User:Mjb/Setting up Remote Desktop

It's easy to set up Remote Desktop so that you can control your Windows computer from another computer.

Compatibility

You can't set up Remote Desktop on Windows 7 Starter. You can use Windows 7 Starter as a client, though.

Basic setup

1. Go to Remote Settings (it's in the System Properties, e.g. right-click on My Computer and go to Properties).
2. Choose one of the "Allow connections..." settings for Remote Desktop. If you choose Network Level Authentication, it will probably lock out non-Win7 clients.
3. Click Apply or OK.

That's all you need to get it going. Try logging in from a Remote Desktop client elsewhere.

Extra security

Change the listening port

For extra security, I suggest changing the listening port. Details are in a Microsoft Knowledge Base article, but basically you just run Regedit, go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\TerminalServer\WinStations\RDP-Tcp\PortNumber and enter the port number. The change will take effect after the next reboot. Don't forget to create a custom rule in Windows Firewall to allow TCP traffic inbound on that port. You can disable all the other Remote Desktop rules; they are for the default port. Of course, you will need to make sure that you include the port number after the computer hostname in the client's logon settings, like the.remote.host:12345.

Temporarily prevent login after too many failed attempts

I also suggest setting an account lockout threshold in the Local Group Policy Editor > Local Computer Policy > Computer Configuration > Windows Settings > Security Settings > Account Policies > Account Lockout Policy. When you enter a threshold, it will suggest 30 minutes for the other values; this is good. This will make brute-force attacks difficult. I set mine to 5, which should be enough retries for a real person who just can't remember or is fat-fingering their password.