TightVNC Windows 10 server on headless VM?

[Philippe N. <phi...@co...>]

Hi all,

I'm trying to understand the TightVNC source code. I see in /desktop/ that
the Windows server implementation uses Desktop Duplication API to capture
the screen. I am trying to run TightVNC with desktop duplication on an
Azure GPU Windows 10 VM (NC6 type) and I want to capture the screen even
though it is headless. Does TightVNC create a virtual
monitor/display/console anywhere in that server code so that it can work
even though there is no physical monitor?

I tried using desktop duplication API myself on the VM and exiting the
standard Microsoft RDP session and it stops capturing when that happens, so
I'm hoping TightVNC has a way around it. Assuming so, I'm curious if
someone could explain to me how the code does that? I started from
Win32ScreenDriver -> Win8ScreenDriver -> Win8ScreenDriverImpl and so on,
but am not sure which part of the code does this virtual
display/monitor/etc., if any part.

Please let me know,

Philippe