Hiding WinVNC

[Gandalf]

Is there a way to hide the server?

Is there a way for it to run in the background without showing so that I can still connect to it?

[DanFraser]

If you have 2k, XP or NT you could run it as a service...

[Gandalf]

Originally posted by Admiral Fraser
If you have 2k, XP or NT you could run it as a service...

I installed it as a service, but it still showed up in the task bar (near the clock).

How can I completely hide it?

[DanFraser]

I think you may need to fiddle with some settings, i didnt but i did manage to make that icon disappear.

[Gandalf]

Got any clues as to what I may beed to change?

Are there any good programs out there that can hide things well?

[DanFraser]

Dunno about software for hiding icons...

Did you restart after installing it as a service, and also remove it from the startup folder?

[Gandalf]

Originally posted by Admiral Fraser
Dunno about software for hiding icons...

Did you restart after installing it as a service, and also remove it from the startup folder?


Oh, maybe that's it, I didnt restart. But I know I removed it from the startup folder.

Ill give it a try.

[Gandalf]

Didn't work.

And I tried to use HideIt, but that didnt work either, I still get the "Can't connect to server".

Anyone else have any ideas?

[Mpegger]

Have you checked the faqs section on thier website pertaining to the extra registry options? Maybe theres a registry setting you can change or add to do that. Other then that, if that WinHide program didn't work, you could always make a suggest to add that to a future release.

[Gandalf]

Originally posted by Mpegger
Have you checked the faqs section on thier website pertaining to the extra registry options? Maybe theres a registry setting you can change or add to do that. Other then that, if that WinHide program didn't work, you could always make a suggest to add that to a future release.

Yah, they made it so that you cant hide it. They think that there is no point in hiding it for some reason.

Well, my brother always closes it on me, so I see a point! :rolleyes:

[Kryogenitor]

The reason they probably made it so you can't hide it is because WinVNC is basically a trojan horse. It can be used for good but has the potential for evil such as spying on other people while theyre working. We all know this isnt what you planned on using it for though ;)

[SteenkyBastage]

I was reading on their webpage the different settings (in registry or config or something... been a while) that you can do. There are several things like disable pw change, etc... I seem to recall something about not showing on taskbar, but it's been a while. I'd go check out their website and look around in the section with the advanced commands.

good luck!

[Gandalf]

Originally posted by SteenkyBastage
I was reading on their webpage the different settings (in registry or config or something... been a while) that you can do. There are several things like disable pw change, etc... I seem to recall something about not showing on taskbar, but it's been a while. I'd go check out their website and look around in the section with the advanced commands.

good luck!

Thanx man! :D

And no, I was not going to use it to spy on people.

[SteenkyBastage]

Originally posted by Gandalf


Thanx man! :D

And no, I was not going to use it to spy on people.

NP

not gonna spy? You HAVE to at least play tricks on people every once in a while...

At the office here, I got 2 of our secretaries, and several other employee's pretty good the day after I installe VNC on all the systems.

They would be happily working along, and all of a sudden I take over their computer and start typing to them. Hahaha... I had one of the secretaries convinced that the computer was actually talking (typing) to her...

I typed that since she didn't have a microphone input, that she would have to type her messages back to me (aka computer). I then went off about how she was abusing me and didn't spend enough "quality time" with me. Oh my goodness, it was soooo funny.

I messed with her for about 5 or 10 minutes, then later that afternoon, i went over and talked to her about how cool her newly built computer (was about a month old at the time) was. I had a hard time keeping a straight face while she told me about he incident. When I started to reply, I couldn't help laughing, tho... and it all spilled out. but man, was it funny....

Or one of the guys here, i kept moving his mouse when he was trying to click on a button... LOL, he musta spent a whole minute trying to get his mouse over the button. Fortunately, my office is away from everyone elses, so nobody heard me cracking up.

ahhhhh, good times.

[Gandalf]

Originally posted by SteenkyBastage


NP

not gonna spy? You HAVE to at least play tricks on people every once in a while...

At the office here, I got 2 of our secretaries, and several other employee's pretty good the day after I installe VNC on all the systems.

They would be happily working along, and all of a sudden I take over their computer and start typing to them. Hahaha... I had one of the secretaries convinced that the computer was actually talking (typing) to her...

I typed that since she didn't have a microphone input, that she would have to type her messages back to me (aka computer). I then went off about how she was abusing me and didn't spend enough "quality time" with me. Oh my goodness, it was soooo funny.

I messed with her for about 5 or 10 minutes, then later that afternoon, i went over and talked to her about how cool her newly built computer (was about a month old at the time) was. I had a hard time keeping a straight face while she told me about he incident. When I started to reply, I couldn't help laughing, tho... and it all spilled out. but man, was it funny....

Or one of the guys here, i kept moving his mouse when he was trying to click on a button... LOL, he musta spent a whole minute trying to get his mouse over the button. Fortunately, my office is away from everyone elses, so nobody heard me cracking up.

ahhhhh, good times.

And how did you hide the client!!! :D

Please tell me you hid it........ :)

[SteenkyBastage]

Originally posted by Gandalf


And how did you hide the client!!! :D

Please tell me you hid it........ :)

Heh, I have never tried to hide it... Dont know why I would need to. I had just thought I read something on their site about it, but I went to the site and now the only thing I see is a bug in win95 that might make it not show up. You can make it so it shows up but cant be modified by clicking/rt clicking on it... that's about as good as it gets (apparently).

http://www.uk.research.att.com/vnc/faq.html#q47

That is the FAQ page, a long time ago I saw on their site some advanced commands, but I cant seem to find it on their site anymore. Perhaps that was to an old version, or maybe I'm just blind...

[Mpegger]

I have a copy of thier old docs, buts its too big to attach. But there is a registry entry that you can set so that you cannot shutdown the program. I'm not sure about alt-ctrl-del, but it sould keep your brother from quitting out of the program.

I'm going to cut and paste the lines that I think you sould use to ensure your kin wont flubber with VNC. Before you use any of these though, you sould setup VNC to load as a service as well if you haven't already.

-------------------------------

WinVNC - Advanced Settings
Extra options have been added to WinVNC for use primarily by system administrators, to tailor the server's behaviour to meet their particular needs. The options are DWORD values which can be set in the system registry, and tools such as the Windows Policy Editor can be used to apply these settings across a large number of machines.
Versions 3.3.2 R5 and later use a more sophisticated organisation of these options to allow more flexibility. It also makes it rather complex, so we're thinking about alternative ways of doing this. WinVNC will currently look for settings in the following places:

[list=1]
Local machine-specific settings. Options specified here are not overridable. Location: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\ORL\WinVNC3\
Local default user settings. Location: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\ORL\WinVNC3\Default
Local per-user settings. These override the local default user settings. If there is no current user, the username SYSTEM will be used. Location: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\ORL\WinVNC3\<username>
Global per-user settings. These are only read if AllowProperties has not been set to zero (see below) Location: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ORL\WinVNC3
[/list=1]

AuthRequired
By default, all WinVNC servers will not accept incoming connections unless the server has had its password field set to a non-null value. This restriction was placed to ensure that misconfigured servers would not open security loopholes without the user realising. If a server is only to be used on a secure LAN, however, it may be desirable to forego such checking and allow machines to have a null password. Setting this registry value to zero will disable null-password checking by WinVNC. Local machine-specific setting.

AllowProperties
If this is set to zero, the user is not allowed to view the properties dialog and hence cannot change any settings, including the password. Note that this stops all global per-user settings. A valid password must therefore be in force before using this setting, generally in the local default-user setting. Local per-user setting.

AllowShutdown
If this is set to zero, the user is not allowed to close down WinVNC. Local per-user setting.

I'm not sure exactly how the AllowShutdown is used. It may only work on users who are connected to the server, and not the program itself running in the taskbar. But its worth a try.

[Gandalf]

Originally posted by Mpegger
AllowShutdown
If this is set to zero, the user is not allowed to close down WinVNC. Local per-user setting[/COLOR]

Where in the registry would this line be?

[Mpegger]

Originally posted by Gandalf
Where in the registry would this line be? Follow the list of 4 regitry entries.:D

I think the correct place to look would be HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\ORL\WinVNC3\SYSTEM. It may or may not (most likely not) already be in the appropiate place in the registry. You would just add it in by creating a DWORD key and setting the value correctly (0 or 1).

[Gandalf]

Originally posted by Mpegger
Follow the list of 4 regitry entries.:D

I think the correct place to look would be HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\ORL\WinVNC3\SYSTEM. It may or may not (most likely not) already be in the appropiate place in the registry. You would just add it in by creating a DWORD key and setting the value correctly (0 or 1).

How can I add it to the registry?

Is this pic correct, do I just add the DWORD? Is it in the proper folder?

[Mpegger]

If I'm reading the docs correctly, you sould be able to just add a dword entry into the Default directory. If that doesn't work, you may need to add a new Key instead called System under:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\ORL\WinVNC3\
Then in the new key add in the new DWord. The Dword name would of course be AllowShutdown. And the value would be 0 to disallow shutdown.

The default setting (although omitted) is 1, since you can shut it down remotely (I dont know about locally).

[Gandalf]

Originally posted by Mpegger
If I'm reading the docs correctly, you sould be able to just add a dword entry into the Default directory. If that doesn't work, you may need to add a new Key instead called System under:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\ORL\WinVNC3\
Then in the new key add in the new DWord. The Dword name would of course be AllowShutdown. And the value would be 0 to disallow shutdown.

The default setting (although omitted) is 1, since you can shut it down remotely (I dont know about locally).

I LOVE YOU!!! (not literally though ;))

CHECK OUT THIS SCREENY!!!!

Without the Registry Edit......

[Gandalf]

WITH REG EDIT!! :D

[Len]

If you are still interested in hiding it as well you might try:
http://www.mlin.net/TraySaver.shtml

I've never tried this utility but I like some of the other utilities from this author.

[Gandalf]

Originally posted by Len
If you are still interested in hiding it as well you might try:
http://www.mlin.net/TraySaver.shtml

I've never tried this utility but I like some of the other utilities from this author.

Ah, worth a shot, I still cant hide the WinVNC Viewer with registry tweaks, so this program sounds awesome!

[su root]

If I remember correctly, the new versions ask you when you install it whether you want the icon to show or not..

that, or you can try just deleting the "servicehelper" in HKEY_LM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ Run

[Gandalf]

Anyone know how I can hide the WinVNC viewer in listen mode since that has to be open to connect to the computer!?

[Mpegger]

Hide VNC Viewer in listen mode?

I'm not sure what you mean, but if you dont want anyone to know your accessing another computer thats running a VNC server, just use a Java capable web browser and point it to the computer you want to access. I've never used anything except the viewer so I dont know exactly how to use a bowser with VNC.

[Gandalf]

Originally posted by Mpegger
Hide VNC Viewer in listen mode?

I'm not sure what you mean, but if you dont want anyone to know your accessing another computer thats running a VNC server, just use a Java capable web browser and point it to the computer you want to access. I've never used anything except the viewer so I dont know exactly how to use a bowser with VNC.

Oh nice! I thought that I had to use the VNCviewer in listen mode!

What do I type in to pull up the other computer?

[su root]

3 ways to connect to VNC:

1. VNCViewer, open it, type in the name of the computer (and any options you want), then it'll prompt for the password, then your in.

2. VNCViewer in Listen Mode, open "VNCViewer in Lisen mode" so that it sits in your tray. The "computer you are going to connect to" asks for your help by selecting "Add Client" on their VNC tray icon, and types in your computer's name. They connect to you, and allow you to use their computer. No passwords because they are asking for your assistance.

3. VNC Java Applet. Open up a java-compliant browser, type in: http://computername:5800 where "computername" is the VNC computer's name. You type in the password, and your in.


Anywhere wher you could type in the computer's name, you could also type their IP address, if you are not on their local network.

[Gandalf]

Originally posted by su root
3. VNC Java Applet. Open up a java-compliant browser, type in: http://computername:5800 where "computername" is the VNC computer's name. You type in the password, and your in

GREAT!

I thought that I had to have a vncviewer open on that computer! :D

Thatks for the help. :)

[su root]

I find that VNCViewer is the faster way to connect to another system, but I find that they both run equally as fast.