP client.

If the client isn't readily available, typing 'mstsc' in the Start Menu search box will find it.

atroon

Posted 2010-01-27T22:58:10.770

Reputation: 2 496

1Despite the misleading title, it seems he doesn't want just the client; he wants the server, which is only included in Windows 7 Pro and Ultimate/Enterprise. He wants to connect to the Windows Home Premium machine remotely, rather than using the Windows Home Premium machine to connect to a different remote machine. – rob – 2010-01-28T01:05:49.727

You can enable Remote Desktop for Windows 7 Home Premium. It requires some hacking of \Windows\System32\termsrv.dll, though.

You'll have to search for the binary files you need, but you'll need either a patcher or a hacked version of termsrv.dll.

See Q&A I created for this discussion.

palswim

Posted 2010-01-27T22:58:10.770

Reputation: 2 793

http://nomachine.com/

No machine is VERY fast compared to VNC. Don't be confused by their website. They have a free version!

Kelbizzle

Posted 2010-01-27T22:58:10.770

Reputation: 1 808

it's good stuff but i don't think there's a server available for windows. (clients, yes. only helpful if you're connecting to a Linux or Solaris server.) – quack quixote – 2010-01-27T23:07:53.243

@quackquixote Is this still the case? Is there still a free version? Is there now a server for Windows machine? – Alex S – 2015-09-02T19:50:07.220

There is still a free version but I think only for desktops. Version 4 seems to be enterprise only since the change. If you need the windows server you will most likely have to pay. But Version 3 is open source. Its running around under a new name freeNX. I'm not sure how active they are though. – Kelbizzle – 2015-09-03T15:03:36.867

One solution that is not well advertised is Microsoft Live Mesh (www.mesh.com). You can get a group of PC's connected to it that you use most often, and easily connect to them. The remote desktop functionality seems a bit sluggish compared to RDP, but it's really easy to use (and allows you to share and synchronize folders & files between your group of PC's). Another plus, you don't have to open up any special firewall ports for RDP to work.

Jon Onstott

Posted 2010-01-27T22:58:10.770

Reputation: 228

"Windows Live Mesh was retired on February 13, 2013, and remote desktop and peer-to-peer syncing have stopped working." http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/skydrive/mesh-users

– LawrenceC – 2013-08-01T13:27:21.303

There is a pretty decent software which is cross platform that u can use if you are not happy with Teamviewer's quality and speed. It is "MySpy". I recommend it to you because it's quality is lot better than Teamviewer. Though it does not use VNC, speed is considerable fast. It is only 235 KB in size and is freeware. Have a look at www.myspylan.blogspot.com

Param

Posted 2010-01-27T22:58:10.770

Reputation: 1

Non-RDP remote desktop solution (for LAN - Windows Home Premium)

Answers