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Graphical Group Config UI.   A very intuitive graphical interface has been created for configuring virtual desktop groups.  Computers with dual or multiple monitors are handled automatically so you don't need to worry about saving room for the additional monitors.  Notice that a single rectangle represents all the monitors connected to a single computer.

No more keyboard/mouse server.   There is no longer a single computer assigned as the keyboard mouse server.  Any of the computers in the group can act as the server at any time.  You can configure individual computers to never act as the server.  This really makes Desktop Rover a great pair programming tool.

Flicker is gone.   The full screen flicker that happened on screen transition is gone.  You will still notice the topmost window on the keyboard/mouse server lose the focus.

Lock all functionality.   The ctrl-alt-L shortcut locks all computers in the group at the same time (if 2K or above).

And much more.  Resolution of monitors can be adjusted on the fly.  Dual monitor systems no longer need to be the same resolution on all monitors.  Two different computers can control 3rd computer at the same time.  A setting to only allow transition where screens touch has been added.

Pocket PC Client (WCE ARM) support was added in the 3.0 release, but a few enhancements have been added.  VGA PPC devices are now supported (the mouse is a little small on VGA screens, but we will look at that in a future release).   Another new feature is that we turn on the backlight automatically when the mouse moves over to the PPC if it had gone into power saving mode (2003 2nd ed and above only).

You can still copy and paste clipboard data to and from the Pocket PC and capture a screenshot of the PPC with the PrtScn key.

A "Pocket PC Only" license is available for customers that only need to control one Pocket PC from their main computer.

More info about Pocket PC support.

 

  1. Install Desktop Rover on each computer that will participate in the virtual desktop group. 
  2. Verify that each is connected to a TCP/IP network.
  3. Run (launch) the program on each computer.  Desktop Rover is a service on NT based systems, so use the shortcut in the start menu to launch the program. 
  4. Click on Group Configuration from our system tray menu.  Press 'A' to add additional computers.  Enter the name of the computer to add in the dialog and click OK.  A message is sent to that computer to discover its display size and a rectangle that represents the computer will be added to the group.  A single rectangle represents all the monitors connected to a single computer.  If the computer cannot be reached over the network, please check your network connectivity and DNS status.
  5. Use the mouse to position computers to best represent the physical location of their monitors.
  6. Save the group and verify connections using the Show Current Connections tray menu option.
  7. You can create your own privacy key for the computers in your virtual desktop so keystrokes and clipboard data sent over the network are encrypted.
  8. On XP service pack 2 systems, you will need to add rover.exe to the exclusion list for the firewall. 

Up to 32 computers can be included in a virtual desktop group (only 2 if running under a trial license).

NOTE: It does not matter where the computers (CPUs) are located; you are configuring the location of the monitors with respect to each other.   

 

Some customers using Desktop Rover do not have keyboards or mice connected to their remote systems.  The following steps allow you to upgrade your systems to the newest version of Desktop Rover without reconnecting the mouse and keyboard on the remote systems.

  1. Leave the current version of Desktop Rover running on all systems.
  2. Perform the upgrade on all remote machines first.  In other words, upgrade the keyboard mouse server last.
  3. Run the install (from local copy or share) and click continue when it gives warnings of files that are in use.
  4. When the installation is complete, restart the systems.
  5. Upgrade the keyboard mouse server in the same way.
  6. After the machine used as the keyboard/mouse server reboots, configure the virtual desktop group using the new group configuration dialog.
  7. All the other machines will receive the new group info and you should be up and running.

This method requires the reboot of each computer after installing, but does not require you to connect your keyboard and mouse.  If keyboard and mouse is available on each system and you would rather avoid the reboot,  then unload Desktop Rover on each computer before performing the upgrade.

 

Dual and multi-monitor systems are fully supported in version 3.1.  There are no longer any limitations on the resolutions of the screens, or where they are positioned. 

It is important to note that when you add a computer to the virtual desktop group using the new graphical group configuration tool, a single rectangle is used to represent all displays attached to a computer.  This rectangle, sometimes called a virtual display, is the smallest rectangle that contains all monitors attached to a computer.  You must use the Windows monitor configuration tool to position individual monitors in a multi-monitor system with respect to each other (this defines the virtual display rectangle).  The Desktop Rover group configuration tool allows you to position a computer's group of monitors with respect to other computers monitors (or groups of monitors).

Since monitor resolution's may be different, it is possible for there to be dead zones in the virtual display rectangle where monitor surface does not exists.  The mouse cannot reach the edge of the virtual display rectangle through a dead zone.  Keep in mind that the mouse cannot leave the computer to jump to a remote computer via a dead zone.  The mouse can only leave the computer from the edge of an actual monitor.  

 

  1. Microsoft® Windows 98, Windows ME, NT4 sp6a, Windows 2000,  XP, and 2003 operating systems are supported.
  2. Disk space and memory as required by the operating system.
  3. Each computer must be connected to an IP network with network cards installed correctly and the IP protocol enabled.
  4. Name resolution must be enabled on the network.
  5. Each computer needs it own monitor.
  6. If the OS allows for operation without a mouse and keyboard, you can remove the mouse and keyboard on client computers after Desktop Rover is installed.

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Version 3.2.0. (Released 2/27/2006)

  1. Moved program control function into separate application (dtrctrl.exe) from the main service application (rover.exe).  This was necessary to make Pocket PC client compatible with ActiveSync version 4.x
  2. User can select from  3 different mouse sizes on the Pocket PC.
  3. Added setting allowing user to require a double-shift key press before items places on the clipboard would be sent to remote clipboards.  If set, all clipboard data stays local unless immediately preceded by the shift key pressed twice.
  4. Removed all function related to the "Restore last local Clipboard" because it was too dependent on all other applications on system behaving properly with respect to the clipboard.
  5. User can select from menu to run Desktop Rover service at high priority.

Version 3.1.3. (Released 7/25/2005)

  1. Fixed problem with right shift key not being passed to Remote Desktop.
  2. Fixed problem where mouse button could get stuck down on remote computer.
  3. Removed lock-all short cut functionality and replaced with Lock-all menu item.

Version 3.1.2. (Released 6/24/2005)

  1. Correct situation where firewall could keep pocket PC from connecting to host.
  2. Disabling Media Sense no longer required for systems not plugged into network.

Version 3.1.1. (Released 6/8/2005)

  1. No longer lose control of mouse if screen saver turns on while controlling another computer.
  2. Corrected problem with Alt-Tab key combination on 9x and NT4.0 operating systems.
  3. Added logic to Pocket PC client to help it not get unloaded when Windows CE hits 32 process limit.

Version 3.1.0. (Released 5/2/2005)

  1. Graphical group configuration UI.
  2. No longer a single configured keyboard/mouse server.  All computers can act as server at any time. 
  3. Actual screen resolution now used instead of mapping to a fixed grid location and size.
  4. Multiple monitor information automatically discovered at group creation time.
  5. Lock all shortcut.
  6. Full screen flicker on screen transition has been corrected.
  7. PPC VGA support added.
  8. PPC wake up from power save (turn on backlight).
  9. Change screen resolution on fly without needing to restart Desktop Rover.

Version 3.0. (Released 1/10/2005)

  1. Added Pocket PC client support.

Version 2.5.1 (Released 11/8/2004)

  1. Added support for mouse X-buttons.
  2. Automatically add TCP port to Windows Firewall exclusion list.
  3. Software now warns user of potential DNS issues when attempting to connect to computer in group.
  4. Corrected problem with mouse positioning on client after client came out of standby.
  5. Corrected issue related to computers that are member of more than one group.
  6. Worked around problem copying text data from Microsoft access to remote computer.

Version 2.5.0 (Released 8/30/2004)

  1. Added pre-login control of client computer.
  2. One-click changing of keyboard/mouse server within existing group.
  3. Mouse/keyboard input received simultaneously from local and keyboard/mouse server works smoothly together.
  4. Support for computers that are part of different virtual desktop groups.  They can now be moved between groups without reconfiguring the group.

Version 2.0.4 (Released 4/26/2004)

  1. Corrected problem where the right shift key was not being passed through a remote computer in our virtual desktop that was running "Remote Desktop Connection" to a different computer.

Version 2.0.3 (Released 2/8/2004)

  1. Added feature allowing user to lock (and unlock) mouse to the current screen.
  2. Mouse will no longer accidentally leave computer if any mouse buttons are down
  3. Fixed bug where 'H' key strokes were getting lost after ctrl-alt-key combination has be used.

Version 2.0.2 (Released 1/2/2004)

  1. Mouse speed now correctly reset on remote computer when leaving remote mode.
  2. >Different resolution dual monitors systems can now be keyboard mouse server under certain conditions.
  3. Work around avoiding warning messages when copying text from email being composed in Microsoft Outlook.

Version 2.0.1 (Released 11/05/2003)

  1. Fixed problem with shift-arrow key combinations not properly selecting text on remote computer.

Version 2.0 (Released 4/28/2003)

  1. Added Clipboard (Copy and Paste) support between computers.
  2. Added dual and multi monitor support.
  3. Simplified group configuration.  Group can be changed on the fly on one computer.
  4. Alternate key mappings no longer necessary for remote computers.

Patch 4 (Version 1.0.4  Released 10/25/2002)

  1. Fixed problem with mouse wheel functionality.  Mouse wheel should now work consistently between 98, ME, NT4, W2K, and XP.
  2. Modified trial licensing code.

Patch 3 (Version 1.0.3  Released 5/10/99)

  1. The special key combination alt+window is no longer required to use the window key on client computers.  If your mouse/keyboard focus is on a remote computer, use the window key as you normally would.
  2. User defined shortcuts now work properly on remote computers.  You can define shortcuts the same on the keyboard/mouse server and all clients and they will be sent to the computer that has the keyboard/mouse focus. 

Patch 2 (Version 1.0.2  Released 4/16/99)

  1. Fixes a problem introduced in patch 1...Under certain conditions, the '1' key was not getting passed to remote computers.

Patch 1 (Version 1.0.1  Released 4/10/99)

  1. Added key mappings to allow CTRL+ESC and CTRL+SHIFT+ESC functionality on remote computers.
  2. Added configuration dialog to tool tray menu.  Now you can change setup strings (like the license key) without reinstalling the product.
  3. Updated help to reflect these additions.