Hello everyone,
I am glad to inform you that TightVNC 2.0 Beta 4 is available for download. The files can be downloaded here:
https://www.tightvnc.com/download.php
TightVNC 2.0 Beta 4 is another public preview of the upcoming TightVNC 2.0 release. Hopefully, this Beta is the last one before the release.
This Beta version should recover keyboard handling which was seriously damaged in the previous version. Beta 3 was a big step forward with respect to keyboard handling, but it included too many fundamental changes that have broken too many little things. Beta 4 is aimed to fix that.
We've learned a lesson from Beta 3 and have prepared a set of automated tests for both viewer-side and server-side keyboard handling. Now we have much stronger protection against "improvements" that would fix one problem and break ten other things.
Aside of the keyboard-related changes, TightVNC 2.0 Beta 4 fixes a number of issues with saving configuration in the registry and a few other things. In the section What's New below you can find a comprehensive list detailing what exactly has been fixed.
Please download and test our software! We will appreciate your bug reports.
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With Best Wishes,
Constantin Kaplinsky,
GlavSoft LLC.
What is TightVNC 2.0?
TightVNC 2.0 will deliver completely new TightVNC Server for Windows. It was redesigned and reimplemented from scratch. It features new component-based architecture which is perfectly compatible with the latest operating systems, Windows 7 and Windows 2008 Server R2. Older versions of Windows are supported as well – the minimum requirement is Windows 2000. More information on new TightVNC Server can be found in the TightVNC 2.0 Beta 1 announcement.
What's New in Beta 4 (since Beta 3)?
TightVNC Server
- The server should simulate pressing AltGr (Alt and Ctrl) to produce characters that would be entered with AltGr in current keyboard layout. Beta 3 failed to do that.
- Cursor shape updates were encoded and sent incorrectly if the cursor width was not a multiple of 16. That led to disconnects due to broken protocol synchronization. This issue has been fixed.
- Control interface erroneously tried to read configuration from the registry after it was already given that configuration by the service. That could cause IP access control rules to disappear from the configuration under certain circumstances. The problem has been fixed now.
- Registry entries could be created with wrong permissions while writing configuration or installing initial service-mode passwords. Fixed as well.
- Solved the problem of not shutting down the control interface if the tray menu was open at the moment of shutdown.
- More logging has been added to trace RFB initialization sequence for client connections.
- Fixed a problem with sending framebuffer updates for screen areas beyond the requested region.
TightVNC Viewer
- New version fixes problems with sending key combinations like Ctrl+A, Ctrl+[ or Ctrl+Shift+^ that should produce control characters with ASCII codes below 32.
- Various other key combinations with Ctrl and AltGr have been fixed.
- CapsLock functionality has been recovered. It was broken in Beta 3.
- Key codes have been corrected for a number of keys: F1, F2, F3, F4, "=".
- New viewer will reset keyboard modifiers to their actual state on restoring keyboard focus. That was a long-term problem of the viewer. After leaving the viewer window with Alt+Tab and returning to the viewer again, Alt could get "stuck" and one would need to press Alt once again to restore correct keyboard handling. We've eliminated that problem at last.
- "Win" key presses will not be propagated to the server any more. Otherwise, combinations like Win+R would have both local effect (e.g. open the "Run" prompt) and also open the Start menu remotely.
- Special ScrollLock functionality has been restored. When ScrollLock is on, the viewer will send Meta on pressing Alt. This may be handy when working on Unix servers.
- Fixed a problem with adjusting the listening port number using arrow buttons near the text field. It could add thousands separator and produce invalid numbers in the text field.
Installer and Uninstaller
- Uninstaller did not remove TightVNC entries from Add/Remove Programs list. Beta 4 not only fixes the uninstaller itself but also its installer removes invalid entries left by previous Beta versions
- Installer tries to recover registry entries created with wrong permissions by previous Beta versions. Correct permissions to the service-mode configuration should give access only to SYSTEM and to the Administrators group.