Remote Access Options in Visual C#

Creation Quick Response Code in Visual C# Remote Access Options

Figure 26-10.

Note Changes you make to settings that appear when you click Options become the default settings for new Remote Desktop Connection sessions. These settings are saved in a hidden file called %UserProfile%\My Documents\Default.rdp.

Colors are washed out. The screen resolution of a Remote Desktop Connection session is determined entirely by the client computer. The number of colors, however, is set to the lowest value set on either computer. At the client computer, you specify the number of colors on the Display tab. On the remote computer, the number of colors is set by Group Policy. If this value is lower than the client setting, it prevails. The Terminal Services and Remote Desktop server in Windows Server 2003 defaults to 8-bit color (256 colors). To increase the number of colors that the remote computer delivers, on the remote computer, open Group Policy (Gpedit.msc). Navigate to Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\ Windows Components\Terminal Services, and double-click the Limit Maximum Color Depth policy. Select Enabled and then specify the maximum color depth you want to allow for remote connections.

While you use Remote Desktop Connection, it s immediately apparent that you have control of the remote computer. You see its desktop, Start menu, and so on. That s terrific if the remote computer has everything you need. But you ll often want to use local resources and

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Microsoft Windows XP Inside Out, Second Edition information from the client computer as well as from the remote computer. In addition, you might want to move information between the two computers. With Remote Desktop Connection, you can do so easily with the following features:

When you copy or cut text or graphics on either the remote computer or the local computer, it s saved on the Clipboard. It s then available for pasting in documents on either computer. Similarly, you can cut or copy files or folders from a Windows Explorer window on either computer and paste them into a folder on the other computer. If you want to disable this capability as a security measure, you must use Group Policy on the remote computer. At a command prompt, type gpedit.msc to open Group Policy and navigate to Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\ Terminal Services\Client/Server Data Redirection. Enable the Do Not Allow Clipboard Redirection policy.

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You can access your own drives through My Computer on the remote desktop. As shown in Figure 26-11, each drive on the client computer appears on the remote desktop in the My Computer s Other group. You can navigate to any folder or file on your computer, and then use any of the usual methods to copy, move, rename, open, delete, and so on.

Figure 26-11. Drives on the client computer (Glacier, in this figure) appear in My Computer on the remote computer (Sequoia). Printers

Your local printers appear in the remote computer s Printers And Faxes folder. Their entries have (from clientcomputername) appended to each printer name. To print to a local printer, you simply select its name in a Print dialog box.

Remote Access Options Note For Clipboard and disk drives features to work, Disk Drives must be selected on the Local Resources tab before you connect. To use the printers feature, Printers must be selected.

Sounds don t play. Remote Desktop Connection uses User Datagram Protocol (UDP) for transmitting audio data. If sounds don t play at all, it might be because a firewall is blocking this UDP traffic. Check your firewall logs and, if the firewall is blocking the traffic, create a rule that permits it to pass. If a firewall isn t blocking sounds, the problem might be that the UDP packets are being dropped. Audio data is considered to be relatively unimportant, which is why it uses UDP a , protocol that, by design, permits data to be lost. If you re pushing the bandwidth limits of your connection, audio data disappears in favor of accurate transfer of screen images and other data. You can make more room in the pipe by lowering the number of colors (to 256 colors, for example).