Remote Desktop

If you were to look up “amazing” in the dictionary, you would find a picture of this icon.  Simply put, Remote Desktop allows you to get to the stuff from anywhere in the world.  By “stuff” I mean your files, your programs, and even printers.  That’s because Remote Desktop, a program included in all editions of Windows XP and Vista, gives you remote access to your computer’s screen.  It isn’t some cheap stream of what’s on your screen like what logmein.com provides.  No, Remote Desktop is deeply integrated into the OS to provide a responsive interface.  Sometimes I forget that I’m even using a computer that is miles away!

There are a few caveats to Remote Desktop, though.  For one thing, while all editions of Windows XP and Windows Vista have Remote Desktop built in, only the “elite” versions have the ability to allow to be connected to.  That means that if you want to connect to your desktop computer at home, it better have Windows XP Professional, Windows XP Media Center and Tablet Editions, Windows Vista Home Premium, or Windows Vista Business installed on it.  Reasonably so.  Setting up Remote Desktop is not for the faint hearted, certainly not for someone who uses a computer with Windows Vista Home Basic on it, anyway.  Getting Remote Desktop up and running around a home network is easy enough, but the hard part is getting it accessible to the world.  This is because of limitations in networking technology.

Nevertheless, once Remote Desktop is set up, it can be as easy as double-clicking an icon at your work or school computer to gain access to your home computer.

A while back I made a video showing how to set up Remote Desktop, so I think I’ll put it in here.

Demos, Tutorials, Videos
Remote Desktop, Windows Vista
17 December 2007 comment TrackBack-URI