I recently converted my old computer into a headless Windows XP box. It was pretty easy and intuitive but I thought I would share what I did anyway.
- Have Windows XP installed and up to date; nothing special needs to be done and this will work on a currently installed Windows XP system. You will still need the keyboard, video and mouse at this point.
- Install UltraVNC including the server windows service.
- Configure the UltraVNC server service to start automatically
- Ensure that your UltraVNC is configured to allow full functionality to the clients (keyboard, mouse, shutdown, etc.).
- Restart your computer and unplug your keyboard, video and mouse.
- Connect to the computer from a client computer using UltraVNC client.
Pretty simple. You should see the normal Windows XP login that you would have gotten via direct connection. I hinted about this procedure in my previous post about UltraVNC. It’s great on a local connection and there is an encryption plugin that will keep things secure if you need to allow external access.
I have also setup an SSH server on the box using the notes from the LifeHacker article called “Geek to Live: Set up a personal, home SSH server”.
Another alternative is to install the server version of Ubuntu if you are more familiar with Linux. I have some software and hardware that only works under Windows XP so I am a bit stuck until either I get rid of these items or support is added for Vista.
