Enabling Remote Desktop Remotely

Remote Desktop is one of my all-time favorite Windows XP features. I've raved about it numerous times throughout this book because it enables me to use several computers from the comfort of a single screen and keyboard. In an enterprise environment, Remote Desktop enables users to connect to their desktop computers from any other computer in the organization. It also enables administrators to manage computers remotely and even install software on remote computers.

My main problem with Remote Desktop is that Windows XP doesn't enable it by default. As a result, you must enable it on your disk image or enable it using the System Properties dialog box. Click Start, Control Panel, Performance And Maintenance, and System. On the Remote tab, select the Allow Users To Connect Remotely To This Computer check box.

I've got a better solution. Use Regedit to edit the remote computer's registry. Change the REG_DWORD value fDenyTSConnections in the key HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control \Terminal Server to 0x00. Setting this value to 0x01 disables Remote Desktop. After you change this value, you'll be able to log on to the computer using Remote Desktop. The account you use to edit this setting must belong to the remote computer's local Administrators group.