pcAnywhere 11.0

Remote control software products have been around for a long time. The Reviewmeister remembers when Symantec acquired pcAnywhere in 1991. Since then, Microsoft incorporated many remote control features into its operating system, but there are still some features and enhancements that make pcAnywhere useful.

One of the most painful and time-consuming parts of deploying software like pcAnywhere is installing the client. Symantec addresses this issue in Version 11.0 with its Quick Connect and Deploy feature. This lets you control a target computer over a network in less than five minutes.

Remote management also receives a lot of attention in this release of pcAnywhere. Many common remote tasks, such as registry editing, command prompt access and system shutdown/reboot, do not require a remote control session. And for the security conscious, pcAnywhere 11.0 supports 13 authentication types, including RSA Security’s SecurID.

Many user interface enhancements went into this release, including the use of folders, favorites and a history feature. The basic remote control process is quite responsive and includes a full screen mode that works very well. Several little features, such as the ability to transfer the clipboard either to or from the target machine, make it easy to copy items such as a license key between machines.

You can also capture the current screen or record an entire remote session for later playback. The only downside to the record capability is that Symantec uses a proprietary format for saving the recording, which means you’ll also need its software to play it back.

PcAnywhere provides a secure file transfer capability that works in the background. You can queue up a number of files to transfer in order. A folder synchronization feature makes sure the files are the same on both machines, while a folder clone option copies all files in a folder from one machine to another.

The command queue makes it possible to automate file transfer tasks such as folder synchronization and schedule them to run at a specific time using the Windows task scheduler.  For the full report, go to https://www.nwfusion.com/reviews/2003/0804productpeek.html