The new kbmMW Features blog post serie will talk about various smaller, but useful, features within kbmMW.
This blog will actually be about a quite big feature, namely kbmMW’s Remote Desktop features which is part of kbmMW Enterprise Edition.
There exists various ways to interact with your computer when you are not at home. To mention a few, VNC (Tight, Real, Ultra etc), GotoMyPC, LogMeIn, TeamViewer and obviously Windows own RemoteDesktop.
Except for the free open source original VNC (not the derivatives RealVNC and UltraVNC), all of them are sourceless and usually has a cost if you want to use all their features.
They may or may not have good security, handle Windows secure desktops or multi monitor modes well, and they are difficult or impossible to embed within your own software.
kbmMW Enterprise Edition includes all what is required to make a great Remote Desktop solution, which performs as well as paid options, and even better in many situations, while including full source for both the client (guest) side and the server (host) side, along with a simple proxy which makes it possible to easier bypass firewalls, the same way as GotoMyPC, LogMeIn and TeamViewer does.
In fact kbmMW’s Remote Desktop even support features like multiple guests/viewers at the same time, various interaction tools, and the ability to lock guests down to not being able to transfer files, or interact with the desktop etc.
Some of kbmMW’s Remote Desktop features in a simple form:
Install less server (host) option
Service controlled server (host) option for what TeamViewer calls unattended access
Supports remoting just about any Windows Vista and newer computer.
Support for handling Ctrl+Alt+Del
Support for remoting secure and screensaver desktops (the ones you see when you Lock your screen or is on the Logon Windows desktop)
Support for copy/paste clipboard operations including in the upcoming release, copy/paste of files between guest and host.
Default builtin support for end 2 end AES256 encrypted secure encryption with unique keys for each host. You can use any kbmMW supported encryption you like.
Default builtin support for multiple high performance compression methods, including both lossy and lossless.
Default support for login, which determines tope of guest… viewer, allow desktop interaction, allow file transfer, allow secure operations and so forth.
Super fast and efficient desktop sharing with much lower CPU usage than other solutions, while giving a feeling like sitting directly in front of the computer.
Support for chat and interactive drawing on the desktop to highlight things.
Support for shutting down, rebooting and emergency reboot in the upcoming release of kbmMW Enterprise Edition.
Support for multi monitor (8 monitors supported)
Support for zoom, stretch, with and without correct aspect ratio, and automatic scrolling when zoomed.
Support for running over both very high and very low capacity network connections.
Support for video
Support for 4k
Server (host) and client (guest) fully embeddable in your own applications with full support for enabling or disabling features, and intercepting events.
Even comes with support for guests on mobile devices (currently no multimonitor support in the Firemonkey demo client, but kbmMW Remote Desktop does support it).
In fact kbmMW Remote Desktop has evolved so much over the years, that its a worthy direct competitor to all the known remote desktop solutions.
What does kbmMW Remote Desktop not yet contain:
Support for Audio
Support for remoting 3D games
Remote printing support
How to use kbmMW Remote Desktop?
There are several ways.
Use the demo client(guest) and server (host) applications which also includes the optional Windows service and the optional Proxy server.
The cool thing about the demo applications is that its actually fully featured, and it’s major features can be configured at compile time via an .inc file. The server and client applications can also be custom branded in a simple way. All is included to do that.
Put a TkbmMWRemoteDesktopServer component in your own server application, and hook it up with a kbmMW messaging transport and a couple of queues to simply embed remoting capabilities in your own software. Secure desktop support require some more work in your own code, but all is accessible via events. The demo server contains the full monty.
Put aTkbmMWRemoteDesktopClient component in your own client application, and optionally additional TkbmMWRemoteDesktopMonitor components for additional monitor support. Then add a kbmMW messaging transport and a couple of queues to have all you need to remote a different computers desktop. Again the demo contains the full monty.
On our portal at https://portal.components4developers.com, you can register yourself, and access precompiled versions of the demo applications. The upcoming release of kbmMW will include new updated code, with much better stability when switching between secure (login, lock screen and screensavers) and non secure desktops, and it will also include support for remote rebooting or emergency rebooting the host and last but absolutely not least, file copy/paste between guest and host.
Compared to all VNC variants, kbmMW Remote Desktop is in a totally different league… much faster, significantly better quality, has many more features and makes the remoting experience so much better.
Compared to GotoMyPC, LogMeIn and TeamViewer, kbmMW Remote Desktop is remoting with same or even higher quality, using less CPU, supports more monitors, and is so much cheaper to acquire, but at the same time do not support audio, nor remote printing and require you to know which servers(hosts) you will want to remote to since there currently is no web portal or server(host) registry in kbmMW Remote Desktop.
So whats holding you back? Why not save a bunch of money, combining the ability to make the best and most modern of application servers and clients using all kbmMW’s other functionality, while providing easy access to remoting servers of your choise, all for the same low price of a kbmMW Enterprise Edition license.
Feel free to share, comment and ask questions!
Oh…. “What is it with that featured image?” I virtually hear you ask..
Well… it could be interpreted as:
“Im far far away… and in my cabin I can still control all the computers I need to”…. or
“If enough people find value in buying a kbmMW Enterprise Edition license, then that could be a nice candidate place for a holiday… remoting back to the office, to handle incoming purchases”.
Great Post. I’m waiting for next release.
Great Post, I am waiting for the next Black Friday … darn … missed it 🙂