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Tech Tips / Windows XP / Remote Use and Management

Control remote desktops through a Web browser

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:

1. Open Control Panel.
2. Open the Add/Remove Programs dialog box.
3. Click Add/Remove Windows Components.
4. Select Internet Information Services in the Windows Components Wizard and then click Details.
5. Select World Wide Web Service and click Details.
6. Make sure that Remote Desktop Web Connection and World Wide Web Service are checked.
7. Click OK.
8. Click OK.
9. 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_computer/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.