Can I use Remote Desktop to an XP Home machine?

[Neil Barras]

Hi,

My questions simple: Can I use Remote Desktop to access an XP Home SP2
machine?

If not, is there any free alternative?

Cheers,

Neil

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

Hi,

My questions simple: Can I use Remote Desktop to access an XP Home SP2
machine?
Nope.

If not, is there any free alternative?

See RealVNC or UltraVNC

 

[Guest]

Yes you can but you will probably have to use the IP address of the SP2
machine instead of the computer name.

 

[Bill Sanderson]

No he can't. The feature isn't included in XP Home, contrary to what one
may find in the help documentation, unfortunately.

 

[Neil Barras]

No he can't. The feature isn't included in XP Home, contrary to what one
may find in the help documentation, unfortunately.

Hey guys,

Thanks for the advice. I eventually went for UltraVNC as I have 5 comps (1x
Win 2KPro, 2x XPHome and 2x XP Pro) so the RDC on XP didn't access all of
them. I prefer U.VNC because it also has a built in file transfer which I
find easier than going downstairs to share the folder and then running back
up to grab it.

Cheers,

Neil

 

[Bill Sanderson]

File transfer is built-in to Remote Desktop, as well.

You need to enable it on the client end in Options, Local Resources, local
devices, disk drives.

Then, once connected, just open My Computer on the host to see the client
drives listed, and drag and drop or whatever. No explicit sharing
needed--it all goes through the RD protocol.

For use within a (reasonably) secure LAN, VNC is fine. The newer variants
at least add logging so you have some idea what use is being made of it, and
I believe you can add authentication. You can also add encryption, via a
plugin. I use it at home, as well, but only with 9.x machines. In work
settings, I use RD exclusively--I don't want the confidentiality issues VNC
leaves open.