What configuration should I have to use remote desktop?
- Remote computer should support remote desktop server feature. Not all windows editions support Remote desktop feature. On Windows 7 it’s supported only on Professional, Ultimate and enterprise editions. Home Basic and Home premium editions does not support remote desktop server.
- Terminal services (TS) service must be running on the remote machine.
- You need to enable remote desktop on the remote machine.
How to use remote desktop
Execute the command mstsc from Run window. This will open Remote desktop client user interface. Exapnd the window by clicking on ‘Options‘ button.
You need to specify host name, user login id and password details to connect to the remote PC.
Should I run terminal services service on my PC to do remote desktop connection to another PC?
No, You do not need to. Terminal services service is the server component of Remote desktop feature. To connect to another computer from your PC you just need to have the client component i.e(mstsc). Running Terminal services enables other computers to connect to your PC.
How to find the version of remote desktop client on my PC?
Open remote desktop client by running mstsc from Run window. Do a left click or right click on the mini computer icon on the left top corner of the remote desktop connection window. Now you will see a menu like below. Click on About and it will show you a window with version information.
The default version of remote desktop on Windows XP is 6.0. If you have Windows 7 then you have Remote desktop client 7.0
How to find the version of terminal services(remote desktop server)?
Open registry editor and navigate to the path HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlTerminal Server. The registry value ProductVersion has terminal services version number.
Or you can run the below command from command prompt to know the version number.
reg query "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlTerminal Server" /v ProductVersion
I have Windows XP on my computer. Can I install Remote desktop client 7.0 on my machine?
Surely. You can download remote desktop client 7.0 for Windows XP from the microsft download page: RDP 7.0 client for Windows XP. This requires to have Service Pack 3 on the XP PC. If you have not yet upgraded to SP3, you can install it from this link: XP Service Pack 3 package
Can I stop or disable terminal services service if none needs to connect to my computer from another PC?
If you do not need to connect to your PC remotely then you can go ahead and disable terminal services. There is no other use of this service except serving remote desktop connections.
Can every user of the computer have permission to do remote desktop to a computer?
Administrators by default have remote desktop access. Other users need to be added explicitly in Remote tab window in system properties using the ‘Select Remote users‘ button.
Terminal Services is missing on my Windows 7 computer..
On Windows 7 terminal services is renamed as remote desktop services. If you don’t see remote desktop services in the services list then you are running one of the unsupported editions i.e Windows 7 starter, Windows 7 Home basic or Windows 7 home premium. On these editions remote desktop server is not supported.
If you have any other questions to ask, please write in the comments section below.
How to disallow users from saving their passwords in remote desktop client(mstsc)?
In the domain group policy settings, enable the setting ‘Do not allow passwords to be saved‘. This setting can be found under the node ‘User configuration -> Administrative templates -> Windows components -> Terminal services -> Client‘.
‘Remember my password’ check button is missing in remote desktop connection window. Why?
This is because of the group policy setting described above. When this GP is enforced users won’t see the check button ‘Remember my password‘.
How to enable remote desktop from command prompt or from batch file?
Read Enable Remote desktop from Windows command line
How to delete the history of the computers I connected to using remote desktop?
Read Clear remote desktop connections history
Can I connect to a XP home system using remote desktop?
No, you can’t. XP Home edition does not support remote desktop server feature. However, you can use XP home as host PC and connect to another PC that has remote desktop server/terminal service running.
How to enable remote desktop using registry settings?
You can enable remote desktop by setting the following registry value to 0.
fDenyTSConnections under the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlTerminal Server
To disable remote desktop set the above registry value to 1.
I am using Windows XP..I see that the stop button for the terminal services is disabled in services console..Why is it so?