XLaunch Wizard

XLaunch is a wizard to make starting Xming sessions easy.
You can just simply start the X server and run X clients later by hand, but starting XDMCP or one X client automatically is provided along with an interactive XDMCP host finder and chooser. By using the 'Force run' option just a client can be started for display on an existing X server.

XLaunch - Display settings

Display settings

This dialog sets the way Xming displays programs. Select the display settings appropriate to your requirements.

Multiple windows

Start the integrated Microsoft Windows-based window manager which launches each top-level X window in its own Windows window. Use this mode if you don't understand the others.

One window

The X server appears as a single Windows window and all X windows are contained within this window. This mode requires an external window manager. Typically this mode would be used for XDMCP login to a remote machine in a window appropriately sized smaller than the Windows desktop.

The window size can be altered using the -screen parameter, for example enter

-screen 0 1024x768+125+100@1

on the Additional parameters page of this wizard for a 1024x768 window size, offset 125,100 as screen scr_num 0 on the 1st monitor (the default).

Fullscreen

This mode is like single window mode except that the X server window takes the full screen, covering completely the Windows desktop. This mode requires an external window manager.

Shadow DirectDraw4 (-engine 4) is used as default in this mode enabling the -depth and -refresh rate to be changed and so it can be used at -depth 8 for rendering ancient remote hosts that only have 8-bit colour.

One window without titlebar

This mode is like single window mode except that the X server window does not have a title bar or border, thus maximizing the amount of space available for X windows within the X server window. This mode requires an external window manager.

Display number

The display (or X Window server) number.

If this field is left blank the first unused display-number (i.e. server number) is automatically found and the server plus any client opened with it. Conventionally X servers have to be explicitly given a display-number or it always defaults to 0. If multiple X servers are to run simultaneously on a host, each must have a unique display-number. Hence why this automatic allocation feature can be useful, but it is only available via XLaunch as by itself Xming behaves conventionally. Note: automatic display-number allocation slows server start a little.

The phrase 'display' is usually used to refer to a collection of physical monitors (and screens, see below) that share a common keyboard and mouse.

-screen scr_num @m

No specific entry method is provided in XLaunch for the screen number, enable different screens (scr_num) on different physical monitors (@m) via the -screen parameter (i.e. put '-screen etc' in the field 'Additional parameters for Xming').

In X a multiple screen display may be implemented in several ways. There might be two physical monitors, linked to form a single display or two screens might be defined as different ways of using the same physical monitor. By default, windows are always placed on screen 0 (scr_num is 0) but you can place a client window on screen 1 etc by specifying the screen number in the -display option when starting the client, for example

xeyes -display :0.1

Client/Server?

On first glance the terms client and server in an X Window system appear backwards. Think of the server as the end providing the service. The service provided by X is access to the window, keyboard and mouse. On starting, the server creates a TCP end point and does a passive open on port 6000+n, where n is the display-number. When a client is started on another host, it creates a TCP end point and performs an active open to port 6000+n on the server. Each client gets its own TCP connection to the server

Authors

XLaunch was written by Alexander Gottwald and has been extensively upgraded and extended by Colin Harrison.

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