VNC password won't change

I experienced this issue with RealVNC 3.3. I would change the password on the server side, but then anytime I tried that password from the client side, it wouldn't work. I didn't know what the old password was, but after I found the solution I suspect the old password would have still worked.

This has to do with the VNC software not storing the password in the correct registry location. When you save the password it saves it in HKEY_CURRENT_USER, but the VNC server only has access to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, so it is changing it in the wrong spot. Here's how you copy the password to the correct location:

1. Navigate to the registry key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ORL\WinVNC3\
2. Double click on the value called 'Password'.
3. Highlight the contents and copy them.
4. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\ORL\WinVNC3\Default
5. Double click on the Password value.
6. Paste the value you copied here.
7. The password will now be set to the new password.

There are many techniques you could use to move that registry value to the correct location (such as import/export to a .reg file), but copying the value was the quickest method for me.

UPDATE: This problem appears to be fixed in the latest version of VNC. We downloaded and installed the new version and it has no password problems.

Author: DPAK
Created: Oct 21 2005 (last modified Dec 21 2005)
Categories: VNC
TechByte #64

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