Remotely connect to console (RDP/VNC)

Hi all,

(I'll apologise now if I get some terminology wrong - this isn't an area
I've had to worry about before.)

I'm trying to remotely connect to the console of a Vista box so that I can
see and control the screen that is currently being displayed on the box.
The box is being used as a media center connected to a TV through a home
made VGA->SCART adapter and the reasons for wanting to connect to the
console relate to this. For one, I need to be able to tweak settings in
Powerstrip (a graphics card tweaker) in order to get the graphics card
output right for the TV.

So far, I haven't found a way to do this. My first plan was to use VNC (as
I did in MCE 2005) but I can't find any VNC server that works in Vista.
With some servers (eg. RealVNC), I get booted out as soon as I login and
there's an error in event viewer stating the server can't connect to the
console as access is denied. With others (eg. TightVNC) I can login but I
just get a blank screen with a cursor. From doing some research, it seems
that this is a common and accepted problem.

Using Remote Desktop (from an XP box), the screen gets locked and I get a
new session. Crucially, I can't make any changes in Powerstrip within the
session has different graphics properties compared to a local session. I
have seen some switches for RDP that appear to allow this in 2003 server but
they don't seem to work in Vista.
I think this can be done with Remote Assistance but I can't see how I can
initiate a connection without having to authorise each connection on the
Vista box, which isn't very convenient (particularly when there's no
keyboard/mouse attached.)

Is there a way to do this at present? For VNC (or similar software), is
there a version that will work with Vista? For RDP, is there a way to
connect to the local console of the box?

Cheers,

Mike

You can't use RDP for that because it will set the video card's output to
the welcome screen as soon as you log in and disable any video card changes.
I'm not sure about RealVNC. In my experience, rebooting the computer with
only the TV out hooked up will turn it on. If not, your best bet might be to
hook up a CRT/LCD to the box, get it and the TV working properly and then
disable/disconnect the CRT/LCD.

-Mike

"Michael Christie" <usenet@mc8.co.uk> wrote in message
news:OwyAbfI8GHA.2128@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
> Hi all,
>
> (I'll apologise now if I get some terminology wrong - this isn't an area
> I've had to worry about before.)
>
> I'm trying to remotely connect to the console of a Vista box so that I can
> see and control the screen that is currently being displayed on the box.
> The box is being used as a media center connected to a TV through a home
> made VGA->SCART adapter and the reasons for wanting to connect to the
> console relate to this. For one, I need to be able to tweak settings in
> Powerstrip (a graphics card tweaker) in order to get the graphics card
> output right for the TV.
>
> So far, I haven't found a way to do this. My first plan was to use VNC
> (as I did in MCE 2005) but I can't find any VNC server that works in
> Vista. With some servers (eg. RealVNC), I get booted out as soon as I
> login and there's an error in event viewer stating the server can't
> connect to the console as access is denied. With others (eg. TightVNC) I
> can login but I just get a blank screen with a cursor. From doing some
> research, it seems that this is a common and accepted problem.
>
> Using Remote Desktop (from an XP box), the screen gets locked and I get a
> new session. Crucially, I can't make any changes in Powerstrip within the
> session has different graphics properties compared to a local session. I
> have seen some switches for RDP that appear to allow this in 2003 server
> but they don't seem to work in Vista.
> I think this can be done with Remote Assistance but I can't see how I can
> initiate a connection without having to authorise each connection on the
> Vista box, which isn't very convenient (particularly when there's no
> keyboard/mouse attached.)
>
> Is there a way to do this at present? For VNC (or similar software), is
> there a version that will work with Vista? For RDP, is there a way to
> connect to the local console of the box?
>
> Cheers,
>
> Mike
>
>
>