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With more people working from home due to the coronavirus, there's a greater need to connect to remote workstations and servers. Ane handy tool for accessing remote PCs is Microsoft's Remote Desktop Connection (RDC). Built into Windows and available for other platforms, RDC lets you configure and utilize remote sessions to piece of work with PCs in other locations.

Using RDC'south basic features, y'all can easily establish a connection to each remote PC. But by using some of the more advanced features and settings, you can fine-tune the performance, reliability, and overall experience of each session.

If you work for an organization, your IT department may already control these settings through Group Policy or other means; so, this procedure is more applicable to individuals and smaller businesses that don't centrally manage these options.

SEE: How to work from dwelling house: Information technology pro's guidebook to telecommuting and remote work (TechRepublic Premium)

Launching the Remote Desktop Connection differs based on your version of Windows. In Windows x, click the Get-go button, curl downwards the list of apps, open up the folder for Windows Accessories, and click the shortcut for Remote Desktop Connexion. In Windows eight.one, press the Win cardinal+Due south to launch the Search tool. In the search field, type windows remote desktop, and click the result. In Windows seven, click the Get-go push button, open the Accessories folder, and select the shortcut for Remote Desktop Connection.

At the Remote Desktop Connection window, enter the computer name or IP address for the remote machine you lot desire to access. Then, blazon your username in the appropriate field, and click the Connect button. But before you exercise that, let'south check out some of the unlike settings. If you tin't see the more advanced settings, click the Show Options button. The RDC window organizes its settings into dissimilar sections–we'll go through them one by i.

1. General tab

In the General tab, y'all can check or uncheck the box for Always Ask For Credentials. Unchecking this box spares you from having to enter your password each fourth dimension you connect to the same car. If you're concerned about this for security reasons, leave the box checked. If y'all've already saved your credentials and need to change or delete them, make certain the box is unchecked, and click the edit or delete link in the judgement above information technology.

The option to Salvage The Current Connectedness Settings To An RDP File is useful if you want to use the same remote connections on a dissimilar PC. If so, click the Relieve or Salvage As button, and copy the RDP file to your other PC. There, yous can open the RDP file to access the same sessions so you don't take to reestablish them (Figure A).

Figure A

two. Brandish tab

Click the Display tab. In the surface area for Display Configuration, you can fix the initial size of your remote desktop session. By default, the session opens total screen with full resolution to utilize your entire monitor screen. If you'd like to run across the session in a smaller, resizable window at a lower resolution, drag the slider bar to the left. Further, if you accept a multi-monitor setup, yous can cheque the box to Utilize All My Monitors For The Remote Session.

In the area for Colors, you tin can change the color depth of the remote session. Typically, you'll want to proceed this set to Highest Quality, but if bandwidth issues slow downward the performance of the connection, yous can experiment with lower color settings every bit a possible remedy (Figure B).

You should opt to Display The Connexion Bar When I Use The Full Screen, then that you can easily access the different controls for your remote session in total-screen mode.

Figure B

iii. Local Resource tab

Go to the Local Resources tab. In the area for Remote Audio, click the Settings push. Here, yous can cull if and where sounds from the remote reckoner will exist heard. If the audio from the remote PC is important, alter the settings to Play On This Computer so you tin hear them. You can then also decide whether to permit remote sound recording. If you changed the setting here, click OK.

In the expanse for Keyboard, click the drop-downward menu push. Here, you can determine when and where any Windows keyboard shortcuts you printing will apply, either on the remote PC or on your current PC.

In the area for Local Devices And Resources, you lot can cheque the boxes for whatever local resource yous want to employ during a remote session, such as your local printers and clipboard. Click the More push to view and select other devices you might want to use locally, such as ports, disk drives, and plug and play devices, and so click OK. Checking these boxes ways that the remote PC has access to your local resources. For security reasons, yous should limit the resources made available this fashion to simply the essential ones (Effigy C).

Figure C

4. Experience tab

Click the Experience tab. In the Performance area, click the drop-down carte to choose your connection speed. Past default, you'll desire to keep this set up to Detect Connexion Quality Automatically. However, if y'all are running into performance issues with your sessions, yous can play with other types of connections to see if the speed improves.

The setting for Persistent Bitmap Caching should remain checked as this pick tries to speed up performance by storing the same remote images locally and then they don't have to be transmitted again and over again. The setting for Reconnect If The Connection Is Dropped should also stay checked if you wish to reestablish a dropped connection automatically (Effigy D).

Figure D

v. Avant-garde tab

Finally, motion to the Advanced tab. In the expanse for Server Authentication, click the driblet-downwards menu. This setting determines how to handle connections to computers that aren't verified. Depending on the types of machines to which y'all'll connect (due east.g., workstations versus servers), you typically want to go on this set to Warn Me and so you have some control over it.

The expanse for Connect From Anywhere applies if your organization uses a Remote Desktop Gateway to allow connections to internal PCs from exterior the firewall. If and then, this would be a setting determined by your Information technology department. Click the Settings button to see how this is configured. Unless instructed otherwise, leave it set to Automatically Observe RD Gateway Server Settings (Figure E).

When done, you tin connect to a remote PC or shut the RDP window.

Effigy E