Connecting to Another Computer with Remote Desktop (part 3) - Using a Remote Desktop Connection

3. Using a Remote Desktop Connection

If you've enabled incoming remote connections on your PC at home or in the office and verified that your network and firewall have the welcome mat out (for visitors with suitable credentials only, of course), you're ready to begin using Remote Desktop Connection. In the Start menu search box, type remote and then click Remote Desktop Connection. A dialog box like the one shown in Figure 1 appears. In the Computer box, type the name of the remote computer or its IP address.

Note:

After a successful connection to a remote desktop, the name of the remote computer is added to the drop-down list in the Computer box. Thereafter, you can simply select it from the list (if it isn't already selected) instead of typing the name each time.

In addition, if Remote Desktop Connection is pinned to your taskbar or Start menu (or if it's in the Start menu's recently used list), the name of each computer to which you've successfully connected appears on the Jump List. By using the Jump List and saved logon credentials, you can bypass this dialog box completely.

If you're willing to accept the default settings (about which we'll go into great detail later in this section), you can click Connect at this point. Here's what happens next.

Are both your client computer and the remote computer running Windows 7, Windows Vista, or Windows Server 2008? In that case, your connection uses Network Level Authentication and displays the Windows Security dialog box shown here. After you enter your credentials and they're approved, Windows initiates the Remote Desktop Connection.

When you connect to a computer running Remote Desktop on an older version of Windows (such as Windows XP or Windows Server 2003), the procedure is different. Windows opens a Remote Desktop window (or switches to full screen) and initiates a session to the remote computer, changes the background of the Remote Desktop Connection window to match the settings on the remote machine, and then displays a logon dialog box. When you enter approved credentials, you're given access to your desktop.

If the account you used for the remote connection is already logged on to the remote computer—or if no one is logged on to the remote computer—the remote computer's desktop appears on your computer, either in a window or a full-screen display.

If a different user account is logged on to the remote computer, Windows lets you know that you'll be forcing that person to log off and gives you a chance to cancel the connection. On the other end, the logged-on user sees a similar notification that offers a short time to reject the remote connection before it takes over. It's important to note that only one user at a time can control the desktop of a computer running Windows. Whoever is currently logged on has the final say on whether someone else can log on.

While you're connected to the remote computer, the local display (if it's turned on) does not show what you see on the client computer, but instead shows the Welcome screen. A person who has physical access to the remote computer can't see what you're doing (other than the fact that you are logged on remotely).

3.1. Changing Screen Resolutions and Display Settings

When you connect to a remote computer using Remote Desktop Connection, the remote computer takes over your entire screen. It uses the resolution of the client computer, regardless of the resolution set on the remote computer. Along the top of the screen, in the center, a small title bar appears. This title bar lets you switch between your own desktop and the remote desktop. The Minimize, Maximize, and Restore buttons work as they do in other programs.

The Pushpin button locks the title bar in place. If you click the pushpin, the title bar disappears completely, retracting into the top of the screen. To make the title bar reappear, "bump" the mouse pointer to the top edge of the screen. To keep the title bar visible at all times, click the pushpin again. The Close button disconnects the remote computer (but does not log you off the remote computer) and closes Remote Desktop Connection. You can pick up where you left off by reopening Remote Desktop Connection and reconnecting or by logging on locally at the remote computer.

You might prefer to use less than your full screen resolution for the remote desktop. (This option is especially useful if you have a large monitor and the work you want with Remote Desktop is just another task among several.) You must set the resolution—along with a number of other options—before you connect to the remote computer. After you start Remote Desktop Connection, click the Options button (shown in Figure 18-11) to expand the dialog box. Then click the Display tab, which is shown in Figure 2. You can set the screen resolution to any size that is supported on the client hardware, from 640 by 480 up to the current resolution of the client computer (not the remote computer). Set it to full screen by moving the slider all the way to the right.

If you have a multimonitor setup at your local computer, you might be excited to learn that Remote Desktop allows the use of multiple monitors. To configure the connection for use with more than one monitor, select Use All My Monitors For The Remote Session.

3.2. Accessing Local Resources

While you use Remote Desktop Connection, it's immediately apparent that you have control of the remote computer. You see its desktop, Start menu, and so on. That's terrific if the remote computer has everything you need. But you'll often want to use local resources and information from the client computer as well as from the remote computer. In addition, you might want to move information between the two computers. With Remote Desktop Connection, you can do so easily by clicking the Options button to expand the Remote Desktop Connection dialog box to its full size, and then adjusting any of the options on the Local Resources tab, shown in Figure 3.

The following options are available:

• Remote Audio If your music collection is on the remote PC and you want some tunes at your current location, click Settings and select Play On This Computer. If you want both computers to be silent, choose Do Not Play. After clicking Settings, you can also tell Remote Desktop Connection whether to pay attention to the microphone (or other audio input) on the client computer.

• Keyboard When you press a Windows keyboard shortcut such as Alt+Tab, do you want to treat the Remote Desktop session as a window on the client computer, or do you want the remote session to handle your keyboard shortcuts?

• Printers When this option is selected, your local printers appear in the remote computer's Printers folder. Their entries have "(from clientcomputername)" appended to each printer name. To print to a local printer, select its name in the Print dialog box from any application.

• Clipboard When you copy or cut text or graphics on either the remote computer or the local computer, it's saved on the Clipboard in both locations. The Clipboard contents are then available for pasting in documents on either computer. Similarly, you can cut or copy files or folders from a Windows Explorer window on either computer and paste them into a folder on the other computer. Clear this option if you want to keep the contents of the two Clipboards separate.

The More button leads to additional devices in the Local Devices And Resources category. Smart cards are automatically enabled, and serial ports are disabled by default. Local drives and Plug and Play devices are also disabled by default. They can be enabled individually in this dialog box, as shown in Figure 4. These options are most useful if you're expecting to do most or all of your work with the Remote Desktop session in full-screen view and you don't want to continually flip back to your local desktop for file management tasks.

3.3. Using the Keyboard with Remote Desktop Connection

When the Remote Desktop Connection window is active, almost every key you press is passed to the remote computer. Certain key combinations, however, can be processed by the client computer, depending on the setting you make in the Keyboard section of the Local Resources tab of the Remote Desktop Connection dialog box (shown in Figure 3). You can specify that the key combinations shown in the first column of Table 1 are sent to the remote computer all the time, only when the remote desktop is displayed in fullscreen mode, or never.

If you select On This Computer, key combinations from the first column of Table 1 are always applied to the client computer. To get the equivalent function on the remote computer, press the key combination shown in the second column. The same is true if you select Only When Using The Full Screen and the remote session is displayed in a window.

If you select On The Remote Computer, key combinations from the first column are applied to the remote computer. Key combinations in the second column are ignored (unless they have some function in the active application on the remote desktop). The same is true if you select Only When Using The Full Screen and the remote session is displayed in fullscreen mode. One exception is the Ctrl+Alt+Delete combination, which is always applied to the client computer. Regardless of your Local Resources tab setting, you must press Ctrl+Alt+End to obtain the same result on the remote computer. As an alternative, in the remote session open the Start menu and choose Windows Security.