What Is TightVNC?

VNC (an abbreviation for Virtual Network Computing) is a great client/server software package allowing remote network access to graphical desktops. With VNC, you can access your machine from everywhere provided that your machine is connected to the Internet. VNC is free (released under the GNU General Public License) and it's available on most platforms.

Here you can find an enhanced version of VNC, called TightVNC, which includes a lot of new features, improvements, optimizations and bugfixes over the original VNC version, see the list of features below. Note that TightVNC is still free, cross-platform and compatible with the standard VNC. Many users agree that TightVNC is the most advanced free remote desktop package. And it's being actively developed so you can expect that TightVNC will become even better.

TightVNC can be used to perform remote control and administration tasks in Windows, Unix and mixed network environments. It can be very helpful in distance learning and remote customer support. Finally, you can find a number of additional VNC-compatible utilities and packages that can extend the areas where TightVNC can be helpful.

TightVNC is a project maintained by Constantin Kaplinsky. Many other individuals and companies participate in development, testing and support.

How TightVNC Differs from Other VNC Products?

In short (more information is likely to appear here soon):

Compatibility and Interoperability

TightVNC is fully compatible with the standard RFB protocol used in VNC, so you can use TightVNC viewer with the standard VNC server and vice versa. But note that protocol enhancements implemented in TightVNC will work only if these enhancements are supported on both sides of the connection.

TightVNC Features

Here is a brief list of TightVNC features absent in the standard VNC.