Windows 7 Remote Tools: Remote Desktop Connection

Andrew Cunningham | Nov 21, 2009 | Comments

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With computers as inexpensive as they are these days, it’s not uncommon for one person to have several of them – this is true in my case, at any rate. I have an HTPC that does double duty as a print server, and a test server for Wordpress experiments, but since it’s connected to my TV I can’t use it directly if someone else is watching a show or playing a video game.

Luckily, Microsoft includes some handy tools for computer administrators and hobbyists who can’t always be sitting right in front of the computer they need to work on – it’s called Remote Desktop Connection, and you’re about to learn the basics.

Remote Desktop Connection (RDC) should not be confused with Remote Assistance, another Windows tool that we’ll be covering later, or Virtual Network Computing (VNC) software, some of which is available for Windows and Linux as freeware – VNC also provides the backbone for Apple’s Remote Desktop protocol. RDC is a different, Windows-native technology with its own distinct set of benefits and disadvantages.

First, each Remote Desktop connection requires a host (the computer being connected to) and a client (the computer doing the connecting). Microsoft considers Remote Desktop hosting to be a more business-oriented feature, and as such only Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise and Ultimate editions can be used to host Remote Desktop sessions. Windows XP Professional and Windows Vista Business, Enterprise and Ultimate can also host Remote Desktop Connections. Anyone using a Home or Home Premium variant of Windows will need to resort to using the aforementioned VNC software to connect to computers remotely.

This is the most restrictive thing about RDC – nearly any version of Windows, including the Home versions and versions all the way back to Windows 95, can connect to a Remote Desktop-enabled host computer, and Microsoft even offers a version of the client software to Mac users. I frequently use this to support Windows users on my work MacBook.

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About the Author: Andrew Cunningham is a rarity - an IT professional with a liberal arts degree. Please don't hold that against him. When he's not supporting the faculty and staff of Kenyon College, he's writing about games, music and movies at his other blog, Charge Shot!!!

  • Omoronovo
    Fantastic post - You might want to add that on Windows 7, when you save a connection it gets stored in a jumplist for later one-click access to other computers. An absolute time saver, that alone makes w7 better than vista for those that manage multiple machines on a regular basis.
  • I have had a play around with remote desktop, but is it possible to shut the pc that you are connected to down remotely?
  • Omoronovo
    Yes, but you have to do it via the command line. By typing

    shutdown.exe -s -t 0

    you will shut the computer down safely, and immediately. If there are any hung programs, use

    shutdown.exe -f -s -t 0. You can replace the 0 with another time (in seconds) if you'd rather shut the computer down later. Lastly, you can replace the -s with -r to restart instead.
  • Geek
    Press Ctrl-Alt-End
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