Contents

• About TightVNC Portable Edition
• Features
• Requirements
• Limitations of the Portable Edition
• Installing and Running the U3 version
• Installation (non-U3 version)
• Running (non-U3 version)
• Licensing and Registration
• TightVNC Portable Edition and the GNU GPL
• Disclaimer of Warranty
• Feedback, Support and Updates

About TightVNC Portable Edition

TightVNC is free remote control software. With TightVNC, you can see the desktop of a remote computer and control it with your local mouse and keyboard, just like you would do it sitting in the front of that machine.

TightVNC Portable Edition is a specially packaged distribution which makes TightVNC keep its configuration and connection history in the installation directory (typically, on a USB flash drive), instead of using the registry of the host computer.

With TightVNC Portable Edition installed on a USB stick, you can plug it into different computers but always see your own list of past connections. Your settings will not depend on the computer currently used. Also, when you leave the computer, you do not leave your connection history in its system registry and do not interfere with other TightVNC copies locally installed on that computer. You always have your data on your USB flash drive.

Unlike the general-purpose TightVNC distribution, the Portable Edition is not free, although registration is inexpensive and 30-day free evaluation is available. Registered users have access to free technical support, hotfixes and free version upgrades.

You can install TightVNC Portable Edition on any type of USB storage (and non-USB storage, too). However, if your USB drive is U3-compliant, you get additional benefits such as a handy TightVNC shortcut in the U3 Launchpad menu, optional auto-run feature and automatic program shutdown on ejecting the USB device.

Features

TightVNC Portable Edition includes both TightVNC Server and TightVNC Viewer. Main feature of the Portable Edition is obvious:

• It makes installation portable by storing all the data within the installation folder.

In addition, Portable Edition provides a number of other distinctive features:

• It shows new loader panel which describes TightVNC components and allows to run them from one place.

• Unlike the standard TightVNC Viewer, it allows to remove individual entries from the viewer's connection history.

• When installed on a U3 Smart Drive, it provides all the standard features of the U3 platform, such as easy startup from the U3 Launchpad menu and automatic shutdown on ejecting the USB drive.

Requirements

TightVNC Portable Edition should work on any Windows operation system starting at Windows 2000. That includes all editions of the following systems:

• Windows 2000,

• Windows XP and Windows 2003 Server,

• Windows Vista and Windows 2008 Server,

• Windows 7 and Windows 2008 Server R2.

For more details specific to recent operating systems, see also the Limitations section, below.

TightVNC takes minimum space on the file system (slightly more than 1 megabyte) and does not consume much memory during execution (32 megabytes should be quite enough).

The installation device must be writable. That is, you cannot run TightVNC Portable Edition from read-only volumes such as CD-ROM or DVD-ROM disks, write-protected memory cards or USB devices.

Obviously, you need TCP/IP network connectivity in order to use TightVNC.

Limitations of the Portable Edition

TightVNC Portable Edition does not install into the operating system and does not require administrator privileges. Due to that fact, TightVNC Server cannot be installed and used as a system service. It can be started only as a normal user-level application. That makes it impossible to continuously control a computer on which users can log in, log out, lock screen or reboot the system. You must be logged in to run the TightVNC Server application and it will be terminated on logging out.

Another problem is the UAC feature of Windows Vista and Windows 7 (UAC stands for User Account Control). In these systems, when you run a program which requires higher privilege level, UAC shows a window which asks local user to authorize such privilege elevation. UAC windows show up in a special “secure desktop” mode which protects the UAC window from user processes. No user process can access the desktop while the UAC window is there. That includes the TightVNC Server process – it cannot access the desktop as well. As a result, it disconnects the viewers, and they cannot re-connect until the UAC window has gone. The viewer loses control over the desktop if a UAC window shows up and there is no local user to close that window.

To solve the problems with UAC, you might want to disable either the UAC itself or the secure desktop mode. However, either choice can compromise the security of your system.

Installing and Running the U3 version

If you have a U3 Smart Drive, installing TightVNC Portable Edition cannot get easier. Just plug in the device into a USB port and wait until the U3 icon appears in the system tray. Then run the installer executable (it should have a name like “tightvnc-u3-1.3.10.exe”) and follow the prompts. In just a few seconds, you will have TightVNC installed.

Just like all U3 applications, the U3 version of TightVNC is started from the U3 Launchpad. All you have to do is to click on the U3 tray icon and then choose TightVNC from the list of installed applications. You should always start TightVNC this way. If you will try to run the executables manually they will not work correctly.

Installation (non-U3 version)

Installation of the generic (non-U3) version is slightly more complex. That's because you have to choose where to install the software to.

The installer executable (its name should look like “tightvnc-portable-1.3.10.exe”) is actually a self-extracting compressed archive. Once run, it will ask you to enter or browse the folder name where it will extract the files to. In the specified folder, it will create a sub-folder called “TightVNC” and will place all the files into that sub-folder. In other words, you do not have to create a new directory for TightVNC installation as such a directory is already present in the installation archive.

Below is a very detailed step-by-step guide on installing TightVNC on a generic USB flash drive.

Perform the following steps:

1. Choose “Computer” from the Start menu or use the corresponding desktop icon (it was called “My Computer” in systems prior to Windows Vista). You should see a list of logical disks attached to your system where each disk is labeled with a single letter.

2. Plug in the flash drive to a USB port.

3. After the USB device has been recognized, new logical disk should appear in the Computer window. Notice the disk letter to which your USB drive has been mapped (for our example, let's assume it was mapped to disk E:).

4. Open that disk by double-clicking its record in the list. File listing of the top-level folder should appear.

5. Choose a parent folder where you wish to install the software to. For our example, let's use the top-level directory of the flash drive (its full path can be written as “E:\”).

6. Run the installer executable. It should show up a window where you can specify the path for extracting the files to. Either enter the full path (e.g. “E:\”) or locate it using the ellipsis (“...”) button. Finally, press the “Extract” button. It will extract the files.

7. Verify that TightVNC was installed as expected. To do that, open the “TightVNC” sub-folder of the installation directory. If everything went good, you should see an executable file named “TightVNC_Portable.exe” and a new “data” sub-folder.

Alternatively, you might want to download TightVNC Portable Edition packaged as a non-executable .zip archive (named like “tightvnc-portable-1.3.10.zip”) and unpack its contents manually.

Note that TightVNC Portable Edition is not limited to USB drive installation. Actually, you can install it to whatever directory you like, on any media. The only requirement if that the installation directory must be writable.

Running (non-U3 version)

Running TightVNC Portable Edition is simple – just run the “TightVNC_Portable.exe” from the TightVNC folder. Normally, you should not run vncviewer.exe and WinVNC.exe from the “data” folder – when started directly, they will work as a non-portable version of TightVNC and will use Windows registry to load and store the data.

Note that the full path to an executable on a USB drive may become different each time you insert the device. That's because disk letters may change. For example, if you have two USB drives, then disk letters assigned to each device may depend on the order in which you plugged in the devices.

That causes problems when creating shortcuts to executables installed on USB drives. However, when you use just one USB stick and insert it to a computer where all other disk letters are fixed, it might be a good idea to create a shortcut on the desktop of that computer. It would allow you to run TightVNC Portable Edition without browsing the folders each time the USB device is inserted.

Another potential problem is Windows Firewall. If you enabled incoming connections to an individual executable, that rule will not work after disk letter change. If incoming connections do not work, the first thing you should check is the rules and settings of your Windows Firewall.

Licensing and Registration

TightVNC Portable Edition is distributed as a fully-functional 30-day evaluation version. You may use the software freely, without any limitations, for 30 days counting from the installation date.

Once the evaluation period is over, you must either register the software or stop using it. Each individual installation must be registered. On registration, you will receive a unique code which should be entered in the registration window of the program. That will unlock the copy for normal usage. You can register at any time during or after the evaluation period.

The registration price was USD 20 (or EUR 15) per a copy at the moment of writing this text. The authors reserve the right to change the price at any moment, so please visit the payment site to see the relevant price. To do that, press “Register” and then press the button “Go to the Payment Site” of the registration window. Alternatively, visit this URL:

http://store.kagi.com/cgi-bin/store.cgi?storeID=6FGMN_LIVE

To register the software, visit the payment site as described above. On the order page, you should see a line labeled “TightVNC Portable Edition License”. On that line, enter the quantity of licenses you would like to purchase. Now, press “Add to cart” and follow the instructions.

If the payment transaction was successful, you will receive an e-mail message titled “Thank you for the purchase”. In that message, you will find your personal registration data. Just enter it into the registration window and your copy will be unlocked.

The registration code is valid forever. It may be used for registering another copy if current copy was lost for some reason. Also, you will need to re-enter the registration code if you have moved your installation from one device to another.

If you have lost your registration code, just send the e-mail message to a contact address specified near the end of this document, and we will be happy to send you your keys.

The registration gives you the following benefits:

• free technical support,

• free fixes and upgrades,

• a shorter release cycle as compared to the “usual” TightVNC versions.

Also, by registering TightVNC Portable Edition, you effectively support the development of free TightVNC software.

TightVNC Portable Edition and the GNU GPL

While TightVNC itself is free, the Portable Edition includes a special Portable Loader application which is proprietary. To satisfy the requirements of the GNU General Public License, it is a separate executable (“TightVNC_Portable.exe”). Portable Loader runs TightVNC in a special “portable” environment so that it uses local files instead of the system registry.

We fully respect the GNU GPL and make all the changes to the TightVNC code freely available. The sources are available in Subversion at this URL:

https://vnc-tight.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/vnc-tight/orig/branches/1.3-win32-portable/

However, please be warned that TightVNC will not work as a portable application without the Portable Loader.

Disclaimer of Warranty

To the extent permitted by applicable law, the TightVNC Portable Edition software and any support services are provided to you "as is" without warranty of any kind, either express or implied, including, without limitation, the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or noninfringement. The authors and distributors make no warranty that all errors have been or can be eliminated from the software. TightVNC Portable Edition is provided with all faults and the entire risk as to satisfactory quality, performance, accuracy and effort is with you.

Feedback, Support and Updates

The primary Web resource of the TightVNC Portable Edition is located at this URL:

http://www.tightvnc.com/portable/

On that page, you will find up-to-date information on the software, the latest fixes and updates, and instructions on reporting bugs and getting support.

If you have problems with the software or wish to share your thoughts or suggestions, please e-mail us at this e-mail address:

portable@tightvnc.com

Thank you for choosing TightVNC Portable Edition!