You have two computers, and you want to connect and work on both of them. It would be much easier if you use Windows XP. Just use the Remote Desktop Protocol, and you can do that. How about for next Windows version? Let’s say you use Windows 7 or 8.
How to Activate Remote Desktop Connection on Windows XP
First, let’s see how the old way to do this. In Windows XP, to activate the Remote Desktop Protocol, you just need to go to Registry Settings. Here, you will change some of setting on one of the location of the command from its default setting.
To do this, type “regedit” on “run” bar, and you will open the Registry Setting window. Now, open the “File” menu, then “Connect Network Registry.” After that, choose this string:
HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server
On that location, find “fDenyTSConnection.” Change its value from 1 to 0. “1” here means that this function is disabled. So, by changing it into “0,” you are enabling it. Then, after you do that, you can reboot your computer to make the effect. However, some computer doesn’t need to reboot to make this change activated. So, it’s different for each computer.
Or, if you don’t want to spend too much time dealing with those complicated things, you can use the Remote Desktop Enabler tool. This is a free tool made by IntelliAdmin. You can download this tool from their website.
With this tool, you just need to choose the computer where you want to activate the Remote Desktop Protocol, hit the “Enable” button, and it’s done. You also can deactivate the RDP from this tool. So, basically, this tool can do anything that you need.
How to Do the Same on Windows 7 or Windows 8?
Unfortunately, you can’t. In the latest Windows, there is a feature called Remote Registry. This feature only allows the user to make a registry change or update on the local computer.
Therefore, if you want to connect two computers or more, or in the simplest way, you want to enable remote desktop Windows 7 or Windows 8, that would be impossible because the other computer has been classified as a remote computer. That means it is only doing their process on their system without being able to share it with another computer. This system is also applied one the computer that you use as the host.
But, you don’t need to worry about that problem. You can solve it by activating this Remote Registry feature manually on the remote computer. If you don’t do this, you will always get an error message that your computer can’t connect to another computer.
By activating the Remote Registry feature, you will open a hole in the Windows Firewall, where you can connect both of the computers.
Basically, you need to do it on both computers first, and then you can use the method mentioned above or the one that you also used on Windows XP to connect both computers. You can use the registry edit method or use the tool to activate the Remote Desktop Protocol. Just find and use the tool that is compatible with your OS type and use it.