A long time ago in a galaxy [you know the rest], I created a small program that allowed you to connect to a remote Windows based PC or server and remotely administer it.
From my original blurb at the time of release:
ChrisControl works by scanning the remote system to see if either RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol aka Terminal Services) or VNC (Virtual Network Computing) servers are installed and running.
- If RDP is found then the ChrisControl connects to the remote system via RDP client
- If VNC is found then the ChrisControl connects to the remote system via VNC client
- If neither are found then (here is the clever bit!) ChrisControl will prompt the user to remotely install VNC Server onto the remote system.
ChrisControl will then install VNC server, start and connect to the remote system via VNC. ChrisControl has two further tickbox options:
- The option of un-installing VNC server when finished
- The option of connecting to the console session of the remote system (only supported by Windows 2003 and XP)
Whats more is that ChrisControl ships as one convenient file - no other files are required!
As with most of my batch files / visual basic scripts / autoit programs (such as ChrisControl), I write them to help me out. I'm writing something to make my life simpler (coz I'm lazy? Yep almost certainly). If they help others out then, sure, I'm over the moon that I can help someone else out.
Boy did I under-estimate this little bit of CH time saving software.. It's popularity has just grown and grown and grown.. It's all over the place!!!
I had occasion to look on pendrive apps the other day - it's there! It's included on a rescue CD here been blogged about here and here it's even made it onto digg with it's own posting here ... It's used all over the world, for example here in Spain, I've had countless emails from various users all over the world. It's been offered as a solution to a problem on experts-exchange (search for reply by JoeZ430)...
OK I think we get the picture.
With this popularity and the release of Vista, (yea now you start to get a feel for how long ago I wrote it) the imminent release of Windows 7 (ChrisControl checks the O/S it's running on so it knows what switches to send RDP client mstsc.exe) and many newer versions of UltraVNC now available, I really ought to spend some time updating and releasing a new version.
So, ChrisControl is not dead... yet... It's just been resting. New versions coming soon
- Chris