VNC Free Edition 4.0 - upgrade notes

Upgrading VNC Viewer

VNC Free Edition 4.0 Viewer provides most of the options available from VNC Free Edition 3.3.x Viewer, both under Windows and Unix platforms. As a result, VNC VNC Free Edition 4.0 Viewer can be treated as a drop-in replacement for VNC Free Edition 3.3.x Viewer in most situations.

Upgrading VNC Server for Windows

From VNC Free Edition 4.0 Beta 3, 4 or 5

VNC Free Edition 4.0 is compatible with the command-line options, .vnc configuration files and registry settings used by the VNC Free Edition 4.0 Beta releases.

To install VNC Free Edition 4.0 Server over an existing Beta installation, simply run the VNC Free Edition 4.0 installer. The installer will replace Beta release files and leave configuration settings intact.

From VNC Free Edition 3.3.4, 3.3.5, 3.3.6, 3.3.7

To replace VNC Free Edition 3.3.x with VNC Free Edition 4.0, while preserving your VNC 3.3.x configuration options:

  • Use the Add/Remove Programs dialog from Control Panel to remove the VNC Free Edition 3.3.x installation.
  • Run the VNC Free Edition 4.0 installer.
  • When the VNC Server Properties dialog is displayed, select the Legacy tab.
  • Click on Import VNC Free Edition 3.3 Settings.
  • Continue the installation by clicking Ok.

From VNC Free Edition 3.3.3 and older

To replace VNC Free Edition 3.3.3 and older with VNC Free Edition 4.0 while preserving your VNC Free Edition 3.3.x configuration options:

  • Select Remove WinVNC Service from the Administrative Tools section of the VNC Programs menu.
  • Follow the steps described above for upgrade from VNC Free Edition 3.3.7.

From other VNC-based software

If the third-party software is based on VNC Free Edition 3.3.x, follow the steps for upgrading from VNC Free Edition 3.3.3 and older.

If the third-party software is based on VNC Free Edition 4.0, first uninstall it, then install VNC Free Edition 4.0.

Note that some third-party software will have different requirements for uninstallation to the standard versions.

Upgrading VNC Server for Unix

From VNC Free Edition 4.0 Beta 3, 4 or 5

To replace VNC Free Edition 4.0 Beta installations installed via RPM, simply upgrade with the VNC Free Edition 4.0 RPM in the normal way.

To replace VNC Free Edition 4.0 Beta installations installed from a tarball, simply unpack the VNC Free Edition 4.0 tarball over the existing VNC Free Edition 4.0 Beta files.

From VNC Free Edition 3.3.7 and older

When replacing older VNC RPM installations, particularly those supplied with operating system distributions, it is recommended that the old RPMs be removed before the VNC Free Edition 4.0 RPM is installed.

The RPM provided by RealVNC contains both server and viewer components. The standard RedHat installation has two separate packages called "vnc" and "vnc-server". Both RedHat packages will be replaced by installing with "rpm-U" in the normal way (from the RealVNC package vnc-3.3.6-2 onwards). However, because of a bug in earlier versions of the rpm command, not all of the package information is updated correctly. For this reason it is recommended that before installing the RealVNC RPM, you uninstall both RedHat packages with:

rpm -e vnc
rpm -e vnc-server

When replacing older VNC installations from a tarball, simply unpack the files over the existing installation.

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