Remote Control
I have found a work around for not being able to remote control a machine that is not logged in or is locked. This gives you a right click menu option to use VNC on the selected workstation. Let me if you have any ideas to improve this solution.
I created an .msi that would install UltraVNC on the machines and set all relevant settings.
Published that msi to all my workstations.
Rebooted the workstations twice.
Extracted all Ultra VNC files to a unc share.
Added the file remote_control.xml to my machine with an sccm console:
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Configuration Manager Console\AdminUI\XmlStorage\Extensions\Actions\7ba8bf44-2344-4035-bdb4-16630291dcf6
Contents remote_control.xml:
<ActionDescription Class="Executable" DisplayName="Remote VNC" MnemonicDisplayName="VNC" Description = "Remote control using VNC">
<Executable>
<FilePath>"\\servername\servershare\vncviewer.exe"</FilePath>
<Parameters>##SUB:Name## -quality 9 -compresslevel 1</Parameters>
</Executable>
</ActionDescription>
Answers
- This would not be supported by the product group, but you are welcome to do so on your own. We know it is an issue for people to have lost this functionality, but security sometimes wins over functionality.
All Replies
Questions:
If the machine is logged out then why can't you just use Remote Desktop?
If you like I can give you a link to a program that we found that will unlock that machine for you. Then you could remote to it. It is a setup to use a webservice so we can unlock machines from our Blackberries. If interested please let me know. I will talk to one of our techs and get back to you.
Because remote desktop, does not allow console interaction. Most of our PC's are on and either logged in or locked during the day. UltraVNC gives you chat and file transfers back as well as giving you a console connection to the desktop.
I am interested in the web service to unlock machines.
Thanks
Jody
- This would not be supported by the product group, but you are welcome to do so on your own. We know it is an issue for people to have lost this functionality, but security sometimes wins over functionality.
Wow, I'm floored that SCCM doesn't allow FULL remote control. As a new customer this is disappointing and I would like the developers to know that I absolutely NEED to be able to unlock machines since at our district the screens will lock automatically after 15 minutes of inactivity (it helps keep the kids out of a teacher's computer). I also need this for Windows XP Pro....not just Vista.
This is a serious limitation for us that creates a pretty sizeable inconvenience for both our techs and the teachers. In our environment and in this situation I would say functionality trumps security. We should at least have the option to enable the feature.
I don't understand why it had to be taken out when it seems it could have just been provided as an option to the customer.
We do have full remote control. It is just for locked systems, you use Remote Desktop to unlock them (and can initiate the session from the admin console).
Unfortunately, the new protocol stack we are using does not support that feature (CTRL+ALT+DEL), so we don't have that feature.
We're looking at how to get it back, but for now, if you have a system with no user logged on, or is locked, our Remote Control will not work for you, and you'd have to use Remote Desktop. If you need to have the end user see what is going on then, you could do a Remote Control session later. I know it is extra work, but that is the way it is.
Wally - I know it's only be a month since you posted this but I was wondering if there is any update on this and might it be included in R2 this summer?
We just upgraded to SCCM and along with all the other customers we are disappointed that it was removed. It took us less than a day after the upgrade to find this issue. Thanks much.
No, there is no change in this area in Configuration Manager 2007 SP1 or R2.
The lack of this feature is documented in the product docs: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb694029.aspx
- While I appreciate the reasons why this functionality was removed ( vista stack issues )
what about the communities that primarily use XP as thier operating system .. surely this functionality could be added back in for XP workstations and not for Vista until the security issues have been resolved??? I have found a work around for not being able to remote control a machine that is not logged in or is locked. This gives you a right click menu option to use VNC on the selected workstation. Let me if you have any ideas to improve this solution.
I created an .msi that would install UltraVNC on the machines and set all relevant settings.
Published that msi to all my workstations.
Rebooted the workstations twice.
Extracted all Ultra VNC files to a unc share.
Added the file remote_control.xml to my machine with an sccm console:
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Configuration Manager Console\AdminUI\XmlStorage\Extensions\Actions\7ba8bf44-2344-4035-bdb4-16630291dcf6
Contents remote_control.xml:
<ActionDescription Class="Executable" DisplayName="Remote VNC" MnemonicDisplayName="VNC" Description = "Remote control using VNC">
<Executable>
<FilePath>"\\servername\servershare\vncviewer.exe"</FilePath>
<Parameters>##SUB:Name## -quality 9 -compresslevel 1</Parameters>
</Executable>
</ActionDescription>
I was trying to get this to work as well but in a slightly different way. This may not be helpful to anybody but I thought I would post in case someone was looking for the same type of thing.
I used this as my code for the XML:
<ActionDescription Class="Executable" DisplayName="VNC 2 Computer" MnemonicDisplayName="VNC 2 Computer" Description="VNC into console port">
<Executable>
<FilePath>cmd.exe</FilePath>
<Parameters>/k vncviewer /rcm=C:\Program Files\realvnc\vnc3.rcm /host=##SUB:Name## /cmd=view</Parameters>
</Executable>
</ActionDescription>
I configured the rcm file the way I wanted and this allowed me to pop the tool up and install it and uninstall it on a host machine whenever i needed to use this as a backup. With this method I didnt have to do a package for the workstation. Only thing is the command window is left open after I close it out so then I have to close that as well but its still nice alternative for special cases. The way this looks is simliar to if you have ever used VNC with Hyena.
