TightVNC

Hello everyone,

I'm glad to inform you that the DFMirage hook driver is available at
the TightVNC Downloads page. Using this driver can greatly improve
performance of the TightVNC Server under Win2k/WinXP, and increase
responsiveness on the client side. The driver was kindly donated to
the TightVNC project by DemoForge, LLC. (see http://www.demoforge.com/
to know more about DemoForge). While the driver is not Open Source, it
can be freely used with TightVNC (see the LICENSE.txt file, within the
distribution archive).

Please note that the driver is supported only in TightVNC 1.3dev5
which is the latest development version at this moment. If you run any
previous version of TightVNC, installing the driver won't have any
effect on TightVNC performance.

Please follow this link to go to the download page:

  http://www.tightvnc.com/download.html#devel

To get your copy on the driver, click on the dfmirage.zip file in the
file list, on that page. Just unpack the archive, and follow the
installation notes found in the README file. For your convenience,
below is a copy of that README:

+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
!  DFMirage hook driver for TightVNC                              !
!  Copyright (C) 2003, 2004 DemoForge, LLC. All rights reserved.  !
+-----------------------------------------------------------------+

This mirror display driver can be freely used and distributed with
TightVNC, see the LICENSE.txt files for applicable licensing terms.

About the hook driver for TightVNC
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Using a display mirror driver can greatly improve the performance of
the Win32 TightVNC Server, and also significantly lower CPU utilization
on the server machine.

Traditionally, WinVNC used two techniques to detect screen changes:
hooks DLL, and polling. First method could not always detect screen
changes reliable and had nasty side effects, while the second method
consumed too much CPU resources, and descreased overall refresh rate.

Using the DFMirage hook driver solves the problem of reliable and
efficient detection of changed areas on the screen. If the driver is
installed, TightVNC server detects and uses it automatically, and
disables old update detection techniques like polling.

NOTE: The driver is be supported under Windows 2000 and Windows XP
operating systems only. It does not work under Windows 95/98/Me.

Installation
~~~~~~~~~~~~

To install the driver, run the Inst.exe file from the directory with
dfmirage.inf, dfmirage.sys and dfmirage.dll files. Under Win2k, you will
be warned about absence of digital signatures -- choose "Continue Anyway"
in all the warning windows. The driver will start working right after
the installation, no reboot is needed.

Uninstalling
~~~~~~~~~~~~

To uninstall the driver, run the Uninst.exe file (the dfmirage.inf file
should be present in the current directory), then reboot. Under Win2k,
run the Uninst.exe file again after reboot (Win2k does not allow video
drivers to be removed while they are running, that's why the second
uninstallation step is required).

About the DemoForge company
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The DMFirage hook driver has been kindly donated to the TightVNC project
by DemoForge, LLC. To get more information about the DemoForge company and
their products, please visit the DemoForge Web site:

  http://www.demoforge.com/

-- 
With Best Wishes,
Constantin

+--------------------------------------------------------+
!  Help us make a better TightVNC: Make a Donation!      !
!  For details, see http://www.tightvnc.com/donate.html  !
+--------------------------------------------------------+

Hello everyone,

I'm glad to announce next development version of TightVNC, 1.3dev5.
It includes Win32 version, Unix version and the Java viewer. This
development version is a major step towards the stable TightVNC 1.3
release: there is a number of important bugfixes, as well as major
performance improvements. Most changes are in the Win32 version of
TightVNC, while the Unix version includes only a few bugfixes. The
Java viewer was not changed since 1.3dev4.

In the Win32 code, there is one major new feature: now it supports a
mirror video driver to improve efficiency and reliability of detecting
updates on the screen. The driver itself will be available in a
separate package, within a day or two. There will be another announce
on that subject.

TightVNC 1.3dev5 can be downloaded from the usual place:

        http://www.tightvnc.com/download.html

Below is a short summary of changes in TightVNC 1.3dev5, as compared
to the previous development version:

  - Win32 server: Support for the "DFMirage" mirror video driver has
    been added (the driver itself will be available separately). Using
    the mirror driver greatly increases the speed and reliability of
    updates, and also desreases CPU utilization on the server.

  - Win32 server: New polling algorithm has been implemented. It's
    similar to that found in x0rfbserver. New algorithm uses minimum
    CPU time when there are no changes on the screen, and detects
    major changes very quickly, resulting in greatly improved
    responsiveness on the client side.

  - Win32 server: Improved methods for filtering screen changes that
    actually do not change anything. New algorithm not only works
    faster, but it also detects changes much more accurately, leaving
    less work to encoders.

  - Win32 viewer: A special mode for Unix users has been implemented:
    when ScrollLock is on, the viewer will send Meta on pressing Alt
    keys.

  - Win32 server: Fixed a problem with view-only clients that were
    enabled full control on just opening the Properties dialog of the
    server.

  - Win32 server: It should not ever hang any more on changing ports
    or the LoopbackOnly setting.

  - Win32 server: DisableTrayIcon and RemoveWallpaper settings are
    working again.

  - Win32 server: The problem with not saving Query Settings has been
    fixed.

  - Win32 server: The polling mode "on event received only" has been
    fixed - it did not work correctly in previous version.

  - Win32 server: Fixed a number of issues with mouse handling,
    including that annoying problem with pointer jumping on slow
    connections.

  - Win32 server: Applied a bugfix from HorizonLive solving the
    problem with crashes or incorrect operation after color depth
    changes on the server's desktop.

  - Win32 viewer: It does not crash any more on entering long
    passwords in the authentication window.

  - Win32 viewer: Positioning and resizing logic of the viewer window
    has been improved.

  - Win32 viewer: Now the viewer chooses more reasonable file names
    for saved .vnc sessions.

  - Win32 viewer: In the full-screen mode, the viewer allows other
    windows to be shown above the remote desktop. This makes hotkeys
    such as Shift-Ctrl-Alt-O useful in the full-screen mode.

  - Unix version: A number of bugfixes -- copying clipboard to
    non-authenticated clients in Xvnc, delayed cursor shape updates in
    Xvnc, and crashing on switching between KDE virtual desktops in
    vncviewer.

  - Unix viewer: Support for the new -autopass option has been added,
    a patch from Ki NETWORKS, Inc.

  - Other changes, see ChangeLog files within the distribution for
    more details.

-- 
With Best Wishes,
Constantin

+--------------------------------------------------------+
!  Help us make a better TightVNC: Make a Donation!      !
!  For details, see http://www.tightvnc.com/donate.html  !
+--------------------------------------------------------+