VNC^® Enterprise Edition User Guide

Changing the appearance and behavior of VNC Viewer

By default, when a connection is established:

•  VNC Viewer does not scale the host computer’s desktop. Instead, scroll bars are added to the window if the desktop is too large.

•  VNC Viewer displays the host computer’s desktop at a color quality appropriate to the network connection speed.

•  Your mouse and keyboard are set to interact with the client and host computers in particular ways.

•  The VNC Viewer window is set to a particular size.

•  The VNC Viewer toolbar is accessible.

•  The VNC Viewer shortcut menu is accessible (by pressing F8).

You can change these defaults by configuring properties on the Display tab of the VNC Viewer Properties dialog. For more information on this dialog, see Using the VNC Viewer Properties dialog.

(Windows XP)

Scaling the host computer’s desktop

You can scale the host computer’s desktop, which might make it easier to navigate and to use.

To scale the desktop to the size of the VNC Viewer window, choose Scale to window size.

To scale it to a custom size, choose Custom scaling, and specify a width and height for the VNC Viewer window. Turn on Preserve aspect ratio to automatically calculate a height for a given width, and vice versa. Note you cannot resize a custom-sized VNC Viewer window using your mouse.

Trading performance for picture quality

You may be able to enhance the performance of VNC Viewer by reducing the number of colors used to display the host computer’s desktop. To do this, turn off Adapt to network speed (recommended), and move the slider towards Best compression.

If you want to enhance performance but retain full color, turn on Always use best available color quality. Performance is enhanced by other means, for example by reducing the amount of information sent about the mouse cursor’s position. Note this may make mouse cursor movements appear jerky on the host computer.

Note: You can explicitly reduce the amount of mouse cursor position information sent by turning on Rate-limit mouse move events. This property is on the Inputs tab. This may also be useful if you are connecting over a mobile or dial-up network.

Configuring your mouse (Windows and Mac OS X only)

You can emulate buttons missing because your mouse has fewer buttons than the host computer’s mouse.

To do this, turn on Enable 3-button mouse emulation. To emulate the missing middle button, click the left and right mouse buttons simultaneously. Under Mac OS X, you can also, or alternatively, turn on Enable 2-button mouse emulation. To emulate the missing right button, hold down the CTRL key and press the button. Note these properties are on the Inputs tab.

Configuring your keyboard (Windows only)

By default, and with the exception of CTRL-ALT-DELETE and the function key used to open the shortcut menu, key presses affect the host computer and not the client. To reverse this behavior for the application-level keys listed below, turn off Pass special keys directly to VNC Server. Note this property is on the Inputs tab.

Affected keys/combinations: WINDOWS (also known as START), PRINT SCREEN, ALT-TAB, ALT-ESCAPE, CTRL-ESCAPE.

Changing the size of the VNC Viewer window

You can use the mouse to resize the VNC Viewer window in the expected way for the platform of the client computer. The window’s Application buttons (Minimize, Maximize, and Close) also work in the expected way.

To toggle full screen mode on and off, click the Full Screen Mode VNC Viewer toolbar button.

Disabling the VNC Viewer toolbar (Windows and UNIX or Linux only)

You can disable the VNC Viewer toolbar. For more information on this, see Using the VNC Viewer toolbar. To do this, turn off Enable toolbar.

Note that if you disable the VNC Viewer shortcut menu as well you will not be able to access the VNC Viewer toolbar again while the current connection is in progress.

Disabling the VNC Viewer shortcut menu (Windows and UNIX or Linux only)

You can disable the VNC Viewer shortcut menu. For more information on this, see Using the VNC Viewer shortcut menu. To do this, select none from the Menu key dropdown. Note this property is on the Inputs tab.

Note that if you disable the VNC Viewer toolbar as well you will not be able to access the VNC Viewer shortcut menu again while the current connection is in progress.

Changing the VNC Viewer shortcut menu key

You can change the function key used to open the shortcut menu. To do this, select a function key from the Menu key dropdown. Note this property is on the Inputs tab. The shortcut menu updates to reflect the fact that you can no longer press the chosen key to send a command to the host computer.