Remote Desktop tools.

To start a Remote Desktop session:

• Select one or several user computers;

  • On the “Control” page of the top toolbar, click

  • “Control” button to control selected computers;

  • To open Remote Desktop session in view-only mode click View command in the Control button submenu.

  • To close the Remote Desktop service on user and Instructor's computers, use the Close Remote Desktop Sessions command in the Control button submenu.

Video Hook Driver, DirectDraw capabilities and Aero theme.

Net Control 2 and the Remote Desktop service can use the acceleration capabilities of the Net Control 2 Video Hook Driver, which can significantly improve the accuracy and performance of the Remote Desktop engine.

Net Control 2 will load this driver automatically when the Remote Desktop service is started on a user computer.

Please note: When the Net Control 2 Video Hook Driver is active, Windows will automatically turn off all DirectDraw acceleration capabilities. This may result in an opaque background appearance of the Desktop labels in Windows XP, and disable the Aero theme in Windows Vista/7.

Net Control 2 will restore Direct Draw acceleration immediately, once the Remote Desktop service is no longer running.

To enable or disable Video Hook Driver acceleration mode:

• Select student computers;

• Click the main menu command N – Options – Remote Computer Options;

• On Control/Broadcast page, in Display Driver acceleration group select:

  • Use always – the driver will be always used;

  • Auto – the driver will be always used in Windows XP, when Aero mode is active the driver will only be used in Broadcast Desktop tool.

  • Do not use (Aero safe) – the driver will not be used.

• Click OK to apply changes.

Remote Desktop viewer:

The following commands are available in Remote Desktop viewer:

View-only mode – enables/disables view-only mode. When enabled, the Instructor can view the desktop of the user computer, but cannot control it with keyboard and mouse;

Topmost – when Topmost mode is enabled, the Remote Desktop window will be placed on the top of all other (“non-topmost”) windows;

Panning – when enabled, Remote Desktop viewer will automatically scroll the content of the Remote Desktop window, whenever the Instructor moves the cursor over the window;

Cursor mode – when enabled, Remote Desktop will display the actual location of the cursor on the remote computer;

Drawer – when enabled, Drawer mode will be active. For more information please refer to the Drawer Mode section, below;

Fullscreen – when enabled, the Remote Desktop window will be expanded to full-screen;

Stretched – when enabled, the contents of the Remote Desktop will be automatically resized to fit the window;

Lock – locks keyboard and mouse of the remote computer;

Unlock – unlocks keyboard and mouse of the remote computer;

Ctrl-Alt-Del – simulates Ctrl+Alt+Delete key combination on the remote computer. In Windows Vista/2008/7, SAS simulation policy should be enabled on each user computer. For more details, please refer to the Knowledge Base’s article: http://kb.netcontrol2.com/entry/41/

Monitor – if remote computer has several monitors attached to the system you can use this button to select the monitor which will be used with Remote Desktop.

To top-left – moves the currently active window on remote computer to the top-left-hand corner of the screen. This feature is useful when the Instructor is controlling several computers at the same time and the user computers have different screen resolutions. Clicking this command forces the current window on all user computers to be arranged in the same position: in the top-left-hand corner of the screen.

Record – allows the Instructor to save Remote Desktop session as a Desktop Recorder record, which later may be replayed using the Desktop Viewer.

The following commands are available only when the Remote Desktop session was used for several client computers:

Previous – switches the view to the previous computer in the list of Remote Desktop connections;

Next – switches the view to the next computer in the list of Remote Desktop connections;

Scan – enables “Scanning” mode. Remote Desktop will activate the next computer in the list of Remote Desktop connections after a specific time interval (3 seconds by default). The interval may be changed using the menu command Mode –> Scan;

Thumbnails – display thumbnails of the computers in the Remote Desktop list;

Current – when this mode is enabled, all the actions of the Instructor will be applied to the currently selected user computer only. Otherwise, the Instructor's actions will be applied to all the computers in the Remote Desktop connections list.

In addition, using the menu commands File –> Save Snapshot As and File –> Print Snapshot As, the Instructor can take snapshots of the user computer desktop and save them as Windows Bitmap files or print them on a selected printer.

Drawer Mode in Remote Desktop Viewer.

The Instructor can use Drawer mode in Remote Desktop Viewer to make graphic and text annotations on the desktop of the user computer.

After switching to Drawer Mode, the Instructor can draw directly within the Remote Desktop window, by pressing the left mouse button and moving the mouse. You can also type text using the keyboard. All actions will be reproduced on the user computer.

In Drawer Mode, you can use F2, F3 and F4 keys to change the color and F5…F8 keys to change the width of the pen.