I just decided to try out the Remote Desktop in Windows Vista and it is actually pretty nice. I have two computers that currently have Windows Vista RC2 installed and they are both located on my local network. I made sure to specify in the Remote Desktop that I wanted all of the graphical goodies for the machine that I was connecting to which happened to be my laptop.
My desktop is able to handle the Aero theme which allows for the cool transparent effects but my laptop, which was the machine I was connecting to, doesn’t have the WDDM compatible drivers so I’m forced to use the Vista Basic theme. To my surprise the remote connection let my desktop computer do the graphical processing so that I could see the Aero theme “on my laptop.” You can see a screenshot that I took above of this in action.
One thing that is still disappointing is that the computer being controlled will still log the user off in order to give you full control. I really like being able to connect to machines without logging a user off, especially if I want to show someone how to do something. Oh well, maybe in the next version of Windows. 
Enjoyed the post? Subscribe to our feed to get a daily dose of CyberNet!
Related Posts:
- Enabling Remote Desktop On A Remote Computer
- Helpful Tip: Create a Remote Desktop Shortcut
- Remote Desktop For Mac OS X
- Review Of Symantec pcAnywhere 12
- XP/2003 Users Should Upgrade To Remote Desktop 6
Don’t hold your breath for MS to do that Ryan. We would hate to see your turn purple.
I too would love for them to add that ability. And sheesh, it should not be that hard to do, especially with MS’s resources.
At work, our company uses Novell (I wish they would change) and the Novell Remote Control software allows for remote control without logging the user off. It even prompts the user to grant permission for the remote control session. However, the Remote user (usually the system admin) can force the session.
For my small home network I use TightVNC, which is really small and efficient and also doesn’t require the user to log off. Oh, and unlike other more complex VNC based solutions, it’s free.
There is the remote assistance thing but that requires the two people to exchange invitations or something. It’s there but it isn’t that easy to use. So the technology is definitely there for Microsoft I’m just not sure if they are more worried about security purposes.
I have actually used TightVNC before and it is quite nice. The only problem is that I need it running on someone’s computer already in order to use it.