Surely we all know or have heard about the Windows 10 remote desktop. This useful tool will allow us to remotely make connections to our skip from any other place where we are. If you still do not know it or do not know how to use it, in this article we will see everything as completely as possible, in this way we will be able to learn how to enable remote desktop in Windows 10 and make remote connections.

Index of contents

The way in which new devices like SmartTV or Smartphone offer new forms of connectivity with other types of devices has greatly advanced. The remote Windows desktop is not something far from new, but it is the possibility of interconnecting other devices using this method and also more securely than was done in Windows XP in the past.

What is Windows 10 Remote Desktop

Remote access to a computer has been taking place since the appearance of the first operating systems and the development of network connections using cables. Obviously these first versions were able to interconnect through a command terminal thanks to technologies such as the insecure telnet connection on Microsoft systems and ssh on Unix systems, currently Linux.

But years later and with the appearance of new systems with a graphical interface, the connection method evolved substantially. All this is promoted by the increase in the speed of network connections and the increase in security. This is how the interconnection method using the remote desktop came about.

The connection through remote desktop will allow us to centralize the applications on a host system where other clients will access to use these resources remotely as if they were physically on the host computer. In other words, we can connect remotely to a Windows desktop and we can do all or almost everything we could do if we were physically on it.

Communication protocols

There are different communication protocols depending on the program we use. In our case it will be Windows 10 and it uses the Remote Desktop Protocol that is owned by Microsoft.

The communication method is quite simple. The graphic source information generated by the computer acting as the server is converted to a form of encryption called RDP. In turn, this information is sent to the network to the client computer. Once this is reached, the client application will be responsible for reconstructing all the information and displaying the same information found on the host computer in real time.

In addition to the graphic information that we can see, we can also interact with the host using the mouse and keyboard.

Connection port and features

The remote desktop can be used both on an internal network and remotely in physically different locations and on different networks. To make this type of connection we will use TCP port 3389, which of course, we will need to have open in our router to allow the connection.

As for the most important features of the Windows remote desktop are:

We can use 8, 16, 24 and 32 bit colors. In the case of the connection that we have, this quality will be adjusted automatically or we can be the one to configure it ourselves. We will have a security level of type TLST We can also play audio on the server and listen to it on the client. The operations with the files will be the same as if we were physically on the machine, although we will not be able to make certain configurations that imply the permissions of an administrator The clipboard will be shared between the client and the server

Activate and connect by remote desktop in Windows 10

The remote desktop applications in Windows are multiple and all of them are useful. So it is convenient that we know well how to make these types of connections to get the most out of our work from outside the home, for example.

Enable remote desktop in Windows 10

We start by enabling remote desktop on the server computer side. For this we will have to do the following:

Press the key combination " Windows + I " to open the Windows 10 configuration panel. This can also be done by going to the start menu and clicking on the cogwheel at the bottom left. In any case we will enter into the system configuration. Now we must press on the first icon corresponding to " System " Within this window we must go to the " Remote Desktop " option on the left side menu

Click on the " Enable remote desktop " button. Then we will get a message in which we must confirm that we do want to activate it.

Two extra options will be enabled just below this active option:

Keep my computer active for connection when it is plugged in: using this option and its corresponding options we can configure the waiting time for the screen to turn off on the server computer and also if we want to suspend it. Make my pc recognizable in private networks to allow automatic connection from a remote device: clicking on the option will open the advanced settings to enable the permission according to what type of networks we want to access our computer. In addition to private networks, we can also activate public networks and all kinds of them. Advanced configuration: here we can configure if we want to request credentials for the computer that intends to access our host computer. It will also provide us with information on the connection port for external access.

Another way that we will have to enable remote desktop in Windows 10 is by opening the start menu and typing " Allow remote access to the computer"

A window will appear in which we can activate the option " Allow remote connections to this computer"

Add users for remote desktop access

In addition to the previous configuration, we can also decide which users will have access to the remote desktop.

This is especially useful when we want only certain users to be able to access the remote desktop. We can do this with Active Directory users if we have one (which is not our case) or with normal users. We will need to physically create these users on our host computer to give them access to the desktop.

We must put the password to the user to be able to authenticate

To do this, we will also have the same two previous options available, let's see one of them:

We go to the Configuration -> System -> Remote Desktop Just below the options mentioned above, we will have the "User Accounts" Click on " Select the users who can access... " Here a window will appear in which we can write the users that we want to access. Then we click on " Check names " for the team to identify these users

If we do not know its name, click on we can click on " Advanced options " and within it in the " Search now " button

What is this useful for, as the window says, to allow access to remote desktop of users who are not administrators and who are included in this list.

Connect to remote Windows 10 desktop from another computer

Now what we have left is to go to our client team and establish the connection:

Click on the start menu and write " Remote desktop connection "

Click on the option and a window will appear to establish communication. If we click on " show options " we will see the window with the entire menu of options.

We can also access this window by opening the Run tool with the key combination " Windows + R " and typing inside:

mstsc

We will have the following tabs in this window:

General: it allows us to enter the equipment and user to start the session on the remote equipment Screen: we will configure the image quality of the remote window Local resources: we will configure aspects such as sound reproduction, key combinations and control over the printers Performance: others options to improve the connection if we have little bandwidth Advanced options: above all they will be options for a remote connection from external networks.

Connect from internal network

Well now what we must do is establish the remote connection. If it is in an internal network, it will be enough to compose the IP address that identifies the equipment in the network or the name of the equipment.

IP adress:

We can look at this at the command prompt (cmd) with the command:

Ipconfig

We must look at the Ethernet ethernet connection section. Inside it on the IPv4 line

Name of the team:

The team name can be obtained from the “ properties ” option of the “ This team ” icon

Connect from external network

If it is an external connection, we will need the real IP address of the server (host) computer. This can be obtained through an internet page such as this

Well what we will have to do is write the credentials in the remote desktop window. If we write only the equipment, a user will automatically request us.

Then it will ask us for a confirmation to continue with the connection. Click on "Yes". Then the connection will be established correctly and we will see the desktop of the host computer

To disconnect, we will only have to click on the "X" in the upper toolbar.

Conclusion on Windows 10 remote desktop

The Windows 10 remote desktop allows us to perform such interesting actions as managing our computers through remote connections from any point in a secure way and with the ease of being able to directly manage the desktop.

The good Internet connections that we have today promote the proper functioning of this technology and we will also have the possibility of accessing the desktop from other systems such as Linux Mac and Windows, in addition to Smartphone.

This is all we can offer to teach you how to do remote desktop in Windows 10.