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Remote desktop access between Ubuntu/Linux and Windows

Part I. About what to use

Original: Remote Desktop Between Ubuntu/Linux and Windows, Part I
Author: Eric Geier
Publication date: Tuesday, January 19, 2009 10:43:53
Translation: Kovalenko A.M.
Date of transfer: August 4, 2009

Are you using both Windows and Linux? Can you remotely control Windows from Linux (Ubuntu or other distribution) or Linux from Windows? Surely you can. Just like it's used Remote Desktop Connection between Microsoft platforms (or remote control between Linux machines), it is also possible to control the desktop from different platforms. You can click on the desktop and launch applications just as if you were sitting right in front of your computer.

We'll discuss a few of the different features you can get with Remote Desktop Connection. Plus, we'll take a step-by-step look at the method of establishing a remote desktop connection using free tools. So let's get started.

Choosing a Remote Desktop Protocol

Remote desktop applications typically use either Remote Desktop Protocol(RDP) or protocol virtual Computing Network (VNC). To establish a remote connection, both hosts (server and client) must support the same protocol. The problem is that not all operating systems (OS) use the same default protocols. In addition, some Linux distributions and some editions of Windows do not include either a server or client remote desktop application, or no remote desktop application at all.

Your first task should be to determine the protocol that is already supported on your computers. In addition to researching your OS, looking for documentation, links to cheat sheets, you should be able to understand what is what and where. Then, at the end, you must select a protocol to use on all of your computers.

Note:

  • Remote desktop VNC is usually slower than RDP connections, however, VNC is usually easier to implement on various platforms Oh.
  • For better performance and security, you can use NoMachine's NX free server and clients, or FreeNX server and clients, but it's more complex to set up and requires some thought.
  • It is also possible to provide support for RDP connections on Linux machines, for example using an xrdp server.

Opening the firewall (firewall)

Before proceeding with establishing or accepting remote connections, you need to configure software your firewall. The computers you want to connect to remotely must allow VNC or RDP traffic through the firewall.

On Windows, when you start the server, you should be prompted to Block or Allow network access to the Remote Desktop Server application. If you click the "Allow" button, everything should work. If you did not receive a request, then you can go to the properties Windows firewall and add the permission for this application manually using the port numbers below.

On Linux, you will most likely need to manually add inbound rules to the firewall on the computer accepting connection requests. If necessary, you can call the browser from the menu and search in Google information how to set up a firewall. Your Linux distribution may include a GUI (graphical user interface) for your firewall, or you can use the command line to configure it. In the same way, add an exception or rule to allow traffic on the corresponding ports listed below.

  • RDP uses TCP port 3389
  • VNC uses ports starting at 5900 (each remote connection to the server uses a different port; display 1 uses port 5901, display 2 uses port 5902, etc.). best method, therefore, there will be a port scope definition (such as 5900 - 5905) when you create a firewall or exception rule.

Now you have the ability to remotely connect to computers in your local network. To connect remotely over the Internet, you must also set up your router. We will discuss this in the next part.

Using VNC Server and Client in Ubuntu

If you are using Ububntu, then you already have the VNC client and server installed and ready to use. (This article is based on Ubuntu distribution Desktop 8.10 Intrepid Ibex.) In order to be able to accept remote connections, simply select from the menu System > Properties > Remote Desktop. In the dialog box, configure the desired resources common use and security settings. The command/address list is provided for you to specify other computers on the local network with Ubuntu or another Linux distribution installed from which to connect.

To use the VNC viewer on Ubuntu, select Applications > System Tools > Terminal. If you are connecting to a computer that has Ubuntu installed, type the command that Ubuntu suggests. If you are connecting to a computer that has another Linux distribution installed, the following command format is used:

as shown in Figure 1. This line contains a command followed by the name or IP address of the computer (or Internet IP if the connection is made via the web), ending with a colon and ID (identifier) ​​of the display (tunnel). If you are connecting to a computer on which Windows is installed, then the colon and display number are not indicated, in this case the command format is as follows:

picture 1

Installing VNC Client and Server on other Linux distributions

If you are using a Linux distribution other than Ubuntu, look in its repositories for the appropriate packages to install the VNC server and client. If there are no such packages, then you can download TightVNC directly from their website and follow the build and installation instructions.

The TightVNC/RealVNC server does not have GUI, you have to use the command line, but don't worry - it's easy. Just open Terminal, type and press Enter. On first launch, you will be prompted to create a password for VNC connections. Once you have set the password, the display or tunnel will be automatically configured as shown in Figure 2.

figure 2

VNC supports multiple displays to provide access to a large number of users and/or to define options for attributes such as screen resolution, startup commands, and so on. Each time it is run, the command creates a new tunnel, with a number usually starting at 1, which is incremented each time the command is run.

Below are the various command options that are useful to remember:

  • For help, use the option or enter the command.
  • Using the option you can assign a name to a specific tunnel or display that is displayed in the title bar of the VNC client when a remote connection is made to that display.
  • The amendment allows you to manually define the tunnel or display number.
  • Using the option you can set the screen width and height for displaying the remote desktop.
  • By adding you can set the color depth from 8 to 32 bits per pixel.
  • To close the VNC tunnel, use the option by replacing the hash mark with the desired tunnel (display) identifier.

Depending on the specific Linux distribution and the VNC solution that is installed, you may or may not have a graphical user interface for the client or viewer application. If there is a graphical interface, feel free to use it, but you can also use the command line if you wish.

For the GUI, you can usually set options from the dialog box. When connecting to a machine with a Linux distribution, type the computer name or IP address of the remote machine (or Internet IP when connecting via the web), followed by a colon, the tunnel or display ID, and press Enter. For example, or. If you are connecting to a Windows machine, the colon and display number is not required. To connect from the terminal, enter the host information in the same way as shown in Figure 1 earlier.

Installing a VNC Client/Server on Windows

TightVNC also offers a client and server version for Windows on its download page. Once TightVNC is installed, you can start the server from the menu Start (approx. translator: Start > All Programs > TightVNC) by selecting Start TightVNC Server. This will bring up a properties dialog box (see Figure 3) where you must assign a password for incoming sessions.

figure 3

After checking all settings, click OK. The server will be started and ready to accept incoming connections, at the same time the server icon will appear in the system tray. Again, don't use a colon and a display number when connecting to a Windows machine from any platform.

If you are connecting to remote computer from Windows, select the TightVNC Viewer shortcut from start menu. Similarly, to connect from other platforms, enter the name or IP address of the remote computer (or Internet IP address if connecting via the web), and when connecting to a Linux computer, include a colon and a display number in the command.

Pay special attention to the next part: in it we will cover the security of VNC connections and all the settings necessary for remote connection via the Internet.

Eric Geier is the author of numerous books on computers and networks, including The Home Network. All in one. A Desk Guide for Dummies (Wiley 2008) and 100 Things You Need to Know About Microsoft Windows Vista" (Que 2007).

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Not so long ago I wrote about how to connect from Windows to Linux, but now the second series. As I explained before, I have a second laptop with Windows XP, and therefore it's time to practice system administration so that there is everything for this. So, how to connect to Linux from Windows?

In the beginning I want to say that such an operation is quite real in life. When I worked at one firm, all office workers had a Windows computer. But connecting the Internet to each computer is dangerous, you know that Windows is a leaky bucket, and even an antivirus (here I wrote about which antivirus is better) can not always help.

Therefore, the Internet was connected to a computer with Linux, and all office computers are already connected to this “server” via remote desktop. At home, I will not do the same, but something similar.

How to connect to Linux from Windows?

In Linux itself (particularly in Ubuntu derivatives), the service " General access to desktop". In my Linux Mint 17, this item is in the MENU - OPTIONS. We run the program and observe the following window:

By default, the service is disabled, and the first checkmark at the top enables it. Further, if you connect to yourself, you can uncheck all the boxes in the Security item - we are not afraid of ourselves, are we?

The protocol by which the connection will be called VNC is not at all the one that we used when connecting Linux to Windows. Therefore, we need third-party software in Windows that will work using this protocol.

But first, in Linux, it is better to register a static IP address so that you do not have to calculate it every time.

Ubuntu Remote Desktop: Possible Connection Options

To do this, go to the network settings and prescribe a static IP, something like this:

To know your current IP address, in order to register it manually, you can use the command ifconfig

Now we go to Windows and download the VNC ® Viewer program from the developers' site - VNCViewer.

We launch a program that does not even require installation, write our IP address and if you did everything correctly, then we begin to see the Linux desktop. If you ticked the server settings, you can even manage it. And if you didn’t, then you can just watch what your child is doing at the computer - the Internet is very dangerous for the child, he needs to be protected from these dangers, and this is also an additional measure.

If you are not satisfied with the Vino VNC server, you can install its analogue vnc4server.

sudo apt-get install vnc4server

But before that, of course, you need to remove the vino server:

sudo apt-get remove vino

But the VNC protocol is not the only one that can be used to connect from Windows to Linux.

In Linux, you can install an RDS server and connect from Windows through a standard tool - Remote Desktop.

sudo apt-get install xrdp

You can also connect via SSH, but this is already a little more complicated and therefore I will not describe it within the framework of this article. Maybe later I will write about how you can forward the port via SSH in order to connect from Windows to Linux and download the Internet through a secure ssh tunnel.

There will be questions - write, as always I will answer everyone 🙂

Download PuTTY: Russian version

We are glad to present you the program PuTTY in Russian. Our build is based on the latest PuTTY release and also includes improvements and modifications from various forks and patchsets such as PuTTYTray and KiTTY.

Here is just a small list of new features:

Download PuTTY

File size: 9 800 225 bytes

MD5 Amount:

The Russian version of PuTTY is distributed as a ZIP archive and does not require installation. The distribution includes files PuTTY and PuTTY Portable, as well as source codes and documentation. The program is distributed under open source licensed MIT.

Attention! The Russian version of PuTTY 0.66 is considered obsolete and may contain critical bugs.
On the this moment it is recommended to use the original version of the program - PuTTY 0.70.

The original version of PuTTY

stable release PuTTY 0.70 dated July 8, 2017. Download the English version of the Telnet/SSH client from the official mirror of the program:

32-bit version:

64-bit version:

development snapshot

A regular test build of PuTTY is built every day from a Git repository.

Found a bug in the stable version and are waiting for it to be fixed? We can expect that this fix will appear here much earlier than the next release. This version is for you if you can't wait to try out all the new features before everyone else. On the other hand, test builds can sometimes turn out to be extremely unstable.

32-bit version:

64-bit version:

PuTTY and Linux

PuTTY is included in the repositories of almost all popular distributions. For example, to install PuTTY on Ubuntu, Debian, Linux Mint, ALT Linux, just run the command.

PuTTY and Mac OS X

PuTTY on OS X can be installed from ports via the MacPorts and Homebrew build systems - more details in the article.

PuTTY Source Code

For convenience, we provide several versions source code, for various platforms. In fact, there is no significant difference between Unix and Windows source archives; the differences are mostly in formatting (filenames, line endings, etc.).

If you would like to contribute to the development of PuTTY, we highly recommend starting with the development snapshot source code. We often make big changes after major updates, and it will be difficult for us to use your code based on the current Stable release.

PuTTY Source Code for Windows:

For getting additional information about building PuTTY from source, read the file.

PuTTY source code for Linux:

To build the sources of the release version, unzip the archive, change to the directory, and run the command.

7 Best Linux Remote Access Clients

To build snapshot sources, just run the standard ones. Read the file for more information.

Git access

If you want to follow the development of PuTTY down to the minute, or see the changelog for each file in the source database, you can access the PuTTY git repository directly.

The master source version (latest state, with the latest changes) can be obtained using the command.

Also at https://git.tartarus.org/?p=simon/putty.git a WWW browser is available via the Git repository.

Legal Warning:

The use of PuTTY, PSCP, PSFTP, and Plink may be illegal in countries or organizations where encryption is wholly or partially prohibited. We believe that at this stage of development legislative framework in the IT industry in Russia and Russian-speaking countries, the use of encryption protocols used is not against the law, but we are not lawyers, and therefore, if in doubt, you should seek legal advice before downloading anything from this site.

The use of the standalone PuTTYtel Telnet client is not restricted by cryptographic laws, as data is not encrypted.

© 2009–2018, PuTTY.ORG.RU - When using site materials, it is desirable to indicate the source. Thank you!

Setting up Xming and PuTTY

For those interested in working with software that uses the X window, below is an option for setting up Xming and PuTTY, which is used to organize X redirection and to run programs on a remote machine.

AT this description it is assumed that the reader is familiar with the configuration of Xming (at least to the extent presented on the "Xming Package" page.) It is also assumed that the reader has some understanding of both the X window and terminal access via SSH.

Setting up PuTTY

The PuTTY setup for this case has two features. First, you must enable X-forwarding (X11 forwarding) with the appropriate option. In this case, you will need to specify the number of the X display for which the redirect is being made. The display number can be chosen quite arbitrarily; in particular, if you do not intend to run multiple X servers on a given machine at the same time, you can use the display number.

Secondly, X-redirection can only be organized over the SSH protocol, which should be chosen.

In all other respects, PuTTY can be configured quite arbitrarily. It remains only to note that the organization of the X redirection implies "cooperation" with the SSH server. In particular, if the server does not support X redirection, or if it is disabled by, say, an appropriate server setting, SSH to X will fail.

You can check if a channel has been created for X by the value environment variable after connecting to a remote machine. The value of the variable will contain the name of the machine and the display number, where N is some unused number by other X servers (“real”, or the same X-redirects) on the remote machine.

Setting Xming

AT this section Xming setup using the Xlaunch shell will be covered. Of course, its use is optional - X server options can also be set using the command line (e. g., from -file.)

Launching Xlaunch will bring up the first dialog asking you to choose how X windows are displayed in Windows windows: Multiple windows, Fullscreen, One window or One window without titlebar. Since using SSH excludes using XDMCP (as well as vice versa), given choice determined by the convenience of the user.

Ubuntu Russian Community Forum

(Recall that when using XDMCP, what not recommended, multi-window mode is not available.)

More importantly, the Xming display number selection option: the number of the display that Xming will serve must match the number of the display that is being redirected, i. e. must match the one specified in the PuTTY configuration above.

The next window will prompt you to select an X-session program - a program that produces initial setup An X server that runs X clients that you use all the time, and usually also runs a terminal emulator or other tool that allows you to work with the remote system (i.e. run other programs.) Since you are already using a PuTTY terminal session to work with the remote machine, you can choose "without starting the client" (Start no client.)

However, if the local system has e. g., or (when using modes other than multi-window) , it may be convenient to set up Xming to run some kind of script that launches these kinds of X clients to initialize an X session.

The next two windows have no features. Let me just remind you that not disable access control (by selecting No Access Control.)

Links

2006, 2007 Ivan Shmakov.

Text given The page is available under the terms of the GNU FDL. Linked pages may have different terms of distribution.

One of useful features Windows is that you can connect to the desktop from another location to remotely control the computer. Luckily, major Linux distributions also offer this feature, and Ubuntu is one of them. If you want to connect to your Windows computers from Ubuntu remotely, you can use the default RDP client found in Ubuntu called Remmina. Here's how to create, set up and install a remote desktop connection from Ubuntu to Windows.

NOTE. This tutorial was created on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (Bionic Beaver). However, this also works on other versions of Linux.

Step 1: Enable Remote Desktop Connections on your Windows PC

If you want to allow other computers to remotely connect to your Windows PC, you must first set it up to accept Remote Desktop connections.

Step 2: Launch the Remmina Remote Desktop Client

By default, Ubuntu ships with a remote desktop client application that supports the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) used by operating systems Windows for remote connections. You can find it in the Ubuntu application list.

If you prefer to search, you can find the default Ubuntu RDP client using the RDP search term.

Step 3Set Up and Install an Ubuntu Remote Desktop Session for Windows

When you open the Remmina Remote Desktop Client, you should see something like this:

Click the "Create new profile connections".

Its icon is a green plus sign, which is easy to spot in the top left corner of the window.

The previous action opens a window called "Remote Desktop". Here you can set up the Ubuntu to Windows Remote Desktop Connection you are about to set up.

In the Profile section, enter the Name you want to use to connect. It could be anything. Leave the other settings from the Profile section with their default settings.

In the Server field on the General tab, enter the IP address of the Windows PC you will be connecting to. Enter the username and password for the user account username that you want to use on the remote Windows PC. This user account must exist on the Windows PC.

If you are using an account Microsoft entry on a Windows PC, it's ok to fill in your address Email and password. If your Windows PC is part of a domain, enter it in the Domain field, otherwise leave this field blank.

You can then set the resolution and color depth you want to use for Remote Desktop Connection. By default, the Remote Desktop profile is set to "Use Client Permission", which means that the connection uses the same resolution as the Windows computer you are connecting to. The color depth is also set to the highest possible quality. However, choosing a lower desktop resolution and color depth can improve the performance of a remote desktop session from Linux to Windows. If, when connecting to a remote desktop Windows table lag occurs, try lowering the color depth or resolution.

When you're done configuring all the details, click Save and Connect. This will save your connection profile and then initiate an RDP connection to the Windows PC.

After a few seconds, you should have a working remote desktop connection on your Windows PC.

You can also connect to a remote computer under Windows control without any of the personalization steps mentioned earlier. However, this means that you will have to reconfigure the Remote Desktop Connection profile the next time remote control your Windows PC.

When trying to access via VNC to a remote desktop Linux Mint 19 had to deal with the fact that, compared to previous versions(17, 18), this option is not provided by default. At next steps To organize VNC connectivity to a node running Linux Mint 19, the need to make a number of additional efforts began to resemble an episode from a movie:

- How do you, immediately finish off or do you want to suffer?
- Better, of course, to suffer.
(from the movie "White Sun of the Desert")

It all started with the fact that in the settings (hereinafter referred to as the XFCE graphical environment) of the "Sessions and startup" section and the "Autostart" tab, there is no mention of connecting to a remote desktop, although in the previous Linux Mint 18 the enable item was located between updating user folders and the network.



The vino package is responsible for implementing the VNC server in Linux Mint, which is not installed by default in Linux Mint 19. This package needs to be installed and, in principle, can be easily found through Synaptic.



However, this will not be enough. As the study of the issue showed, the vino developers have removed the graphical configuration utility from their product, so vino configuration will need to be done through the dconf-editor configurator.

Run the command in terminal to install necessary components and run dconf-editor

sudo apt install -y vino dconf-editor && sudo dconf-editor

When you start dconf-editor, a warning will be displayed that the changes you make are made at your own peril and risk and you must click on the "I"ll be careful" button to continue (I will be careful). To turn off this display on subsequent launches of dconf-editor, uncheck check the box "Show this dialog next time".


After launching the graphical system configurator, by sequentially moving "gnome - desktop" go to the "remote-access" section




If you plan to connect via a VNC client from Windows, then, as they say, it is advisable to turn off encryption (move the engine in the corresponding line).




Despite the fact that this, as they say, is not "good", but on a local network that you trust, this action is permissible.

Do the same with prompt-enabled, otherwise the other computer will have to "approve" a remote connection to it every time.


For the purpose of some kind of protection, set a password for the connection by turning off the default setting and entering a password of your choice, for example:




To fix this change, click on the green button.


Close the configurator and go to autostart settings. Add vino software to the list of programs automatically launched at system startup

/usr/lib/vino/vino-server



The figure refers to the XFCE shell. In Cinnamon and MATE, use their existing autorun settings.

Reboot the system.

On the computer from which you will connect, create the appropriate connection. In the figure below, the connection will be made from a Linux host, so it is added in the Remmina program.


Please note that you do not need to enter a username, only the password that was set when configuring vino through the dconf-editor graphical configurator is entered.

The figure shows the node H-4.vot, which corresponds to the full domain name node. In this case, it is assumed that the DNS server of your local network is able to match the IP addresses issued by DHCP to the host names of the network. MikroTik, for example, can do this through . If there is no DNS server or it does not know how to do this, then assign the host to which you will remotely connect to static address(or customize DHCP server to give him the same address) and connect by IP.

If everything is done correctly, you will have the pleasure of watching the remote desktop of the Linux node you are connected to, as well as controlling this computer.


In this case, an icon will be displayed on the panel (usually at the bottom) (with the Mint-Y theme - blue), indicating the fact of a remote connection to the desktop.


The speed of the remote computer's response to your commands depends on its hardware capabilities, the degree of system load, as well as the amount of data transmitted via VNC. When considering the issue of "responsiveness" of a remote system, many publications write about the loss of VNC before RDP, but I personally could not find anything better for remotely connecting to Linux with a GUI. In order to increase the speed of response final system you can try to "play around" with the quality settings for displaying the screen of the target computer in the connection parameters (see the Remmina connection settings window):


An alternative solution is x11vnc().

In this article, we will look at several ways to remotely connect from Windows to Ubuntu.

Imagine you are in the same room, sitting in front of a Windows computer; the data you need is in another one, on a computer running Ubuntu. If both computers are in the same house, no problem; but what if they are in the same office block?

Why remotely connect to Ubuntu from Windows?

There are several reasons why you might want to remotely connect to an Ubuntu computer. Perhaps you are at work and need to log into your home computer. Also, you can have an Ubuntu computer in the same room, Windows computer in another, and the desire to run updates on Ubuntu.

Alternatively, you may be using an Ubuntu server. You may have configured it to control the launch of a game such as Counter-Strike or Minecraft. In any case, setting up a remote connection will save a lot of time and effort.

You have two options for establishing a remote connection to an Ubuntu computer: you can use Remote Desktop (RDP) or Virtual Network Computing (VNC).

Let's look at each method in turn.

Find out the IP address of your Ubuntu PC

Before you can connect to an Ubuntu device, you need to know the IP address.

The first way is the easiest. Physically approach the Ubuntu device, press Ctrl+Alt+T to open a terminal, and enter the command:

ifconfig

Look for "inet addr" next to the connection you are currently using. For example, if you are using Wi-Fi, look for wlan0. If your computer is connected to an Ethernet network, look for eth0.

Another way to find the IP address is to find the connection icon on the panel, click right click mouse and select Connection information. Here you will find the IP address.

Can't open any of these options? You can also connect to the router directly using your computer's browser.

After logging into the router's administration console, you will be able to see which devices are connected. Just find the name of your Ubuntu device, find the IP address and write it down.

1. SSH connection

Before you get started, you may want to install PuTTY on your computer (or just try the built-in Windows SSH feature). This will allow you to establish an SSH connection that gives you remote access to command line Ubuntu.

To be clear: this is not a remote desktop option as there is no mouse control. But it's useful to have the remote installation tools you'll be using. However, SSH is often disabled by default, so if it's not installed, you'll have to fix it.

In short, it depends on which version of Ubuntu you're using and whether or not you've used SSH before.

After installing via terminal ( sudo apt install openssh-server) you will be able to establish a remote connection (simply using the IP address and Ubuntu username and password) and use the terminal to install necessary tools for RDP and for VNC.

2. Remote access using Remote Desktop Protocol

by the most simple option is to use the Remote Desktop Protocol or RDP. Built into Windows, this tool can be used to create a remote desktop connection in your home network. All you need is the IP address of the Ubuntu device.

While the required software is pre-installed on Windows, you will need to install the xrdp tool on Ubuntu. To do this, open a terminal window ( Ctrl+Alt+T) and enter:

sudo apt install xrdp

sudo systemctl enable xrdp

Wait for it to install, then launch the Remote Desktop application on Windows using the Start menu or Search. Type rdp and click on Remote Desktop Connection. When the application is open, enter the IP address in the Computer field.

Then press the button Show Options and add Username for Ubuntu PC. you can click Save to save these settings for future use.

Click the button To plug to start connecting and enter your Ubuntu account password when prompted. After that, the connection will be established, which will give you full access to a remote Ubuntu computer using a mouse and keyboard. If you plan to use this connection frequently, you can create a configuration file to save time.

Troubleshooting RDP

While RDP is a great option for connecting remotely to an Ubuntu machine, with the arrival of Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, this method is less reliable. There seems to be a problem with establishing a remote connection when the account is already signed in on the Ubuntu machine.

So an easy way to get around this is to simply log out of the user.

If that's not possible, try switching the RDP connection from using the Xorg server to using X11rdp, wait until that works, and then try Xorg again.

You can also try to establish a connection after rebooting the Linux machine.

3. Remote access using virtual network (VNC)

Another option with full remote desktop functionality is VNC (Virtual Network Computing). This requires a client application on a Windows PC and a server on Ubuntu.

On the remote PC, install the TightVNC Server component after checking for updates:

Sudo apt update

Install the server:

sudo apt install tightvncserver

And run:

sudo tightvncserver

At this point, you will be prompted to set a password to connect. You will also be assigned a desktop number, usually: 1. Write it down.


Now that TightVNC Server is set up on Ubuntu, you will need to install the client on Windows. It can be downloaded from www.tightvnc.com/download.php - make sure you select the correct version as it is available in 32-bit and 64-bit versions.

TightVNC tools are only available as a bundle, so once installed, look for TightVNC Viewer in Windows Search.

After launching the viewer, enter the Ubuntu IP address in the host followed by the desktop number. It might look like this:

192.168.0.99:1

Enter your password when prompted and get started on Remote Desktop!

Making TightVNC more secure

By default, TightVNC will encrypt your password, but nothing else. This makes it insecure for internet connections. Luckily, it can be made more secure with SSH and Xming.

To do this, download and install the tool from Sourceforge. After that, find the desktop shortcut, right-click and select Properties.


Look for the Shortcut tab, and in the Target field enter the following:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Xming\Xming.exe" :0 -clipboard -multiwindow

Check box Enable X11 forwarding, then return to session at the top of the menu.


Enter an IP address remote device and press the button Open. After a few seconds, a secure connection to the Ubuntu Remote Desktop will be available.

Choosing the Right Remote Access Solution

How you use these methods depends on what you want from your remote desktop.

There are three main options available:

  • RDP A: It uses the Windows Remote Desktop Protocol, via the open source xrdp implementation.
  • VNC A: Virtual Network Computing is an alternative to RDP, but less secure.
  • VNC over SSH A: Mixing VNC with SSH increases the security of the connection.

You can also use SSH to manage a terminal on your Ubuntu machine.

We have shown you three ways to establish a remote connection to your Ubuntu computer or server from Windows. Each of them has its own advantages and disadvantages. But if you just want to get your hands on Ubuntu quickly, why not try the Windows Subsystem for Linux available in Windows 10?