|
Windows XP Remote Desktop, Part 2: Configuring
and Using the Client System Wednesday,
November 28, 2001 By Greg Shultz (This article was originally published on the 8wire Web
site and is reprinted on TheWinWiz
with permission.) In Part 1 of
this series, I introduced you to Remote Desktop and explained how to use it to
gain full access to your office system from home. In this article, I’ll show
you how to configure your home system to act as a Remote Desktop client. I’ll
then show you how to use Remote Desktop to connect to your office system. Getting Started
Configuring
the Windows XP system that will be acting as the client is a bit more detailed
than configuring your office system to be a remote host. In fact, configuring
the client system is where most of the power of the Remote Desktop feature is
found. Let’s take a closer look. To get
started, you’ll need to access the Remote Desktop Connection component, which
is buried in the All Programs | Accessories | Communications menu. Once you
launch the Remote Desktop Connection component, you’ll immediately see the
logon dialog box (shown at the top of Figure 1). However, to configure the settings
for the Remote Desktop Connection, you’ll click the Options button. When you
do, the dialog box expands to provide you with access to the settings, as shown
in Figure 1.
General settings
At the top of
the General tab, you’ll enter the name or IP address of your office computer.
You’ll then need to enter your user name if it is different on your home system
than it is on your office system. As I mentioned in Part 1, you’ll probably
want to leave the Password text box blank to prevent unauthorized users from
using your home system to connect to your office system. Of course, you’ll also
want to leave the Save My Password check box blank. This will mean that you’ll
see a regular Log On To Windows dialog box when you connect to your office
system and will have to manually log on before you can gain access to the
system. In the Domain
text box, you’ll type the domain name of the office network. If you’re running
a workgroup at the office, you can leave this text box blank. At this
point, we’ll bypass the Connections Settings panel at the bottom on the General
tab and move on to the Display tab, shown in Figure 2.
Display settings
As you can
see, you can select how large you want the remote system’s screen to appear on
your client system as well as how many colors you want to use. By default, the
Remote Desktop Size setting is set to Full Screen. If you want to be able to
see your client desktop as well as the remote desktop you can use a smaller
Remote Desktop Size setting. However, keep in mind that Remote Desktop is
automatically configured to display the Connection Bar when you use the Full
Screen setting. (Notice the check box at the bottom of the Display tab.) The
Connection Bar is a small toolbar that appears at the top of the screen when
you use Remote Desktop and allows you to easily switch between client and
remote desktops. As far as the
Colors settings go, I recommend that you use the same setting here as you’re
using on the remote system. If you select a higher setting, it will drop back
anyway. Now, keep in mind that if you’re connecting to your office system over
a low bandwidth connection, you’ll get more responsive control if you use a
lower color setting. Local Resources settings
On the Local
Resources tab, as shown in Figure 3, you can choose which resources from the
remote system you want to reroute to the client system.
In the Remote
Computer Sound section, the default setting brings the sounds generated on the
remote system to the client system.
This setting is fine if you’re connecting via a high bandwidth
connection. However, if you’re connecting across a low bandwidth connection,
you’ll want to choose either the Do Not Play or the Leave At Remote Computer
setting. In the
Keyboard panel, you can specify how you want the special Windows shortcut
keystrokes, such as Alt-TAB, to be interpreted. As you can see the default
setting only allows them to be applied to the remote system in full screen
more. However, you can choose to have them only apply to the remote system or
to only apply to the client system. Keep in mind that the [Windows] key
operates normally in both the remote and client windows depending on which
window has the focus. The Local
Devices panel, in which all the check boxes are selected by default, provides
control over device rerouting. When the Disk Drives check box is selected, the
disk drives from your client system will appear in the remote system’s Windows
Explorer as Driveletter on Computer. This makes it easy to transfer files back
and forth between the two systems while you’re working on the remote system. The Printers
and Serial Ports check boxes automatically reroute these ports from the remote
system to your client system. For example, you launch an application on your
remote system and then choose the Print command; the output will appear on your
home printer rather than your office printer. Programs settings
You can think
of the Programs tab, shown in Figure 4, as a remote startup folder. Here you
can specify the name of an application on the remote system that you want to
automatically launch when you establish a connection to the remote system. You
can even specify a specific folder in which you want the application to launch.
To do so, you need to know the exact path and name of the application’s
executable file.
Experience settings
The settings that
you’ll find on the Experience tab, shown in Figure 5, allow you to choose your
connection speed and then choose to enable or disable certain graphical
enhancement settings that may take a heavy toll on bandwidth. There are four
connection speed settings on the drop down list and each setting has a
corresponding default set of graphical enhancement settings. However, you can
pick and choose the settings you feel you need and your bandwidth can support.
The Desktop
Background check box allows the remote system’s desktop wallpaper to appear on
your remote desktop. Desktop wallpaper will hog a lot of bandwidth and only
makes sense for LAN connections. When the Desktop Background check box is
unchecked, Remote Desktop displays a blank desktop using the default background
color. The next two
check boxes allow animation special effects settings to be used during a remote
session. If you have a high-speed
connection, you can leave these settings enabled. However, both of these
settings will add unnecessary drag to your connection, so you may want to turn
them off to enhance performance even if you have a high-speed connection. If your
office system is using Desktop Themes, you can opt to have them appear in a
Remote Desktop session. However,
transmitting all the graphics associated with a Desktop Theme will definitely
add unnecessary drag to your connection, so you may want to turn it off. Now, the last
setting on the Experience tab, Bitmap Caching, allows a Remote Desktop session
to cache certain graphical screen elements to reduce the amount of data that
must be transferred in order to display the remote system’s screen on your
client system. This will help with some of the graphical enhancement settings
mentioned above, but may not provide significant enough improvement to warrant
using the graphical enhancements in low to medium bandwidth situations. Saving your settings
At this
point, you’ll want to return to the General tab. Click the Save As button
on the Connection Settings panel and save your configuration choices. When you
do, Windows XP creates a Remote Desktop folder inside the My Documents folder
and saves your settings file with an RDP extension. Saving your
Remote Desktop connection configurations makes it easy to connect the next time
you want to establish a Remote Desktop connection - you can use the Open
command and select your pre-configured RDP file. Making the Connection
Once you’ve
configured your client system, connecting to the remote host system is a snap.
To begin, you’ll need to connect to your office network via a dial-up remote
access server (RAS) or a virtual private network (VPN) connection. Once you
establish a connection to your office network, click the Connect button. If
you’ve enabled the sharing of Disk Drives and Serial Ports on the Local
Resources tab, you’ll immediately see a security message warning you that
sharing these devices may be pose a security risk. However, since Remote
Desktop uses 128-bit encryption to protect data sent back and forth between the
client and remote host, this shouldn’t be a major concern. To continue, click
OK. When you do,
you’ll see the Log On to Windows dialog box from the remote host. To continue,
just type in your user name and password and click OK. You’ll then be logged on
to your office system. Working in a Remote Session
Once you’re
connected to the remote system you can work on it just as if you were sitting
at the keyboard. If you opted to use the Full Screen setting in the Display
tab, you’ll see the Connection Bar at the top of the screen. This small toolbar
displays the name of the host system and provides three standard windows
management buttons - minimize, restore down, and close. If you click the
minimize button, the Remote Desktop display minimizes and you can see the
desktop on your client system. Clicking the restore down button puts the Remote
Desktop display in a window so that you can view both the remote and client
desktops. If you click
the close button, you’ll be prompted to disconnect from the remote system. You
can also disconnect from the remote system by clicking the Start button and
choosing the Disconnect button, which takes the place of the Shut Down button. It’s
important to understand that disconnecting is not the same as logging off the
computer. When you disconnect, any applications you have open on the screen
will still be running on the remote system. This means that you can reconnect
at a later time and pick up where you left off. It also means that you can pick
up where you left off when you return to the office and log on to the system. If you really
want to log off the system, make sure you’re in the Remote Desktop session
window, click the Start button, and choose the Log Off button. Doing so will
have the same effect as logging off your system normally. This is the most
secure way of ending a Remote Desktop session. As you can see, once you have everything configured properly, using Windows XP’s Remote Desktop feature to access your office system from your home system is relatively easy.
|
