By Joe Moran<\/b><\/p>\n
Windows\u2019 Remote Desktop feature– which comes with Vista Business and Ultimate as well as XP Professional and Media Center editions– lets you control your PC from a distance much as you would if you were sitting right in front of it. The most common way to access a faraway computer with Remote Desktop is through the Remote Desktop Connection utility that\u2019s found in all versions of XP and Vista. But if you have a handheld device that uses Windows Mobile 5 or 6.x, you may have another option in the form of Remote Desktop Mobile (RDM), the pocket-sized version of desktop utility.<\/p>\n
Your Windows Mobile device may or may not have come with Remote Desktop Mobile. There\u2019s a good chance the answer is \u201cnot\u201d– mobile carriers don\u2019t have to include the utility with their devices, and in fact many don\u2019t. If you can\u2019t find Remote Desktop Mobile on your device, all is not lost because the utility is available for download from a number of hobbyist\/enthusiast Web sites. I found it\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0(caveat: you need to register an account on the forum to download the file).<\/p>\n Given the differences in Windows Mobile hardware, there\u2019s no guarantee that Remote Desktop Mobile will work on every device, but we got it working on phones running both touch screen and non-touch screen Windows Mobile 6 devices– an AT&T Tilt with WM 6 Professional and a T-Mobile Dash with WM 6 Standard, respectively.<\/p>\n Before you can connect to your PC via your Windows Mobile device, you need to turn on and configure the Remote Desktop on the PC. See this Practically Networked articles\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0for instructions on how to get a PC set up for Remote Desktop, as well as how to configure a firewall and router to allow incoming connections over the Internet.<\/p>\n After the PC and network configuration is complete you can install Remote Desktop Mobile utility on your mobile device (if don\u2019t already have it). Just copy the .CAB file to your device using ActiveSync (in XP) or the Sync Center (in Vista), then run it from File Explorer. You\u2019ll probably have to click past two warning messages\u2014one that the program is from an unknown publisher, and another that the program may not display correctly because it was written for an earlier version of Windows Mobile. After you\u2019ve installed Remote Desktop Mobile, you\u2019ll find it in the under the name WPCTSC.<\/p>\n Before trying to make a Remote Desktop connection, select Options (on WM6 Standard devices it\u2019s Menu|Options) to check out some of the ways to customize the connection\u2019s display, storage, and sound settings.<\/p>\n Under “Display,” you can opt for either 256 colors or 16-bit (65,536) color. While the latter option obviously looks better, it also increases the amount of data that must be transmitted so it\u2019s best saved for Wi-Fi or 3G-based connections. If you check the “Fit remote desktop to screen” options, the desktop resolution of your remote PC will be reduced to match that of your mobile device, which most likely is 320×240. This will allow you to see the desktop PC\u2019s entire screen without having to zoom or scroll on your handheld, but it may also cause display problems for many programs (as well as the Start menu) which aren\u2019t designed to run in such a restricted space.<\/p>\n Turning on the “Map to the remote machine” option under Device Storage is a good idea since it will allow you to transfer files from your remote system to your mobile device. (When enabled, your mobile device will be listed as a networked drive within My Computer and Save dialog boxes.)<\/p>\n Finally, you can configure the Remote desktop sound option to mute the remote PC\u2019s audio (the default option) or instead play it through your mobile device. Although there may be some situations where the latter option may be useful, in most cases you\u2019ll want to leave the audio muted since it will consume some of your limited connection bandwidth.<\/p>\n To make a connection with Remote Desktop Mobile you\u2019ll need to provide the IP address of the remote system as well as your username and password on the machine. (Remember that when making a Remote Desktop connection over the Internet, you\u2019ll need to enter your network\u2019s public IP address, and not the private IP address of the system you\u2019re trying to connect to. (Your router will handle passing the incoming connection to the correct system on your network.) Press “Connect” and within a few seconds you should be looking at a pint-sized version of your remote system\u2019s Windows desktop.<\/p>\n If you haven\u2019t chosen the “Fit to Screen” option, the zoom box in the lower right of the screen will let you more easily navigate to the part you want to see. You can also expand your display real estate slightly by pressing the Full Screen button (just press the right soft key again to exit Full Screen Mode). Select “Disconnect” to end your Remote Desktop session (it will also disconnect on its own after a several minutes of idle time).<\/p>\n Owing to the unavoidable display and bandwidth limitations (it\u2019s usable on an EDGE connection, but just barely) making a Remote Desktop connection from a Windows Mobile device isn\u2019t quite the same thing as doing it from a standard PC and Net connection. But for times when a traditional PC isn\u2019t available and the only thing you\u2019ve got is that Windows Mobile device on your belt or in your bag, it can come in quite handy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Joe Moran Windows\u2019 Remote Desktop feature– which comes with Vista Business and Ultimate as well as XP Professional and Media Center editions– lets you control your PC from a distance much as you would if you were sitting right in front of it. The most common way to access a faraway computer with Remote Desktop is through the Remote Desktop Connection utility that\u2019s found in all versions of XP and Vista. But if you have a handheld device that uses Windows Mobile 5 or 6.x, you may have another option in the form of Remote Desktop Mobile (RDM), the <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5591,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/820"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/820\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Install and Configure<\/h4>\n
Make the Link<\/h4>\n