free software for remote PC control

Sxotty

Legend
Hey all I want to use a windows tablet to run a presentation on a projector that way I can draw on it and so forth while wandering around unhooked from the projector. Theoretically I might be able to use remote desktop or something I suppose, but I figured someone on here had a good idea of the best way to do this.

In any case both computers are PCs with windows. Let me know what the easiest way to do this is thanks :)
 
If it's a network projector you can connect to it via windows easily.
 
My first thought was freeware VNC stuff. Performance across a local area network is excellent, and it's free and not difficult to set up.
 
You could also get a Kinect, some custom software, and it would treat your hand as an input device on the projected surface. :)

Or a gyro (free air) mouse. Heck, you could probably do quite a bit with just an infrared remote + IR receiver.

Regards,
SB
 
LOL Silent_Buddha man you are making this more exciting than I had any desire to make it.

Albuquerue do you have any recommendations so I don't have to trawl through them? I was thinking that if I did remote desktop it would probably be laggy and also the pen input on the tablet might not translate properly. Anyway thanks for the input everyone. (And it isn't a network projector, but that is nifty I did not even know they had those since the bandwidth of wifi is so low compared to a video stream). I actually used to have a wireless display long ago, but it was pretty bad.
 
My first thought was freeware VNC stuff. Performance across a local area network is excellent, and it's free and not difficult to set up.

I used some very slow Windows based VNC on lan (but still usable) and some very fast VNC set up by bearded geek. And I think it was tightvnc in both cases. Mayber tigervnc is worth checking (one of two implementations that can be used by the VirtualGL project, which is about freely streaming accelerated 3D from Unix/linux)

You may have to fiddle with settings. Or maybe it's fast out of the box if you're lucky, no idea. But in general some people say VNC has excellent speed, some say it's bog slow, but it's very quick and easy to try out.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
(And it isn't a network projector, but that is nifty I did not even know they had those since the bandwidth of wifi is so low compared to a video stream). I actually used to have a wireless display long ago, but it was pretty bad.

I guess this wasn't using Miracast, but some old ad hoc proprietary thing?
It's coming. This Miracast stuff is supported by Tegra 3 (used in Windows RT tablets) and by Windows 8.1
Supposedly in the near future it will be easy to get that stuff running. But wifi congestion is a big problem. The Wii U does that stuff, on wifi 5GHz. So if your tablet can do wifi 5GHz, can do Miracast and you can connect some tiny receiver device (or PC or tablet with hdmi) to a projector or big TV, that will have you covered.

Nvidia Shield is another example of that kind of stuff getting into consumer range.

Slightly longer term there's Wifi 60GHz which should make it moreso easy and useful, if it works (very short range and very high bandwith, doesn't go through walls, is unlicensed because oxygen absorbs that frequency making it useless for military use or long range high bandwith point-to-point links)
 
In any case both computers are PCs with windows. Let me know what the easiest way to do this is thanks :)

What about a long hdmi cable, with a hdmi repeater in the middle :p, cloned output.
This is even simpler esp. if you have to make do with unusable wifi. (it is probably unusable if you have many people with their laptops and gizmo on it)

I fondly remember using a very long jack 3.5mm to RCA cable at some place, you would just plug into any desktop, laptop or handheld device and bam here's the music playing on the big loudspeakers. So a guy sitting in a sofa with a chinese mp3 player could set the hopefully good musical ambience.
 
About VNC...

I'm a fan of UltraVNC; the default download comes with both the host and endpoint software. It's all GPL licensed, and you can make it quite quick with some tuning. Nevertheless, even with a fast install and no tweaking, I loaded up VNC Viewer on a LAN-enabled desktop that was driving a projector in one of my conference rooms, and the VNC Server on my wireless Lenovo Tablet 2. I then had the desktop "view" my tablet "server", and thusly my tablet was able to show my Power Point presentation on the projection screen.

I could then use the pen to ink it up, and it was VERY fast. Focus on drawing on the tablet rather than trying to watch the big screen and then follow with your hand :)
 
um, so the projector are wireless or not?
if it wireless, connect it to windows.

if it not wireless, plug the projector to tablet and install Unified Remote (android/windows).

if its another PC on conected to the projector, you can RDP from the tablet to PC. Windows built-in remote desktop have very fast performance.
 
Yeah, enable the target PC for remote control, and then just mstsc.exe (Terminal Server) into it. That should be the easiest to set up, as all the software should already be installed.
 
My company uses TeamViewer and it works very well. Of course we pay for corporate licensing but I think the free version is similar.

As for RDP, does Windows 8 Home still have the limitation of not being able to host an RDP session?
 
My company uses TeamViewer and it works very well. Of course we pay for corporate licensing but I think the free version is similar.

As for RDP, does Windows 8 Home still have the limitation of not being able to host an RDP session?

Yep, I was looking at MS's Remote Desktop Android app just yesterday and it did indeed require pro.
 
logmein.com works well over the net. Has tablet clients as well (although you have to pay for that).

[Edit] I'd just use remote DT for local connections.
 
Back
Top