How to enable VNC server on Raspbian Stretch with raspi-config

When you have a VNC server enabled on your Raspbian Stretch, you will be able to access your Raspberry Pi from another computer. Furthermore, you will be able to use your Raspberry Pi from a graphical user interface.

Therefore, if you want to enable SSH server on your Raspbian Stretch but is not really comfortable with a command line interface, a VNC server is what you should enable instead.

In such a situation, you can use raspi-config to enable VNC server on Raspbian Stretch. Let see how we can do so.

First, start a Terminal window by clicking on the highlighted icon at the top:

Raspbian Stretch 20181113 desktop with a terminal window

Once the terminal window had started, type the following command in the terminal window:

sudo raspi-config

Raspbian Stretch 20181113 terminal window with sudo raspi-config

After raspi-config loads in your terminal, go through the following screens to enable VNC server on Raspbian Stretch:

From the first menu screen, select Interfacing Options:

raspi-config on Raspbian Stretch 20181113 with Interfacing Options selected (without window frame)

Once the Interfacing Options menu screen appears, select VNC:
raspi-config on Raspbian Stretch 20181113 with VNC selected

When you had done so, raspi-config prompts whether to enable VNC. Choose Yes:
raspi-config on Raspbian Stretch 20181113 with Yes selected in prompt to enable VNC

Given that, raspi-config then show you that it had enabled VNC server on your Raspbian Stretch:
raspi-config on Raspbian Stretch 20181113 showing message that VNC server had been enabled

Finally, select Finish to end the configuration session:
Raspbian Stretch 20181113 raspi-config initial screen with Finish selected

With that, VNC server is now enabled on your Raspbian Stretch.

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Clivant a.k.a Chai Heng enjoys composing software and building systems to serve people. He owns techcoil.com and hopes that whatever he had written and built so far had benefited people. All views expressed belongs to him and are not representative of the company that he works/worked for.