By Default, the ability to RDP or Remote Desktop into Windows 7 is disabled. I discovered this today when I was in a conference room at work and tried to RDP into my Windows 7 RTM box. With a room full of people, I tried in vain for several minutes until I realized the problem wasn’t network related but – I had forgotten to enable RDP when I built the machine a few days earlier.
Enabling Remote Desktop for Windows 7 is simple, so this will be a real quick How-To Step-by-Step. It’s worth mentioning that these steps are virtually identical for Windows Vista as well.
1. Click Windows Start Button, Right Click Computer and Click Properties
2. Click Remote Settings
3. Under Remote Desktop heading, Click the Middle bullet. This choice will allow both old versions of Remote Desktop (RDP) to connect to your Windows 7 machine including Windows XP etc.
Note: By Default, only users with Administrator access on the Windows 7 machine can Remote Desktop/RDP into the Windows 7 machine. To add non-administrators, you need to Click the Select Users button on the screen above and Add the user @mikefarb1.
