Tip: Remotely Login to Windows XP Pro

Remote Assistance: No invitation required

Windows XP includes a Remote Assistance feature that allows you to help others, by seeing their desktop or even gaining control over the remote computer. Remote Assistance uses the same technology as Remote Desktop but with one major difference--Remote Assistance is invite only. This means that the remote user has to send you an invitation.

But sometimes you might not want to deal with invitations on your local network. You can also configure Windows XP to accept Remote Assistance sessions without special invitations by changing a setting in the Group Policy.


Once you configure this option, specified users will be able to offer you Remote Assistance without invitation. However, this doesn't mean they will be able to control your system without your permission. When they connect to your machine, you will receive a prompt asking for permission. If you deny permission, they will not be able to view or control your computer.

You know I have been wondering how to do this for when I am away!

Thanks!

dont u need a microsoft email account?

Musik - If I'm reading your post right, you might be more interested in remote desktop vs. remote assistance. I couldn't tell you how to connect to your personal computer, per se, but I do use it daily to connect to my server, and it's like sitting right in front of it.

Handy info for those on XP....

Personally, with having several operating systems across my network (Win2K on this machine, and several flavours of Linux), I prefer to use VNC.

I've been using this for about 5 years now, and it's a great piece of kit.

Control your Windows, Linux or Mac desktop from any Windows, Linux or Mac desktop (the OS on each end doesn't have to be the same), or through ANY platform, on ANY os that has Java support through a web browser (Yup, there's a client to control the desktop through a web browser).

It's a little slow & sluggish over dialup, and controling a windows desktop over cablemodem can be a little slow, but if you've got several machines on a LAN that you need to be able to control from a singel workstation, or you want to access a linux box graphically from a windows machine when you're out and about, it's a great piece of kit.

actually both ATNO - i have people remotely access my comp to help me with stuff a lot maybe this way will make it much easier for certain users to do so

OK -- I gotcha now. That wasn't clear from your first post.

dude if you love vnc then i guarantee you thast you will love this even better it is 10 times better than vnc, i personally was using vnc for the last 2 years, until last week.. this is called remote desktop, and it is better because instead of slow choppy graphics etc.. it is like the real thing (especialy in full screen!) i highly reccommend at least trying it once.

Remote Desktop is a new feature in Windows XP that allows you to control a remote computer and see the screen as if you were sitting behind that computer. Usually, you would use a special client application to connect to the remote computer. By default, Windows XP setup installs such an application: Remote Desktop Connection.

You can also access the remote computer without another application, using instead your Web browser. However, before you can do this, you must first install certain components on the remote computer. To do this:


Open Control Panel.

Open the Add/Remove Programs dialog box.

Click Add/Remove Windows Components.

Select Internet Information Services in the Windows Components Wizard and then click Details.

Select World Wide Web Service and click Details.

Make sure Remote Desktop Web Connection and World Wide Web Service are checked.

Click OK.

Click OK.

Click Next and follow the wizard to complete the installation.

After the setup installs all of the necessary files, you can access the remote computer by typing
http://<remote ip>/tsweb

in your Web browser. When you connect to the remote computer for the first time, the computer will download ActiveX components, which requires you to have administrative privileges on the local computer.

Thanks for the tips, but the problem is, I don't run XP

the "Handy info for those on XP...." comment was directed at your post, not that my info was in any way shape or form handy, lol.

My thing with VNC is that it's cross-platform.. With most of my machines at home being Linux (and having no monitors/keyboards/mice hooked up to 'em) it's great to be able to control them all here from a single windows machine - and sometimes it's nice to go graphical rather than SSH, heh.

I've used both as well, and I've got to agree on the quality of Remote Desktop. At work we use it to install, configure and maintain our server side stuff at our host and it is just like you are sitting in front that machine. I know it's not Open Source and all, but it is very slick.

Getcha an XP box Axe!!!

Oh hell no.. I had XP on my Athlon 900 for about 3hrs... It wouldn't run half the software I wanted, and only one out of 6 games actually ran... That was quite a while ago though, but since then I've heard of WAY too many people having total hard drive crashes and losing everything (way more than any other OS or other version of windows) which is something I can't afford to risk.

Ok, so you risk that with any PC, but why heighten the risk?

2K Pro has done me good for 4 years. It has some minor hardware/driver problems (the touch-sensitivity on my JAM Studio graphics pad plays up - although, it is just a $25 graphics tablet, heh, and my USB2 card reader reboots the PC if I remove the CF, then try to put in another, but I'll just use my '98SE box for that)..

When I eventually get a half-decent laptop, I'll have XP on that (but only because the manufacturers don't throw out drivers for them for any other operating systems these days), so I'll be using that for transferring photos from CF to PC, then just LAN 'em over to a real PC.

Or if you dont have XP you can just install WinVNC

That's what I been talkin' about, lol

Oh, didn't read the whole thread

hehe, don't worry about it, we've all done that