How do I get VNC to only serve up a specific display in windows?

I'm doing this nice little project which will please a bunch of iPod/iPhone users, but one of my last steps requires me to serve up a specific display on my computer, how do I specify which display to use?

I found this quote from a mailing list regarding UltraVNC but I see no option or entry in their server dialogs to enter it...

Barry,

VNC Server supports remoting of individual monitors' contents via the command-line/registry option DisplayDevice, which should be set to something like:

\.\DISPLAY0 for the primary display \.\DISPLAY1 for the second display

And so on.

Regards,

Wez @ RealVNC Ltd.

Any ideas? I'd preferably like to avoid using the VNC servers 'area' function.

ThantiK

Posted 2010-01-30T21:26:12.830

Reputation: 193

I'm pretty sure this is a Stack Overflow question, but I can't be sure because I can't tell for certain what you're trying to do. – CarlF – 2010-01-31T05:50:32.957

@CarlF: nope, seems more about how to use advanced VNC server options to me. might be SO if he's trying to programmatically use a VNC-providing library. – quack quixote – 2010-01-31T06:08:23.197

Oohhh ... VNC options. Got it. – CarlF – 2010-01-31T06:20:59.580

@ThantiK Have you finished with the software you were busy with? i.e. what did you build exactly? – David d C e Freitas – 2011-11-05T20:19:51.730

Answers

The RealVNC 4.1 documentation describes how to use this option. I haven't seen a specific commandline option to activate it, but you can also add it to the registry.

DisplayDevice=<display>

The display device to remote, or empty to remote all displays. The format of display is \\.\<device>. For example, \\.\display1.

You need to set or create the DisplayDevice key in one of the following places, depending on how you're running the server:

If running RealVNC server as a service, set/create the key under
```
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\RealVNC\WinVNC4
```
If running RealVNC server in user-mode, set/create the key under
```
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\RealVNC\WinVNC4
```

I found some indication that this option might be specified on the commandline like this (no guarantees; I can't test this for you):

Winvnc4 -displaydevice=\\.\display1 -portnumber=5900
Winvnc4 -displaydevice=\\.\display2 -portnumber=5901

quack quixote

Posted 2010-01-30T21:26:12.830

Reputation: 37 382

None of those registry entries exist for UltraVNC, TightVNC. RealVNC is a commercial package which I don't have the money for in order to get the same features as the free VNC servers =/

When trying to run with command line options, it refuses the arguement. – ThantiK – 2010-01-31T18:04:47.997

I added the key and string values for each given VNC program and none of them seem to take when running a new server. – ThantiK – 2010-01-31T18:11:51.893

Got it working with RealVNC; found a free version. Thanks!! – ThantiK – 2010-01-31T18:19:24.687

For RealVNC , it seems that one has to have physical secondary monitor attached. TightVNC doesn't have such requirement.

kvanwell

Posted 2010-01-30T21:26:12.830

Reputation: 1