Tech Support > Microsoft Windows > Basics > how to share a host computer using "remote desktop connection"?
how to share a host computer using "remote desktop connection"?
Posted by Tony Young on February 28th, 2006


Hi,

When I establish a "remote desktop connection" from a client XP to a
host XP, I always get a message warning that the host's administrator
will be logged out. That means if somebody works on the host site,
his/her session will be terminated without his/her consent. Is there a
way that both I and he/she can share the host computer at the same time
without interfering with each other? Please help. Thank you for any
advise.

Tony

Posted by Shenan Stanley on February 28th, 2006


Tony Young wrote:
Not without using a third party application or a "hack" where you replace a
file with an older (beta version) of a file in Windows XP.
(Not even sure if you can do it with a third party application the way you
describe it.)

--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP
--
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html



Posted by Tony Young on February 28th, 2006


Shenan,

Another article I just read implies that two different administrator
users mutually exclusively dominates the host computer. But it also
says "If an administrator attempts to connect and is currently logged on
to the console, the administrator can connect to that console session
remotely immediately". Then are both sessions (on host and client PCs)
active at the same time? Or the host's one will be suspended?

Tony

Shenan Stanley wrote:

Posted by Shenan Stanley on February 28th, 2006


Tony Young wrote:
Shenan Stanley wrote:
Tony Young wrote:
Either the article you read (please list its location) is for Windows Server
(2000/2003/2003 R2), in reference to "Shadowing" or in reference to the hack
I mentioned eralier.

With Windows 2000/2003(&R2) - you can have multiple Terminal Service(Remote
Desktop) connections. (Two remote, one console, and it is easy to share the
console session with another user.) With standard Windows XP - you cannot
do this.

--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP
--
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html



Posted by Tony Young on February 28th, 2006


Hi Shenan,

You mentioned that standard XP cannot do this. How about professional
XP? My company recently bought some expensive x64 bit machines, shared
by more developers. Hopefully professional XP's will allow this type of
sharing.

The article I read got from Microsoft Knowledge from my home computer.
Here is its info:

"How a Remote Desktop Connection Affects Windows XP Professional
View products that this article applies to."
Article ID : 280828
Last Review : January 25, 2006
Revision : 1.1
This article was previously published under Q280828

I appreciate your time and further help.

Tony




Shenan Stanley wrote:

Posted by Shenan Stanley on February 28th, 2006


Tony Young wrote:
Shenan Stanley wrote:
Tony Young wrote:
Shenan Stanley wrote:
Tony Young wrote:
Sorry for the confusion.. By "Standard XP" I meant "Unhacked XP". Any of
those listed here:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/e...n/compare.mspx

According to the article you refer to:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/280828

What they are saying is this..

You are sitting at your Windows XP Computer - directly at its keyboard -
logged in as an administrator (or any other user for that matter that is a
member of the Remote Desktop Users group..) and then you either lock the
screen or just walk away.. You go FAR away. No one else touches said
machine and you have no auto-logoff procedure in place. You go to some
computer other than the one you were at and remote to that first computer.
You log in as the same user (same username/password) as what you left it
logged in with.. It logs you right into the console session you were using
when you left - locking the screen (if it was not) on the machine so that
others know you are logged in.

Now - if you were to attempt to logon with a different user (administrator)
than the one you left logged onto the console when you left that first
computer - it would warn you that you are about to log them off.. and if you
chose to continue - you *would* log them off.

Multiple (concurrent) Terminal Service (Remote Desktop) connections are not
doable with a Windows XP (any version I know of currently) system th at has
not been *hacked* to allow this - making it an unsupported feature.

You can - in conjunction with Windows 2003 servers - setup a shadowing
session with another user on a Windows XP system... Where two users (or
more) are all viewing the same screen. You can also use Remote Assistance
so that not only the console user, but the person on the remote end see the
same thing.

You cannot - without the hack - log onto a Windows XP Workstation (any
version from the web link above) remotely or locally as Administrator1 and
stayed logged in when Administrator2 tries to connect remotely (and chooses
to kick you off).

--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP
--
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html



Posted by Tony Young on February 28th, 2006


Shenan,

Thank you for all of your efforts in answering my question. You must
have spent lots of time. I know the limitation of XP now (maybe due to
its security or marketing policy). Well, let me learn the sharing
according to how XP has set up.

Thanks and God bless you.

Tony

Shenan Stanley wrote: