Finding Remote Desktop

[John McGaw]

HP notebook with Vista Home Premium with all current patches. I'm trying to
turn on remote desktop so that I can access the machine from my desktop
machine but following the help instructions gets me nowhere. The closest I
can get is "remote assistance" but that isn't what I want. Where am I going
wrong?

 

[Dave]

You can't.
The Home versions do not have the remote Desktop server, it has the client
only.
You can use Home Premium to connect to other computers, but not vice-versa.

You might try Teamviewer or one of the VNC's as an alternative.

 

[John McGaw]

You can't.
The Home versions do not have the remote Desktop server, it has the
client only.
You can use Home Premium to connect to other computers, but not vice-versa.

You might try Teamviewer or one of the VNC's as an alternative.

HP notebook with Vista Home Premium with all current patches. I'm
trying to turn on remote desktop so that I can access the machine from
my desktop machine but following the help instructions gets me
nowhere. The closest I can get is "remote assistance" but that isn't
what I want. Where am I going wrong?

Damn! I was afraid it might be something like that. It is hard to
understand why MS was so ruthless about crippling their OS by leaving out
useful bits. And I don't just mean bits for "professional" users -- I am
definitely a "home" user and having remote desktop on all of my machines
would eliminate a lot of running up and down stairs to do fiddly little
things with that single accursed Vista machine.

And it would have been useful if MS had actually documented this lack in
Vista's own help system instead of steering users through pointless steps
that lead nowhere.

Thanks for the information.

 

[Shenan Stanley]

Damn! I was afraid it might be something like that. It is hard to

understand why MS was so ruthless about crippling their OS by
leaving out useful bits. And I don't just mean bits for
"professional" users -- I am definitely a "home" user and having
remote desktop on all of my machines would eliminate a lot of
running up and down stairs to do fiddly little things with that
single accursed Vista machine.
And it would have been useful if MS had actually documented this
lack in Vista's own help system instead of steering users through
pointless steps that lead nowhere.

Thanks for the information.

Hmmm... First - I wouldn't say it was crippled. It is well documented that
the *home* versions of Windows XP/Vista/7 do not have "Remote Desktop"
capabilities - meaning you cannot connect to them remotely in a native
fashion (although they have the client so you can connect to machines with
the capability.) Perhaps it should be in the help someplace - but you'd
think when you start to follow the directions to enable it and don't have
those options - it would become clear. ;-)

TeamViewer is probably your easiest option. VNC (UltraVNC would be my
recommendation) is also a good choice. Both are free for personal use.

For teamviewer - either install the full version on each (if you might be at
any one of your computers and want to get to any of the others randomly) or
install the full version on the one you will be remoting from and the HOST
version on the one(s) you will be remoting to. Make note of the numbers and
assign passwords and allow all users to logon remotely. You can sign up for
a free account with TeamViewer to keep the numbers there.

For VNC - install the server on each, put the client someplace you can get
to it and know the private LAN IP for when you are on the same network and
configure your router to forward the port request when away.