VNC / XP Professional Question

[Feico de Boer (ML)]

John Aldrich wrote:
> With MS Windows, you are controlling the local console. That's just the way
> things work. Windows is designed to be used by a single user at a time.
> 'Course you can do other things, like print, share files, etc off that
> machine at the same time, but only one person can be actively "using" the
> PC. Unlike Unix/Linux (Solaris being a Unix-based O/S) which was designed to
> let multiple people use it at one time.
> 	John

That statement might have been true during the ice age, however, Windows 
has come a long way since. It is in fact possible do create distinct 
desktops (see Microsoft terminal services) on Windows 2000 and Windows 
2003. By default you get your own sandbox and it wasn't until Windows 
2003 that terminal services also offers connectivity to the actual console.

Concerning WinVNC, by design it was choosen that VNC for Windows grabs 
the console instead of creating it's own display and thus whatever ports 
you make available, they are all the same console. This choice is 
probably related to the past when Windows was indeed single user (but 
multitasking).

Regards,
Feico.