Jack Barber / Website Design

Can I Run ScreenConnect from a Virtual Machine?

This morning I decided I didn't want my large Windows desktop machine cluttering up my under-desk space any longer.

Having asked for recommendations on Twitter for the best virtual machine solutions, @magicaltrout and @tenatiousb both recommended Oracle's VirtualBox which I swiftly downloaded and installed.

Half an hour later I had Windows 7 installed and everything seemed fine.  The only reason I have a use for a Windows machine is that it is the required platform for the remote support software I use and my accounts software.  Setting up the accounts package was fine, but I had a little more difficulty in setting up ScreenConnect, as it required portforwarding from my router via our static IP address to function.

After a bit of fiddling around I worked out the solution:

  1. Setup your virtual machine in VirtualBox as usual
  2. Go to the machine's settings menu and select 'Network'
  3. Under 'Attached To:' select 'Bridged Adapter'.  This will give your virtual machine a standard IP address on your network (something like 192.168.0.xxx)
  4. Make sure your port forwarding and/or static IP address and MAC address is setup correctly in your router to reflect the IP of the virtual machine, not the host machine.