Netmeeting replacement in Windows 7

This has probably been "done to death" but I did a search for netmeeting on this forum and got no hits. Right now we are using Netmeeting's Remote Desktop Sharing feature to assist us when helping users on our network. It has proven to be a very useful tool that our IT department uses on an almost daily basis. What I like about Netmeeting is it is very easy to set up RDS when I get a new Windows XP (we haven't made the move to Vista) workstation ready to replace one on the "shop floor". Now I'm testing Win7 and I was wondering what the concensus (if any) on what to use when the move to Win7 is made, as I don't think MS is going to let us slide anymore with XP, for RDS in a mixed environment (XP, Win7, Server 2003)?

TIA,
MMYoung

Welcome MMYoung.

Does Netmeeting work in Win7? (Never used it)
I should think after you test Win7 for a bit you will want to pass on Vista altogether after comparing the two.

My brother was in IT for the Canadian Gov and they used Win2k for the longest time.
They started making the switch to XP just a couple of years ago.
He laughed when I asked him one day why they didnt use Vista after its release. 'Not stable enough for our department' he said...
They seemed to stay a couple of versions behind the latest OS.
But when you are dealing with thousands of PC's you dont take chances I guess.

To me Win7 is a much less bloated OS than Vista and is very stable here.
I have had it as the main OS on this PC since the first betas stared rolling out.
Havent had a crash yet.
Take care,
Decca

Decca said:

Welcome MMYoung.

Does Netmeeting work in Win7? (Never used it)

No it doesn't, nor does the "Vista compatible" version of Netmeeting. Unless something is offered to replace it, Windows Meeting Spaces (or whatever it is called in Vista now) isn't even included in the Win7 beta, or at least I can't find it if it is.

Looks like we are going to have to start looking for another solution and right now I'm leaning towards UltraVNC.

Decca said:

To me Win7 is a much less bloated OS than Vista and is very stable here. I have had it as the main OS on this PC since the first betas stared rolling out. Havent had a crash yet.

I'm not so lucky, at least on my home PC. Windows Explorer would crash pretty regularly but it turned out to be a PEBKAC error. I tried out the Nvidia drivers for Vista. I uninstalled them and went back to the Win7 drivers and everything is working OK, even on my ancient PC (Athlon XP 3000+ on an ASUS A7V8X-X mobo that I put together in 2002 or 2003). It's not as stable as Linux running on the same box but then neither is Windows XP.

BTW, in case you don't know it, PEBKAC stands for Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair.

Later
MMYoung

Most of us guys in service think alike...
As a Mechanic I often say "It's the loose nut behind the wheel"...

You might get lucky right clicking the exe file and try XP compatability, then right click again running as admin...
Might work.

Decca

Actually the hotfix release for Vista (Netmeeting 3.02 I think it was) had to be run in NT compatibility mode. I tried everything, NT Compatibility, XP SP2 Compatibility, Run as Admin, nothing worked. Always was a problem with some dll (don't remember the exact error but others had the exact same error as I "googled" for it) and I eventually just uninstalled it. Like I said Netmeeting was a good fit for us, and I knew that MS was depreciating it, I was just hoping that we could slide by with it for a while longer.

Thanks,
MMYoung

I've used Netmeeting. I've not used Remote Assistance. But isn't that what RA is?

Yes, but we turn off RA within our domain and in order to use RA doesn't the "remotee" need to send you some sort of authorization, like an email or something? With Netmeeting you just make a "call" to the workstations network name and you have a remote desktop session.

Doing a quick search for "netmeeting replacement" brought up a lot of useful hits in Google. Several people recommended Meeting Spaces, Live Messanger, Collaboration, etc. (Pardon me if I got any names wrong, no sleep last night and a severe infection, my head all wobbly.)

To be clear, what you're trying to do is application sharing? User is trying to do something, but can't quite figure it out. You want to remote into their machine, while they're still logged in. Once you're logged in, you see their screen similar to how remote desktop works, but they can still see the screen and control the mouse and keyboard if they want. You then go through the steps to show them how to do what they want. Once you done, you log out and the user's desktop is all "normal" again.

Right? If so, the latest windows messanger program would probably be best. It runs on all platforms of Windows and allows desktop sharing. Granted, I haven't used it personally, just saying from what I read. Also I think you might need a Windows Live server in your domain.

FreakyFerret said:

Right? If so, the latest windows messanger program would probably be best. It runs on all platforms of Windows and allows desktop sharing. Granted, I haven't used it personally, just saying from what I read. Also I think you might need a Windows Live server in your domain.

You have the scenario correct. We "remove" Windows Messenger when we set up new workstations so that's not an option and I don't EVER see us setting up a Windows Live server within our domain. I work for an electric cooperative in NE Arkansas and there are several reasons why that would probably never happen. IIRC, most of the programs you specified require a WLS, but then I've been wrong before.

Looks like we will have to set up OpenVNC when (if?) we have to migrate to Windows 7.

Thanks,
MMYoung