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Do you often need access to your office network? If you're using Windows 7, chances are you're going to be using Remote Desktop to handle the connection. In this excerpt from David Pogue's Windows 7: The Missing Manual you'll learn to set up a host machine and make a connection.
The third remote-access option, Remote Desktop, offers some spectacular advantages. When you use Remote Desktop, you're not just tapping into your home computer's network—you're actually bringing its screen onto your screen. You can run its programs, print on its printers, "type" on its keyboard, move its cursor, manage its files, and so on, all by remote control.
Remote Desktop isn't useful only when you're trying to connect to the office or reach your home computer from the road; it even works over an office network. You can actually take control of another computer in the office—to troubleshoot a novice's PC without having to run up or down a flight of stairs, perhaps, or just to run a program that isn't on your own machine.
If you do decide to use Remote Desktop over the Internet, consider setting up a VPN connection first; using Remote Desktop over a VPN connection adds a nice layer of security to the connection. It also means that you become part of your home or office network—and you can therefore connect to the distant computer using its private network address or even its computer name.
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The computers on the receiving end of the connections require the Professional, Enterprise, or Ultimate editions of Windows 7. The laptop you're using can be running any edition.
In fact, it can be running any version of Windows all the way back to 95, and even Mac OS X or Linux. To install the Remote Desktop Connection client on Mac OS X or an older version of Windows, visit the Microsoft Download Center (www.microsoft.com/downloads/) and search for "Remote Desktop Connection." For Linux, get the free rdesktop program at www.rdesktop.org.
To get a PC ready for invasion—that is, to turn it into a host—proceed like this:
Choose Start→Control Panel→System and Security→System. Click the "Remote settings" link.
Authenticate yourself if needed (the section called “Authenticate Yourself: User Account Control”). The System Properties dialog opens to the Remote tab, as shown in Figure 27.4.
Figure 27.4. Turning on the "Allow connections" checkbox makes Windows listen to the network for Remote Desktop connections. Now you can specify who, exactly, is allowed to log in.
Turn on "Allow connections only from computers running Remote Desktop with Network Level Authentication (more secure)."
You've just turned on the master switch that lets outsiders connect to your machine and take it over.
Click Select Users.
The Remote Desktop Users dialog box appears. You certainly don't want teenage hackers to visit your precious PC from across the Internet, playing your games and reading your personal info. Fortunately, the Remote Desktop feature requires you to specify precisely who is allowed to connect.
(Optional) Click Add. In the resulting dialog box, type the names of the people who are allowed to access your PC using Remote Desktop.
This dialog box might seem familiar—it's exactly the same idea as the Select Users, Computers, or Groups dialog box shown on the section called “NTFS Permissions: Protecting Your Stuff”.
By default, local users with administrative privileges are automatically given access.
Choose your comrades carefully; remember that they'll be able to do anything to your system, by remote control, that you could do while sitting in front of it. (To ensure security, Windows insists that the accounts you're selecting here have passwords. Although you can add them to this list, password-free accounts can't connect.) Click OK.
Click OK twice to close the dialog boxes you opened.
The host computer is now ready for invasion. It's listening to the network for incoming connections from Remote Desktop clients.
When you're ready to try Remote Desktop, fire up your laptop, or whatever computer will be doing the remote connecting. Then:
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Connect to the VPN of the distant host computer (the section called “Virtual Private Networking”).
If the host computer is elsewhere on your local network—in the same building, that is—you can skip this step.
Choose Start→All Programs→Accessories→Remote Desktop Connection.
The Remote Desktop Connection dialog box appears.
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Click Options to expand the dialog box (if necessary). Fill it out as shown in Figure 27.5.
The idea is to specify the IP address or DNS name of the computer you're trying to reach. If it's on the same network, or if you're connected via a VPN, you can use its computer name instead.
Figure 27.5. Type in the IP address, registered DNS name, or local computer name of your host computer. When prompted, fill in your name and password (and domain, if necessary), exactly the way you would if you were logging onto it in person.
Click Connect.
Now a freaky thing happens: After a moment of pitch-blackness, the host computer's screen fills your own (Figure 27.6,). Don't be confused by the fact that all the open windows on the computer you're using have now disappeared. (Actually, they won't if you click the Display tab and choose a smaller-than-full-screen remote desktop size before you connect.)
Figure 27.6. The strange little bar at the top of your screen lets you minimize the distant computer's screen or turn it into a floating window. To hide this title bar, click the pushpin icon so that it turns horizontal. It slides into the top of the screen, out of your way, until you move the cursor to the top edge of the screen.
You can now operate the distant PC as though you were there in the flesh, using your own keyboard (or trackpad) and mouse. You can answer your email, make long-distance printouts, and so on. All the action—running programs, changing settings, and so on—is actually taking place on the faraway host computer.
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You can even shut down or restart the faraway machine by remote control. Open a Command Prompt and run the command shutdown/s. The computer will shut down in less than a minute.
Keep in mind a few other points:
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You don't need to feel completely blocked out of your own machine. The little title bar at the top of the screen offers you the chance to put the remote computer's screen into a floating window of its own, permitting you to see both your own screen and the home-base computer's screen simultaneously (Figure 27.7). You can return to full-screen mode by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Break.
Figure 27.7. By putting the other computer's screen into a window of its own, you save yourself a little bit of confusion. You can even minimize the remote computer's screen entirely, reducing it to a tab on your taskbar until you need it again.
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You can copy and paste highlighted text or graphics between the two machines (using regular Copy and Paste), and even transfer entire documents back and forth (using Copy and Paste on the desktop icons). Of course, if you've made both desktops visible simultaneously (Figure 27.7), you can move more quickly between local and remote.
Even Windows can't keep its mind focused on two people at once. If somebody is trying to use the host machine in person, you'll see a message to the effect that you're about to bump that person off the PC.
Similarly, if somebody tries to log on at the host computer while you're connected from the remote, you get unceremoniously dumped off. (You just get a message that tells you "Another user connected to the remote computer.") Fortunately, you don't lose work this way—your account remains logged on behind the scenes, just as in fast user switching. When you connect again later (after the interloper has signed off), you'll find all your programs and documents open exactly as you (or your interloper) left them.
Back at the host computer, nobody can see what you're doing. The standard Welcome screen appears on the remote PC, masking your activities.
When the Remote Desktop Connection window is maximized (that is, it fills your entire screen), all the standard Windows keyboard shortcuts operate on the host computer, not the one you're actually using. When you press the 
key, for example, you see the host computer's Start menu.
But when you turn the Remote Desktop Connection into a floating window that doesn't fill your entire screen, it's a different story. Now your current computer "hears" your keystrokes. Now, pressing opens your Start menu. So how, with the remote PC's screen in a window, are you supposed to operate it by remote control?
Microsoft has thought of everything. It's even given you alternatives for the key combinations you're accustomed to using. For example, suppose you've connected to your office PC using your laptop. When the Remote Desktop window isn't full-screen, pressing Alt+Tab switches to the next open program on the laptop—but pressing Alt+Page Up switches to the next program on the host computer.
Here's a summary of the special keys that operate the distant host computer—a table that can be useful if you're either an extreme power user or somebody who likes to win bar bets:
Standard Windows Key Combination | Function | |
|---|---|---|
Alt+Tab | Alt+Page Up | Switches to the next open program |
Alt+Shift+Tab | Alt+Page Down | Switches to the previous open program |
Alt+Esc | Alt+Insert | Cycles through programs in the order in which you open them |
Alt+Home | Opens the Start menu | |
Ctrl+Alt+Delete | Ctrl+Alt+End |
(Actually, you should use the alternative key combination for the Security dialog box whether the Remote Desktop window is maximized or not, because Ctrl+Alt+Delete is always interpreted by the computer you're currently using.)
To get out of Remote Desktop full-screen mode, click the Close box in the strange little title bar at the top of your screen, as shown in Figure 27.6, (if you're using the floating window, you can click the usual 
in the upper-right of the window). Or, from the Start menu, choose X. (Yes, X. This special button means "Disconnect," and when you're using Remote Desktop, it replaces the 
symbol at the bottom of the Start menu.)
Note, however, that this method leaves all your programs running and your documents open on the distant machine, exactly as though you had used fast user switching. If you log on again, either from the road or in person, you'll find all those programs and documents still on the screen, just as you left them.
If you'd rather log off in a more permanent way, closing all your distant documents and programs, choose Start→Log Off (from the other computer's Start menu, not yours).
Windows offers all kinds of settings for tailoring the way this bizarre, schizophrenic connection method works. The trick is, however, that you have to change them before you connect, using the tabs on the dialog box shown in Figure 27.8.
Here's what you find:
General tab. Here's where you can tell Windows to edit or delete credentials (user name and password) from your last login, or to save all the current settings as a shortcut icon, which makes it faster to reconnect later. (If you connect to a number of different distant computers, saving a setup for each one in this way can be a huge timesaver.)
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Display tab. Use these options to specify the size (resolution) of the host computer's display (see Figure 27.8).
Figure 27.8. Click the Options button if you don't see these tabs. Once you've made them appear, a few useful (and a lot of rarely useful) settings become available. On the Display tab (left), for example, you can effectively reduce the size of the other computer's screen so that it fits within your laptop's. On the Experience tab (right), you can turn off special-effect animations to speed up the connection.
Local Resources tab. Using these controls, you can set up local peripherals and add-ons so they behave as though they were connected to the computer you're using. This is also where you tell Windows which PC should "hear" keystrokes like Alt+Tab, and whether or not you want to hear sound effects played by the distant machine.
Programs tab. You can set up a certain program to run automatically as soon as you connect to the host machine.
Experience tab. Tell Windows the speed of your connection, so it can limit fancy visual effects like menu animation, the desktop wallpaper, and so on, to avoid slowing down the connection. The Desktop Composition option controls whether Remote Desktop uses Windows's Aero glass effects (if, in fact, your computer has the horsepower).
Advanced. You can control whether Remote Desktop Connection warns you if it can't verify the identity of a computer, and also whether to connect through a special gateway server (if you need to use one of these, your system administrator will tell you.)
Remote Networking vs. Remote Control
When you connect to a PC using direct dial or virtual private networking (VPN), you're simply joining the host's network from far away. When you try to open a Word document that's actually sitting on the distant PC, your laptop's copy of Word opens and loads the file. Your laptop is doing the actual word processing; the host just sends and receives files as needed.
Windows's Remote Desktop feature is a different animal. In this case, you're using your laptop to control the host computer. If you double-click that Word file on the host computer, you open the copy of Word on the host computer. All the word processing takes place on the distant machine; all that passes over the connection between the two computers is a series of keystrokes, mouse movements, and screen displays. The host is doing all the work. Your laptop is just peeking at the results.
Once you understand the differences between these technologies, you can make a more informed decision about which to use when. For example, suppose your PC at the office has a folder containing 100 megabytes of images you need to incorporate into a PowerPoint document. Using a remote networking connection means you'll have to wait for the files to be transmitted to your laptop before you can begin working—and if you've connected to the office machine using a dial-up modem, you'll be waiting, literally, for several days.
If you use a Remote Desktop connection, on the other hand, the files remain right where they are: on the host computer, which does all the processing. You see on your screen exactly what you would see if you were sitting at the office. When you drag and drop one of those images into your PowerPoint document, all the action is taking place on the PC at the other end.
Of course, if the computer doing the dialing is a brand-new Pentium 7 zillion-megahertz screamer, and the host system is a 5-year-old rustbucket on its last legs, you might actually prefer a remote network connection, so the faster machine can do most of the heavy work.
In early reviews, geeks raved about Windows 7. But if you're an ordinary mortal, learning what this new system is all about will be challenging. Fear not: David Pogue's Windows 7: The Missing Manual comes to the rescue. Like its predecessors, this book illuminates its subject with reader-friendly insight, plenty of wit, and hardnosed objectivity for beginners as well as veteran PC users.
