VNC Free Edition 4.1 - upgrade notes

Upgrading VNC Viewer

VNC Viewer Free Edition 4.1 can be used as a drop-in replacement for VNC Viewer Free Edition 4.0.

VNC Viewer Free Edition 4.1 provides most of the options available from VNC Viewer Free Edition 3.3.x, both under Windows and Unix platforms. As a result, VNC Viewer Free Edition 4.1 can be treated as a drop-in replacement for VNC Viewer Free Edition 3.3.x in most situations.

Upgrading VNC Server for Windows

From VNC Free Edition 4.0, including Beta versions 3, 4 or 5

VNC Free Edition 4.1 is compatible with the command-line options, .vnc configuration files and registry settings used by the VNC Free Edition 4.0 and Beta releases.

To install VNC Server Free Edition 4.1 over an existing installation, simply run the VNC installer. The installer will replace the existing 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 4.1, while preserving your VNC Free Edition 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 4.1 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 4.1 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 4.x, first uninstall it, then install VNC Free Edition 4.1.

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, including Beta versions 3, 4 or 5

To replace VNC Free Edition 4.0 installations installed via RPM, simply upgrade with the VNC Free Edition 4.1 RPM in the normal way.

To replace VNC Free Edition 4.0 installations installed from a tarball, simply unpack the VNC Free Edition 4.1 tarball over the existing VNC Free Edition 4.0 or 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 4.1 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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