Windows XP: Remote access to the desktop

Our new series on Windows XP starts with how to access your desktop from a remote PC.

It's been several months since Microsoft unveiled its Windows XP operating system and, if you believe the marketing hype, many hundreds of thousands of us will have come to know and love it. That's why it's time for us to start looking at exactly what XP has to offer in a bit more detail.

With two implementations available, we'll begin with a look at some of the features that differentiate the business-oriented XP Professional from the Home Edition, which is targeted mainly at the consumer.

Some of the differences are obvious: there's no multiprocessor support for example, and more limited options when it comes to networking in the Home Edition.

Other differences, though, aren't so straightforward and require examples to illustrate what they have to offer. The first feature that we'll take a closer look at is Remote Desktop.

Enabling Remote Desktop

Microsoft is promoting Remote Desktop as a new feature and it is, at least for a desktop implementation of Windows.

However, if you've ever used Terminal Services to remotely manage a Windows 2000 server, then you'll find that it's remarkably similar. And that's not surprising, because Remote Desktop is an extended implementation of that technology.

Just like Terminal Services, Remote Desktop enables a user of an XP Professional PC to access that system remotely from another PC using special client software or via a web browser.

The usual Windows desktop is displayed at the client end of the link, making it possible to run programs and open documents just as if logging on locally at the remote PC.

So, if you regularly visit a branch office or need to travel around and you don't have a notebook PC, Remote Desktop could be worth looking at.

In addition, this option can be used by support staff for remote troubleshooting. In both cases, there's no need for the two systems to be directly linked; they just have to be connected via a network or over the internet.

There are two parts to Remote Desktop: a host (or server) and a client. The host must be running XP Professional and most of the software required will be loaded as part of the standard Windows installation; although it has to be enabled before you can use it.

To do this, you need to go to the Control Panel which, if you're new to XP, you'll find on the main Start menu. If this has been left in the default Category View mode, then you should click on Performance and Maintenance, and then double-click on the System icon.

If you've switched to the Classic View mode, then the System icon will be accessible directly. Either way, you should then select the tab marked Remote.

There are two remote options. The first is Remote Assistance which is used to enable a remote help desk operator or colleague to sort out problems with your PC and chat to you at the same time.

We'll look at that in a later instalment but, for the time being, we'll concentrate on the second option, which is clearly marked Remote Desktop.

To activate this, click on the tick box marked 'Allow users to connect remotely to this computer'. You'll then see a message which warns that user accounts must have passwords assigned to them.

Although you can ignore this message now, later on you'll find that you'll be prevented from logging on remotely using an account with a blank password, so be warned.

Firewall concerns

You're also advised that any personal firewall software might have to be modified to allow remote connections. The action required here will vary depending on the software involved but, if it's the Internet Connection Firewall that comes with XP, then it'll be quite easy for you to make the required changes.

Start by opening the Network Connections window. There are several ways of navigating to this, although one of the easiest is, again, via the Control Panel.

Once the Network Connections window is open, click the icon for the connection involved, followed by the entry marked 'Change settings of this connection'. Next, select the Advanced tab on the dialog displayed and, assuming that the firewall option is activated, click on the button marked Settings. If the firewall isn't activated, you don't have to make any changes.

You'll then be presented with a list of services that you might want users to access, one of which will be Remote Desktop. Put a tick in the box alongside and check the default settings in the dialog box that follows. Access to the service through the firewall will now be allowed.

User control

At this point, you might also want to specify exactly which users will be allowed to access Remote Desktop on the XP host. By default, the user account used to activate the Remote Desktop option will be enabled for access but, to add others, click on the button marked Select Remote Users.

Unfortunately, the list of possible users won't be made available immediately; instead, you have to click the Add button on the window displayed, followed by the button marked Advanced in the Select Users window this brings up.

To further complicate matters, no users will usually be listed here either, so click on Find Now. Those defined on the host system will now be displayed and you can choose from the list that's presented.

Alternatively, you can branch off and define new local user accounts for use with Remote Desktop. The standard Windows management utilities are used for this purpose and allow you to add passwords to the accounts if they're not already configured.

There's no need for you to log off or reboot the system in order to enable Remote Desktop. Once you've clicked on 'Allow users to connect remotely to this computer', and have specified exactly which users are allowed access, just keep clicking on OK until it takes you back to the Control Panel.

The remote client

Having activated Remote Desktop on the XP Professional host, you then have to install the client software on the system(s) that will be used to access it.

This can be done in two ways, one of which is to download the client from the Microsoft website here, which is useful if you're visiting another office and need to access your home system urgently.

The other is to install it using the XP installation disk. This is a quicker and easier process (assuming you have access to the disk) as the client is included on the CDRom that comes with both XP Professional and Home Edition.

Unlike the host component, which is only included with XP Professional, the client can be installed on either version of the operating system.

It can also be used with earlier versions of Windows including 98, NT 4.0 and 2000. To install it from the XP CDRom, all that's needed is to install the disk into the PC concerned and, from the Welcome to Microsoft Windows XP menu, select the option marked Perform Additional Tasks.

Next, simply click on 'Set up Remote Desktop Connection' and a set-up wizard will guide you through the remaining steps of installation.

Client installation takes just a few seconds and, as with the host software, there's no need to log off or reboot the PC involved. Finding the client can be difficult, though, as it doesn't appear to be added to the Start menu initially.

That's because it's nested in a couple of subfolders; typically, it can be found under Start - Accessories - Communications on a Windows 98 or 2000 PC.

On a local area network, you can connect straight away simply by typing in the name of the host system on the dialog presented. If you can't remember the host name, then it should be possible to browse the network although, every time we've tried it, we simply got a message telling us that no Terminal Server could be found, which was a little disappointing.

Furthermore, if connecting remotely, you'll first have to establish a link to the host system or its network, preferably using an encrypted virtual private network connection when not dialling into the system directly.

Using Remote Desktop

There's a number of different restrictions when it comes to making use of Remote Desktop, such as only being able to connect one user at a time.

This is because Windows XP is only licensed for use by one person at a time, whether it be local or remote, and woe betide anyone who tries to get round that restriction. For more information see 'Remember to activate', below.

As a result, any active local user will be disconnected for the duration of the remote session, although the desktop for the local user and any open applications/documents will be saved. Warning messages are displayed at both ends of the link if someone is using the local system.

In addition, confirmation is needed before the local user is disconnected in order to stop remote users taking control of any system they want. However, that could be an issue if you've left yourself logged on at an unattended system and then want to use it remotely.

Fortunately, if you use the same account for the remote connection, no local confirmation is required and no warnings are displayed.

Another bonus is that the remote session isn't mirrored onto the local display, which stops anyone eavesdropping on what you're doing.

What you see with Remote Desktop is effectively the same as when logging on locally, although there are options in the client that can modify the remote experience.

For instance, it's possible to display the Remote Desktop in a window or full screen. You can also select the resolution to use for the display and tweak the software to minimise the amount of information that needs to be transferred when using a low-bandwidth connection.

Click on the Options button when the client first starts and choose the Experience tab to change these options. Here you can select the expected connection speed and opt to do things such as filter out desktop backgrounds and cache bitmaps, which will enhance your performance wherever throughput is limited.

Other options include the ability to run a program as soon as the session starts and to make devices on the client appear as though they were on the remote system.

Printers accessible to the client system are automatically available so, if you opt to print a remote document, you don't have to wait until you get back to the office in order to retrieve the output.

Peripheral devices attached to the serial ports can also be treated in this way, as can local disk drives.

This final option makes it possible to transfer data between the local and remote systems simply by copying files from one disk to another on the Remote Desktop.

Of course, the transfer will be much slower than with a normal disk copy, depending on the speed of the communication link between the two PCs. It's also potentially unsafe, and a warning message is displayed when this option is selected.

Finally, it's possible to specify the user account and password to be used in advance for the remote session and to save all the details in a file on the client PC for later use.

Remote Desktop doesn't end there, though. Installing and using the custom client is very easy, but can be a chore and sometimes the source software simply isn't available or you're not allowed to install it on the local PC.

Equally, you might want to access your desktop from a non-Windows system, in which case, the good news is that it's also possible to connect from a browser.

With that said, extra configuration work is required at the host end involving the installation of the supporting Internet Information Server (IIS) software, plus an ActiveX control and a collection of HTML pages. Together these are known as the Remote Desktop Web Connection.

Browser access

To configure the Web Connection, you'll need to go back to the Control Panel on the XP Professional host and double-click the icon marked Add or Remove Programs.

When this applet starts, click on Add/Remove Windows Components and a list will be displayed where you'll find an entry marked Internet Information Services.

Click on this and hit the Details button to bring up a list of sub-components, from which you need to select the World Wide Web Service. Click on Details again and, from the final list shown, select Remote Desktop Web Connection.

The necessary supporting IIS files (effectively just the World Wide Web Service) will also be selected when you do this. By clicking on OK to get back, a wizard will start to install the necessary software.

The XP Professional CDRom, or access to the administrative share used to install XP, will be required to install the Remote Desktop Web Connection, although the system doesn't need rebooting.

Behind the scenes, a local IIS web server will be installed, as well as a folder called /tsweb, which contains the ActiveX controls as well as other components created under the default website, just as with the Terminal Services Web software for Windows 2000 Server.

To check on this and manage access to the /tsweb folder, go back again to the Control Panel, double-click on Administrative Tools, then on Internet Information Services. The Microsoft Management Console will then start with the snap-in required to manage the IIS software.

Open the folder hierarchy for the local computer and you should find the /tsweb folder under the Default Web Site entry. Right-click on the folder and select Properties, then click on the Directory Security Tab, followed by the Edit button.

By default, you should find that anonymous access to the /tsweb directory is enabled. This isn't a security breach, as a valid user account name and password is still required to gain access to the desktop on the remote system.

However, no authentication is required to get to the initial Remote Desktop Web Connection menu. If you want to apply additional security, then you can disable the anonymous access and specify the type of authentication required.

However, bear in mind that remote users will then be required to identify themselves twice to access the Remote Desktop facilities.

The browser client

No extra software or special set-up is required at the client end of the link, just a browser that supports ActiveX and an IP-enabled local area network or internet connection between the client and remote host.

The URL that you'll need to type in will depend on whether Domain Name Server and Windows Internet Naming Service are configured although, in most cases, you can simply type in the IP address of the Remote Desktop host followed by /tsweb.

As with the custom client software, the web interface only allows one active user to be connected to the host system at any one time. If someone is already logged on at the remote end, then the same error messages will be displayed, unless the same account is being used in both cases.

There are similar options that will show the desktop in a window, zoom it up to fill the screen and adjust the display resolution.

There are some things you can't do from a browser, though, which are possible with the client software. For example, there are no facilities to tune the connection to suit the bandwidth available and you can't share local resources on the remote desktop, as you can with the custom client software.

Such restrictions aside, the Remote Desktop Web Connection is just as usable as the custom client, while Remote Desktop as a whole is a useful feature that's worth investigating if you want or need remote access to an XP Professional system.

REMEMBER TO ACTIVATE

Windows Product Activation is Microsoft's anti-piracy technology, which was introduced first for Office XP and is now a key part of Windows XP. Anyone who buys an off-the-shelf, rather than mass-licensed, copy of XP has to go through the procedure which, to be fair, is very quick and painless.

However, if the activation goes wrong dire consequences can result, so it's worth doing it sooner rather than later.

With Windows XP, you get a month's grace in which the operating system offers full functionality. When that period is up, or if major changes are made to the system configuration, then you'll find yourself completely locked out and unable to log on even as the administrator.

The normal start-up screen displays but, when you try to log on, the following warning message appears: 'This copy of Windows must be activated with Microsoft before you can log on. Do you want to activate Windows now? Yes/No'.

Answer 'Yes' and you're taken to the activation wizard and allowed full access once the required code has been obtained. Answer 'No' and you're returned to the logon display.

This is fair enough if it's a first-time activation and you've simply forgotten to do it in the allotted time. All you have to do is follow the instructions.

However, it's far from wonderful if something has gone wrong or if you're at the end of the grace period and there's a problem with the activation procedure.

The system will then become totally unusable: you won't even be allowed limited access to data files and documents, which is provided by Office XP in similar circumstances.

Moreover, if you've opted for New Technology File System formatted disks, you can't even boot from DOS and copy or backup your files that way, at least not without having prepared for the eventuality in advance.

So be warned: activate Windows XP well before you get to the end of the grace period. And it's now even more important to take back-ups of documents and data files just in case you're locked out.