Enable Remote Desktop on Windows Server 2003

Daniel Petri

Jan 8, 2009

With Remote Desktop on Windows XP Professional or Windows Server 2003 (in Windows 2000 Advanced Server, this feature was called Terminal Services in Remote Administration Mode), you can have access to a Windows session that is running on your computer when you are at another computer. Read What’s Remote Desktop in Windows XP/2003? for more info.

To enable the RDP service on Windows Server 2003 follow the next steps:

Go to Control Panel.
Click System.
Go to the Remote tab.
Select the “Allow users to connect remotely to this computer” box.

Click Ok.

BTW, next time you need to open the System applet you can do so much faster: instead of clicking your way to the System icon, you can just right click My Computer and choose Properties, or even better – press the Windows Logo key on your keyboard and then press Pause/Break at the same time.
Note: In order for the RDP connection to work you need to allow TCP port 3389 connections to the server. You also need the name and password of one of the local (or domain) administrators, because this type of connection is only allowed for administrative accounts.

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