I received an email from Mariana asking me to review about a HTML5 remote desktop access tool they just released. It definitely sounds interesting because HTML5 is upcoming major update for HTML standard and one example is you can view YouTube videos directly from the web browser that supports HTML5 without using Flash player anymore. To remote control a computer using VNC, normally there is a server and a viewer(client) module. However by simply using ThinVNC, all you need to do is install the server module and you can access the remote computer from anywhere using just a web browser that supports HTML5. Currently Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari and Opera are HTML5 compliant. Internet Explorer users would have to wait until IE9 to enjoy the HTML5 support.

ThinVNC takes advantage of the latest web technologies like AJAX, JSON and HTML5 canvas to deliver a high-performance Remote Desktop access over the web, using HTTP and SSL protocols. Without the need for any plugin, add-on or any kind of installation on the client side, ThinVNC is the optimum way to ensure that you can connect to your remote computer from any place.


Installing and setting up the ThinVNC server is very easy. After installation, run ThinVNC and you will see an interface that looks like the screenshot below.

At the General tab, you get to set whether you want to allow anyone to connect or restrict it using authentication. By default both user and password is admin. Finally you can click the Start Server button to instantly allow connection. The checkbox for Auto-start is to allow the server to start automatically, not the software. If you want ThinVNC to auto run whenever Windows is booted up, then click on File at the menu bar and select Install as Windows Service. At the HTTP tab, you get to define the port and also to use HTTP or HTTPS protocol.

For a client to connect to the ThinVNC server, fire up any HTML5 compliant browser such as Google Chrome and type in the IP address followed by the port, for example http://192.168.1.1:8080 and hit enter. Then type in the server’s computer name and click Connect. You will then be prompted to login by entering username and password. There is a top bar which you can enable/disable control, show cursor, pause, refresh screen, scale, 256 color for faster and smoother control and disconnect.

ThinVNC also has a presentation mode to show your desktop or selected application windows to people over the LAN or Internet. It allows to create a presentation ticket and invite others to connect to your presentation, each using a different userid/password combination created ad-hoc. To access the ThinVNC Presentation Manager, you will have to right click on the ThinVNC icon at the notification area and select Start Presentation. Then you get to add the e-mail address of whom you want to invite to the presentation and select the application that you want to present. The server must be started in order to start the presentation mode or else the option will be grayed out.

I tried using TightVNC viewer to connect to ThinVNC server and it’s not possible. When you connect, it would say connection established and ends up with Connection closed. Of course no one would use the VNC viewer anymore if you can directly connect through a web browser but just wanted to test the possibilities. Another problem I discovered while testing ThinVNC is the scaling when using Firefox and Opera browser. If you click on the Scale button, the mouse cursor doesn’t get updated according to the new scale and causing the mouse clicks and movements to be inaccurate.

ThinVNC is definitely very useful, fast, easy to use and it’s free for non commercial usage. However it is still lacking of some advanced features such as file manager, chat and support for other operating systems. The ThinVNC server supports Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista/Win 7/Windows Server 8.

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