What is Remote Desktop?

The term Remote Desktop refers to a situa­tion when people have secure remote access to a distant remote computer via desktop sharing soft­ware. By lever­aging remote desktop soft­ware, which exists for PC and Mac as well as many opera­ting systems, the user is provided with a user-friendly graphical inter­face for remo­tely acces­sing all of the remote computer’s appli­ca­tions, files, and network resources (such as prin­ters and cameras). These resources become available to the user as if they were directly in front of the remote workstation.

How does Remote Desktop work?

The remote desktop soft­ware works by mimi­cking the display of remote computer, the host, on the display of the connec­ting computer, the client. It does this by copying the host’s display and redra­wing it on the client’s display. Keyboard and mouse gestures from the client are trans­mitted to the host, where the machine inter­prets them as if they had been inputted locally. Because the service only needs to send small amounts of infor­ma­tion (keyboard, mouse, and display) over the network and often takes advan­tage of compres­sion tech­no­lo­gies, it ther­e­fore works well in low-band­width scenarios.

What does Remote Desktop offer?

Once connected to a remote machine through a remote desktop connec­tion, you have access to all of its appli­ca­tions and data. Common features included with remote desktop soft­ware are file transfer, audio confe­ren­cing, remote PC control, and appli­ca­tion sharing. File sharing means that the host’s file system is available to the client with a quick transfer process, with of course the consent of both the host and client. Audio confe­ren­cing allows both the client and host to speak to one another while sharing screens. PC remote control is a vital feature for remote desktop solu­tions, as it enables the users to admi­nister online computer support. Appli­ca­tion sharing is the ability of the host to share any appli­ca­tion or window from their own computer and show it the client.

Whom does Remote Desktop benefit?

Remote desktop tech­no­logy offers many bene­fits for busi­nesses and to people who want access to their office computer while at home, or to their home computer while at the office, or access to either while travel­ling. The effect this tech­no­logy has had in the busi­ness world has been dramatic. As the stabi­lity of the Internet has grown, remote access has matured from conve­ni­ence to neces­sity for most busi­nesses. Tech support depart­ments in parti­cular benefit immensely from the flexi­bi­lity they gain by being able to respond quickly to server and work­sta­tion problems occur­ring anywhere within the network from any computer to which they have remote desktop access.