remote PC access that support twin-screens.

December 15, 2007 7:01 AM

Looking for remote PC access that support twin-screens. I use Logmein but it doesnt seem to support twin-screens. Is there any remote PC access / control software that supports multiple screens?
posted by priorpark17 to computers & internet (11 comments total)

windows Vista supports multiple monitors on remote access, but you have to launch the exe (mstsc.exe) from a command line and use the /span command. Has to be vista on the target machine and at least the new version of the client on the originating machine, possibly has to be Vista too.
posted by skybolt at 7:22 AM on December 15, 2007

UltraVNC handles it just fine.
posted by djb at 7:35 AM on December 15, 2007

2nd'ing VNC. I use RealVNC and the client scrolls to the right for the 2nd monitor.
posted by stew560 at 8:53 AM on December 15, 2007

dameware does also.. it gives you a little icon to choose which screen you want to see. VNC is the better choice, but I just thought I'd lay it out there.
posted by zennoshinjou at 8:57 AM on December 15, 2007

I have UltraVNC. It used to show my two monitors, but now it only shows one... I don't see anything in the options to change this either.

I've been a long time user of UltraVNC, but this latest version I've had to reinstall a few times because it keeps going sour on me (not allowing logins, not displaying my monitors, etc.)
posted by bumper314 at 9:47 AM on December 15, 2007

Just to add to skybolt's response, Microsoft Remote Desktop will work on XP or Vista with multiple-monitor spanning, as long as you have the latest version.
posted by blue_beetle at 10:59 AM on December 15, 2007

I regularly use the VNC client supplied with Ubuntu to connect to an UltraVNC server (including the video hook driver) running on a client's XP machine with twin monitors, and it works fine, showing me both monitors in a single VNC client window. They're laid out according to the desktop settings at the Windows end. The monitor on the right is actually running at lower resolution than the one on the left, so the bottom right corner of my VNC window is full of random colored garbage pulled from somewhere in video RAM, but that's the only weird thing.
posted by flabdablet at 5:17 PM on December 15, 2007

bumper314, I find I only get one monitor if the UltraVNC video hook driver isn't running on the server. This can have multiple causes - it might not have been installed, it might just be turned off, or you might have one of the rare video cards that still uses 24 bits per pixel instead of 32 when running in True Color (the video hook driver supports 16 and 32 bits per pixel only). Switching to High Color (16 bits per pixel) works around that last cause.
posted by flabdablet at 5:21 PM on December 15, 2007

Thanks for the info flabdablet, I'll give that a try.
posted by bumper314 at 6:06 PM on December 15, 2007

The new version of Remote Administrator supports multiple displays. Sounds like it handles them a little more gracefully than VNC as well..
posted by Chuckles at 7:58 PM on December 15, 2007

I am a moron. There is a little monitor icon in the logmein window that switches between monitors. This is mentioned nowhere in the FAQ, etc. Apologies for the trouble.
posted by priorpark17 at 2:15 AM on December 16, 2007