Remote Desktop Connection

Even though you can accomplish a wide variety of tasks at your computer, sometimes you'll want to do something on other computers on your network. Sometimes, you'll just want to modify files that are found on the other computer via shared folders, while other times you will need to actually launch and run applications on that computer. Remote Desktop Connection allows you to do this.

Microsoft has invested time creating Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP), which defines how to send key strokes and mouse movements across a network from one computer to another computer, and how to have what is displayed on the screen of a computer sent to another computer. Using these mechanisms, you are able to remotely use another computer on your network, as if you were sitting in front of that computer.

Remote Desktop Connection allows you to connect across a network to another computer and remotely take over the desktop or console by communicating with it using the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP). From a computer running Remote Desktop Connection, you can connect to a Virtual Desktop on a server running Windows 2000 Server or Windows Server 2003, both of which can support hundreds of remote users simultaneously, or you can connect to the desktop of a Windows XP Professional computer. In either case, this allows you to run applications on the remote computer as if you were sitting at the computer. Your computer passes mouse movements and keystrokes up to the remote computer, and you see virtual screen shots of what is happening on the remote computer screen. These are virtual screen shots because what you are seeing does not appear on the remote computer. You will find Remote Desktop Connection in the Start menu under All Programs → Accessories → Communications, or you can launch it from the Run command by typing mstsc.exe.

Remote Desktop Connection, through RDP, is a great tool for remotely troubleshooting a variety of problems because it can give you control of a computer on a remote network as if you were sitting right in front of it.