You will be presented with a window allowing to select the settings categories to copy and the registered computers tree allowing to select target groups or individual computers.

By default the right tree shows registered computers groups only. Click on the "Show Registered Computers" toolbar button if you want to select individual registered computers.

APPLIES TO: SmartCode VNC Manager v4.5.3.0 or newer

Watch demo video

Action scripts allow you to have powerful control on how you connect to or disconnect from VNC/RDP server. For instance, in some companies administrator can use LAN to connect to one of his servers and he has to establish VPN connection to connect to another server. Action scripts is a solution for him to avoid manually establishing VPN connection each time he needs to connect. He can write two VBscripts. One will establish VPN connection and another will terminate it. Now he can assign connection script to pre-connect server event. So this script will be called each time he selects Connect to Server command. And he can assign another script to post-disconnect event. In this case his VPN connection will be closed after he got disconnected from server. The same scheme can be applied for dial-up connection and many other scenarios.

• /removelic
  Removes licenses from the computer
• /connect:<Registered Computer GUID> | <address[#port]> [/protocol:<ProtocolId>] | [/mtool:<ToolId>]
  Establishes a screensharing connection or opens a management tool
  • Registered Computer GUID
    Will establish connection using settings stored in a registered computer with the specified identifier. See "Creating Desktop Shortcuts" section for information how to find out a registered computer identifier.
  • address[#port]
    The remote computer IP address or DNS name and the port number a remote server uses to listen for incoming connections
  • protocol:<ProtocolId>
    Will establish connection using one of the supported protocols:

    Protocol Name	ProtocolId Value
    VNC	0
    Rdp	1
    VMRC	2
    Web browser	3
    External tool	4
    Ssh	5
    Telnet	6
    Microsoft HyperV (virtual machines browser)	7
    Microsoft HyperV (open connection to a VM)	8
    Radmin	9
    Vnc (view-only mode)	10
    Citrix ICA	11
    Team Viewer	12
    DameWare Mini Remote Control	13
    HP Remote Graphics	14

  • mtool:<ToolId>
    Will establish connection using one of the management tools:

    Management Tool	ToolId Value
    Service Manager	0
    Device Manager	1
    Installed Software Manager	2
    Task Manager	3
    Share Manager	4
    Printer Manager	5
    Event Log Manager	6
    Shutdown/Reboot Computer	7
    Terminal Services Manager	8
    Wmi Query Manager	9

• vncmanager.exe /connect:398a657b-bc1c-4bb4-a235-f0db87f0e298
  Establishes connection to a registered computer with the given Id using registered computer's default connection protocol.
• vncmanager.exe /connect:398a657b-bc1c-4bb4-a235-f0db87f0e298 /protocol:1
  Establishes RDP connection to a registered computer with the given Id.
• vncmanager.exe /connect:398a657b-bc1c-4bb4-a235-f0db87f0e298 /mtool:3
  Opens the Task Manager and establishes connection to the address associated with the registered computer.
• vncmanager.exe /connect:192.168.1.99#6555 /protocol:0
  Initiates VNC connection to the computer at 192.168.1.99 on port 6555.

To start a desktop shortcut to a registered computer open the Registered Computer Properties window (F6 shortcut) and select the Miscellaneous node.
The group of numbers and strings after the "/connect:" switch represents the registered computer unique identifier.

APPLIES TO: SmartCode VNC Manager v6.0.16.0 or newer

When Local, Amazon S3 or Dropbox.com-based configuration profile is used, the VNC Manager logs events in a XML file. When Database-based configuration profile is used, the log is stored in a database.

To view the logs for all the registered computers click on the Connection History button (Alt+F6 shortcut).

By default, the connection history grid displays log entries from the last 30 days. The date range as well as the other filtering settings can be changed by clicking on the Filter button.

• From/To: Allows you to select dates to filter by.
• Server address: IP address or host name of the server computer.
• Client address: IP address or host name of the client computer.
• Local user name: Displays the logon name of the user who initiated the connection.
• Connection name: Displays the name of the Registered Computer that was used to establish connection. Click on the Locate button to quickly locate the Registered Computer in the Registered Computers tree.

Connection history entries can be viewed on a per registered computer basis. To view information about the connection history to a particular registered computer you should open this computer’s properties sheet and select the Connection History tree node in the left settings tree.

Connection History settings can be changed via Tools \ Options \ Connection History page.

• Maximum Number of entries: Allows you to set the maximum number of entries allowed in the connection history.
• Delete entries older than: This setting provides an automatic way to delete entries that are older than a certain number of days.

APPLIES TO: SmartCode VNC Manager v6.0 or newer

Working with Dynamic Search Folders
Dynamic Search Folder Property Sheet
Registering Computers Discovered by a Network Scan

Working with Dynamic Search Folders

Dynamic Search Folders, also known as Network scan, allow you to keep track of all computers on your network in real-time. Dynamic Search Folders, DSF, keep track of what computers are online by scanning your network for VNC, RDP, SSH servers and for any computers replying to a "ping" request.

When scanning for computers, is possible to scan for active directory, workgroup computers or simply scan an IP address range.

The following descriptions explain the numbered item in the screenshot above:

1. Dynamic search folders.
2. The list of computers discovered by a network scan.
3. VNC/RDP/SSH/Ping statuses.
4. A DSF scan can detect the version of VNC software installed on a remote computer.
5. A DSF scan can detect the version of SSH software installed on a remote computer.

When you run the VNC Manager for the first time it creates two DSF folders:

• Default Ping Scan – scans for computers replying to a Ping request.
• Default VNC/RDP/SSH Scan – scans for computers that have a VNC, RDP, or SSH server software installed.

By default these two scans are configured to scan the local subnet. For example, if your local computer has a 10.10.0.45 IP address, then the local subnet would be: 10.10.0.1 – 10.10.0.254.

Dynamic Search Folder Property Sheet

To create a new DSF folder in the left Navigation Tree, right click on the Dynamic Search Folders node and select the "New Dynamic Search Folder" command. Alternatively you can use Ctrl+Shift+D as a shortcut to create the new folder. The picture below shows the Search Folder Property Sheet.

General Tab

The numbered items apply to the numbers shown in the picture at right:

1. Allows you to select the type of network scan to run. You can select more than one type.
2. Selecting this option specifies that the scan will be performed using the global settings. A global setting is a standard and simple set of search options defining the settings once and then letting any number of scan folders use those settings. If you find that a specific folder needs to have different settings, even if by only one value, use must use customized settings for that scan folder.
3. Checking this option performs the scan automatically after the indicated number of minutes.
4. Checking this option clears the computers list before each scan. We recommended that you have this option turned off.
5. Resolves an IP address to the computer DSN name.
6. Sets the discovered computer’s IP address record to the computer’s DSN name. This is useful when you scan computers that use DHCP to assign IP addresses.
7. Resolves the computer’s MAC address.
8. If this option is enabled, the computers discovered during previous scans will be not be scanned during subsequent network scans.
9. Entering a value specifies the timeout period (in milliseconds; 1000 milliseconds equal 1 second) to use when performing a sever scan.

Network Tab

The numbered items apply to the numbers shown in the picture at left: Allows you to scan an IP address range. Click the Edit button to configure the IP address ranges to scan. You can configure a scan group that consists of several IP address ranges or individual IP addresses. This option is similar to the first option but it allows you to specify a single IP address range. The VNC Manager can scan both B and C class address ranges. Allows you to scan a Windows Workgroup . Click the Select button to choose a workgroup to scan. Allows you to scan an Active Directory domain. It is possible to scan an entire domain or just individual organizational units.

Ports Tab

This page allows you to specify which ports should be used during a VNC, RDP, or SSH server scan. The numbered items apply to the numbers shown in the picture at left: Allows you to use a predefined set of ports or to specify a custom ports list. Click on the “Edit Global Settings” button to edit the predefined ports list. Port range list editor. It is possible to add a port range or a single port number. Each port range or single number has an attribute that specifyies the type of scan (VNC/RDP/SSH) that can be used on this port. This option is used when you are scanning using a port range. In the case where a scan discovers a server, the remaining port range listed will not be scanned.

Inheritance Tab

This tab provides support for the Registered Computer settings feature. Please look at the "Registered Computer Settings inheritance explained" article for more information.

Registering Computers Discovered by a Network Scan

The VNC Manager stores content of DSF folders. So unless if the "Clear computers list before scan" is turned on, once a computer is discovered and added to a DSF folder it will stay there. But in many cases it's more convenient to store computers entries under "My Registered Computers" group folders.

There are two ways to register a discovered computer:

1. Drag and drop a computer from its DSF folder to one of group folders under the "My Registered Computers" tree node.
2. Use "Register Scanned Computers Wizard". The Wizard can be launched by opening a context menu on a DSF folder view and selecting "Register Scanned Computers" menu item.

APPLIES TO: SmartCode VNC Manager v4.5 or newer

Running an External Tool

External Tools allows you to configure and execute programs, batch files, and PowerShell scripts click and go style. An External Tool can be launched by opening a context menu on a computer and selecting the External Tools -> "Tool name" menu entry.

To add, edit, or delete an External Tool use the Tools->Options->Tools->External Tools command.

External Tool Property Sheet

The numbered items apply to the numbers shown in the picture at right:

1. User friendly tool name.
2. The name of the module to be executed. The string can specify the full path and file name of the module to execute or it can specify a partial name. In order to run a script, the path should point to cmd.exe or cscript.exe or powershell.exe depending on the script type.
3. The command line to be executed. The command line can contain special variables that automatically expand each time the external tool is run.
4. The full path to the current directory for the process.
5. Allows a user to specify alternative credentials that will be used to run the tool.
6. If the “Show on Wizards & Tolls” box is checked, the tool will be listed in the “Wizards & Tools” panel. Note, even when this checkbox is not checked, the tool will still be accessible via the External Tools context menu.
7. If checked, the tool’s console application window will remain open.
8. Allows a user to select an icon that will be associated with the tool. The icon is used by the “Wizards & Tool s” panel and by the External Tools context menu.

Automatic Variables

The following variables are available when you configure an external tool. These variables are automatically expanded each time the external tool is run.

1. This setting follows the Registered Computer settings inheritance rules.
2. When the VNC Manager expands this variable it doesn’t query the MAC from a remote computer, it simply uses the MAC address entered in the registered computer’s properties dialog.

Using Custom Properties as Variables

It is possible to use Registered Computer customer properties as automatic variables.

1. Open a Registered Computer properties window and select the "Custom Properties" node in the left tree.
2. Add a custom property. The custom property name can be used as an External Tool automatic variable.
3. Similarly to to the predefined variables you can enter a custom property name, enclosed in ($ ), as an external tool command line argument.

APPLIES TO: SmartCode VNC Manager v6.0.1.0 or newer

The Microsoft Hyper-V Server Virtual Machines Thumbnails View allows you to view the screens of virtual machines running on Microsoft Server 2008 or newer with Hyper-V role installed.

To add a virtual machine to the thumbnails view select one or more computers (these computers must have Hyper-V role installed) in the registered computers view, open the context menu, select Hyper-V Thumbnails View and select the Add To Default Tab (Ctrl+K shortcut) or Add To New Tab command (Ctrl+Shift+K shortcut).

To remove a virtual machine from the thumbnails view, select one or more thumbnail images, open the context menu and select the Delete command (Del shortcut).

To establish a pass-through RDP connection to a virtual machine you can double click on a running virtual machine thumbnail item. Alternatively you can open a context menu and select the Connect to Virtual Machine command.

To edit the Hyper-V Thumbnails view settings select Tools -> Options -> Thumbnails View page or click on the Settings button at the top of the Hyper-V Thumbnails view. There are some settings that are shared between the VNC and Hyper-V thumbnails views and some that are specific to the Hyper-V Thumbnails View.

The numbered items apply to the numbers shown in the picture at right

1. Checking this option prevents the computer from displaying warning messages if you lose the connection.
2. Allows you to specify what should be done if connection to a remote Microsoft Hyper-V server fails. You can choose to remove the failed item’s thumbnails or try to re-establish the connection.
3. Allows you to specify how many times the VNC Manager should attempt to re-establish connection before removing the failed items from the thumbnails view.

1. Allows you to specify how often the VNC thumbnails items should be updated.
   NOTE: Generating a virtual machine virtual display screenshot is a CPU intensive operation. We recommend you to monitor your Hyper-V server CPU usage and set the update interval to a reasonable value.
2. Checking this option restores the thumbnails that were previously displayed when the VNC Manager was last closed. You can choose to restore only the virtual machines that we presented in the thumbnails view when the VNC Manager was closed or to fetch all the Virtual Machines available on a Hyper-V server.

APPLIES TO: SmartCode VNC Manager (Enterprise Edition) v5.0.14.0 or newer

The Password Generator generates random passwords of any length. Randomness of generated passwords makes them hard to guess.

To open the Password Generator, click on the Tools \ Password Generator menu item.

When the Password Generator window comes up for the first time, it automatically generates new passwords. To generate another set of passwords, click the Generate Password button.

Click Copy to Clipboard button to copy generated password clipboard (only the first password will be copied). You can then paste it into any text or password field in any application.

APPLIES TO: SmartCode VNC Manager v6.5.5 or newer

Global Registration Settings

"Global" registration settings can be defined using the Tools->Options->Defaults->Edit Global Settings.

Registered Computer Settings

When you open a registered computer’s properties sheet, at the bottom of the window there is a “Use settings from” combo box to select the configuration option you want to use.

Registered Computer Properties window

You can configure a registered computer to use its own local settings, inherit the settings from its parent group folder or inherit settings from the global settings.

If you configure the registered computer to use the parent group or the global settings then the property sheet would show the inherited settings. The fields with inherited settings will become disabled so that you cannot change them. However, some settings aren’t inheritable and those fields will stay enabled so you can configure them.

Registered Group Settings

When a registered computer is configured to use inherited settings from its parent group, the VNC Manager uses the settings stored in the registered computer’s parent group object. These settings can be edited by opening the parent group properties sheet and clicking on the "Per group" computer settings->Settings button. This will open the same properties sheet described above. But there is one important difference when using this button in the VNC Manager that users need to know. The following are the values of the “"Use settings from:" combobox:

• This computer properties – this is simplest inheritance mode. When selected, all registered computers configured to inherit settings from this folder will be configured to use the settings defined in the settings property sheet for this folder.
  
  
• Global settings - When selected, a group folder inherits its settings from the “Global” settings. So if a registered computer is configured to inherit its settings from a parent folder that uses “global” settings, the registered computer will be configured to use the “global” settings as well.
  
  
• Parent group folder properties – When selected, a group folder is configured to use its parent folder settings. As a result a registered computer in that group will be configured to use the settings from its parent’s parent folder.
  

Watch demo video

VNC Thumbnails View

The VNC Thumbnails View allows you to view the screens of multiple remote computers simultaneously. It also allows you to take screenshots of items added to the view.

Adding A Computer To The VNC Thumbnails View

To add a computer to the thumbnails view select one or more computers in the registered computers view, open the context menu and select the VNC Thumbnails View and then the Add To Default Tab (Ctrl+T shortcut) or the Add To New Tab (Ctrl+Shift+T shortcut).

To remove a computer from the thumbnails view, select one or more thumbnail images, open the context menu and select the Delete command (Del shortcut).

If you close the VNC Manager with the VNC Thumbnails view open, these thumbnails will be automatically restored the next time your run the VNC Manager.

VNC Thumbnails View Settings

To edit the VNC Thumbnails view settings select Tools -> Options -> VNC Thumbnails page or click on the Settings button at the top of the VNC Thumbnails view.

VNC Thumbnails Page

The numbered items apply to the numbers shown in the picture at right:

1. Lets you select the Thumbnail item’s width and height. The maximum width and height supported is 256px.
2. You should check the Keep aspect ratio to keep the image’s current aspect ratio, or uncheck the option to scale Width and Height independently.
3. Check the "Group Items" to group the VNC Thumbnail items based on their parent folder.
4. Allows you to specify the thumbnail image quality. The high quality setting produces smoother images but uses up to 10% more CPU resources compared to the "Low quality" setting.
5. Check "Use default connection settings" option to use the same VNC connection settings for all items added to VNC Thumbnails view. If this setting is unchecked, the VNC Thumbnails view will use individual settings that must be specified in the item’s properties.

Thumbnail Display page

The numbered items apply to the numbers shown in the picture at right:

1. Allows you to specify how often the VNC thumbnails items should be updated. You can select real-time update mode or refresh screen via a time interval. The later method allows you to decrease the CPU load.
2. Checking this option prevents the computer from displaying warning messages if you lose the connection.
3. Allows you to specify what should be done if connection to a remote VNC server fails. You can choose to remove the failed item’s thumbnail or try to re-establish the connection.
4. Checking this option restores the thumbnails that were previously displayed when the VNC Manager instance was last closed.

VNC Thumbnail Screenshots page

The VNC Thumbnails view can take and store screenshots of items added to the view based on user defined time intervals. It’s possible to take screenshots of either all items added to the view or only specifically selected items.

The numbered items apply to the numbers shown in the picture at right:

1. Turns the "auto-screenshots" feature on or off.
2. Allows you to specify whether screenshots of all items should be taken or only specifically selected items. To specify items select the item in the VNC Thumbnails view then open the context menu and select “Screenshots -> Enable screenshots for selected items” command. When the auto-screenshots feature is enabled, each thumbnail item configured for screenshots will display a small camera icon in the upper right corner of the thumbnail image.
   
3. Allows you to specify how often the screenshots should be taken.
4. Allows you to specify where to store the screenshots on your hard drive.
5. Allows you to specify the file naming rules.
6. Specifies the screenshot image file format.
7. Allows you to specify the size of the stored screenshots so they occupy less disk space.

APPLIES TO: SmartCode VNC Manager v5.0.14.0 or newer

"This computer has RDP installed" checkbox is checked. RDP Tasks submenu is visible.	"This computer has RDP installed" checkbox is unchecked. RDP Tasks submenu hidden.

APPLIES TO: SmartCode VNC Manager v4.5

Many of the VNC Manager users have been asking for ability to fetch additional information about registered computers and show it in the Registered Computers list. We listened and thus in v6.0 we introduced WMI Properties feature.

With this feature there is hardly anything that you can't monitor on a remote Windows-based computer. WMI Properties can be used as an inventory tool as well.

To start using WMI Properties open Tools \ Options dialog (F7 shortcut). and select the WMI Properties node.

1. Expand the "Available WMI classes" combobox to select a WMI class. The current version of SmartCode VNC Manager list classes from the root\cimv2 namespace.
2. The list of the properties exposed by the selected WMI class. If you want a property to be shown in the Registered Computers list, select it and click the Add button.
3. List of the properties selected whose values will be fetched during Registered Computers status update. For each property a column will be added to the Registered Computers list.
   
   You can use the Filtering feature to narrow down your search results. For example, if you want to add column to the registered computers list that would show status of the UltraVNC Server service, you should add class Win32_Service / property Status and add the following filtering condition: Name="uvnc_service"

NOTE: When SmartCode VNC Manager attempts to establish WMI connection it uses the logon credentials assigned to the Registered Computer being updated.

SmartCode VNC Manager will attempt to fetch WMI properties when the application is performing scheduled status updates or when an update is initiated via the Check VNC/RDP/SSH Server Status command (Ctrl+U shortcut).

APPLIES TO: SmartCode VNC Manager v6.0.11.0 or newer

Starting with v5.0, the management tools will use a new "Enter Login Credentials" window (some of the management tools may still use the legacy Enter Login Credentials window where it is appropriate).

Why Did We Choose To Go With This New GUI Design

Traditionally when a VNC Manager's management tool executes an operation against several remote computers, for example, when the Server Manager fetches a services list from ten remote computers, it does it on one by one basis. If, at any point in the process, an Access Denied error occurs, a login window is opened and the command execution is paused until the user enters valid logon credentials. This approach works just fine but it can be slow since all of the computers in the queue get processed on one by one basis.

Starting with the "Detect Installed VNC Distribution" tool, a new approach is being used to execute a command against several remote computers - the use of a thread pool. Rather than using a single thread to process commands, a set of threads is created that allows multiple command execution at the same time.

But what happens if several of the threads in the thread pool encounter an Access Denied error? A straightforward, easy way to implement an approach would be to bombard the end user with multiple Enter Logon credentials windows, one for each failed execution thread. But here at SmartCode Solutions we care about end users and spent several days playing with various GUI prototypes and the end result is the GUI depicted in the screenshot above.

The "Enter New Login Credentials" Window Layout

The numbered items apply to the numbers shown in the screenshot:

1. "Failed to authenticate" list – contains a list of addresses against which a VNC Manager Management task has failed to authenticate. New entries may appear in the list while you have the window open. This will occur if a management task has failed to authenticate while the window is open.
2. These input boxes allow you to enter new logon credentials. You may click on the Browse button to select one of previously created logon credentials templates.
3. Selecting this radio button allows you to apply credentials to all computers in the left list or only to the selected computers (ADXP1 on the screenshoot).
4. If you execute a command against several remote computers and received the Access Denied error, chances are high that the rest of computers waiting in the queue have invalid credentials as well. By checking the "Apply credentials to all items in the execution queue" checkbox, you will apply new logon credentials to all queued commands that haven’t started executing yet.

APPLIES TO: SmartCode VNC Manager v5.0.4.0 or newer