Control Desktop from Laptop

[21stHermit]

I want to run a desktop from my laptop computer. My goal is to have no monitor or keyboard on the desktop. Both would have USB 2.0 and 10/100 Ethernet and run Win XP Home. Both would share large external USB HDs.

I would run CPU and memory intensive apps on the desktop. I have run photo stitching apps that take 1-2 hours on the laptop, sloooow!!!!

I do not own the desktop yet, plan to purchase a A64, MB, 2G RAM, SATA HD, so considerable hardware freedom.

I think this is possible, any suggestions?

 

[HOOSDAMAN]

I do not think you can get away with not using a keyboard, but you can defintely remote desktop from your laptop. Enable "Remote Desktop" on your desktop and then use "Remote Desktop Connection" from your laptop under \Accessories\Communication and you are all set.

 

[sciencewhiz]

He'll need XP Pro on the desktop to use Remote Desktop right? You could also use VNC.

 

[mikecel79]

If he's working images I wouldn't recommend VNC. It's not nearly as fast as RDP. But even with RDP if you are working with large images it doesn't work as well as being right in front of the monitor.

 

[BlueWeasel]

Originally posted by: mikecel79
If he's working images I wouldn't recommend VNC. It's not nearly as fast as RDP. But even with RDP if you are working with large images it doesn't work as well as being right in front of the monitor.

Yeah, I can tell a considerable difference in speed between VNC and RDC. In fact, I'm thinking about installing XP on an old system that my GF gave me (Celeron 433mhz) just for RDC. I plan on setting it up as a stand-alone file server (no monitor/KB/mouse), so I'll something similar to RDC.

 

[HOOSDAMAN]

Right. VNC's performance is not that good. Remote Desktop is probably your best bet short of the console. He could also use Windows 2000 server with Terminal Services installed.

Originally posted by: sciencewhiz
He'll need XP Pro on the desktop to use Remote Desktop right? You could also use VNC.

 

[21stHermit]

First, Thanks to All for adding to this thread.

I have an old Celeron desktop running Win98 and a 25' X-over Cat5 cable. Is Win98 sufficient to test the concepts? Before I blow $500 on a desktop, it would be good to see if I could remote control XP laptop to 98 desktop. Remember, I need to see the desktops video on the laptop.