Setting Up Remote Desktop on the Remote Computer

Windows XP Professional comes with Remote Desktop already installed. However, it must be enabled before it can be used. The following procedure outlines the steps involved in configuring Remote Desktop on the remote Windows XP Professional computer.

1. Click on Start, right-click on My Computer, and then select Properties. The System Properties dialog appears.
2. Select the Remote property sheet.
3. Select Allow users to connect remotely to this computer.
4. Click on OK.
5. Leave the computer running but lock it by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Delete and selecting the Lock Computer option on the Task Manager's Shutdown menu.

By default, only individuals with an administrative account on the remote computer are permitted to establish a Remote Desktop session with the computer. Other users can be given this capability by adding them to the Remote Desktop Users group. There are two ways to do this. One is to access the Users and Groups extension on the Computer Management console to manually add user accounts to the group. The other way is to add a user account by clicking on the Select Remote Users button on the System Properties dialog's Remote property sheet, as described in the following procedure.

1. Open the System Properties dialog and select the Remote property sheet.
2. Click on Select Remote Users. The Remote Desktop Users dialog appears.
3. Click on Add. The Select Users dialog appears.
4. Click on Advanced.
5. Click on Find Now.
6. Select a user account and click on OK four times to close all open dialogs. The specified user account is automatically added to the Remote Desktop Users group.
7. If a pop-up message appears warning that some user accounts might not have passwords and that the correct port must be opened in order to allow Remote Desktop traffic through any firewalls that may reside between the local and remote computer, click on OK. If necessary, assign an initial password to all user accounts, set each account to require the user to change his or her password at the next login, and contact each user to give out temporarily assigned passwords. Also, if routers or firewalls reside between the two computers, check with the network administrator to ensure that port 3389 is open.

Note To learn how to administer user and group accounts using the Computer Management console's Users and Groups extension.