If you own an iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch there may be times when you want to access your Windows computer. Today we take a look at how to do it with RDP Lite.
Last week we showed you how to use Splashtop Remote to access your Windows PCs via Wi-Fi on a home network. Continuing with the theme of remote access to Windows from an iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad…here we’ll take a look at how to use the free app RDP Lite.
For this tutorial we’re using an iPad & iPod Touch 4th Generation both with iOS 4.2.1 and will be connecting to Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit and an XP Professional machine.You’ll need Windows 7 / Vista Professional, Ultimate, or XP Pro to remote into the machine. Home editions of Windows 7 & Vista allow you to Remote into another computer, but doesn’t allow incoming remote desktop connections.
1. The first thing you’ll need to do is set Windows to accept Remote Desktop connections. In Windows 7 right-click on the Computer icon on your desktop or from the Start Menu and click on Properties.
2. Then under Control Panel Home click on Remote Settings.
3. The Remote tab should be selected and under Remote Desktop, click to allow connections…either from computers running any version of Remote Desktop or ones with Network Level Authentication then click OK.
4. To allow Remote Access in XP right-click on My Computer and select the Remote tab. Then under Remote Desktop check Allow users to connect remotely to this computer and then click OK.
5. Now that you have your computers on your network setup for Remote Access, install RDP Lite on your iOS Device. Just search for RDP Lite and install it through iTunes or directly from your device. This is an example of installing it on an iPod Touch.
6. After it’s been installed, just tap on the icon to launch the app.
7. When it launches just tap the yellow button. The following screenshots are taken on an iPad.
8. Then set up the connection to your PC. You’ll need to enter in the IP address, User Name, Password, and PC Name.
9. There are additional options you can choose from to make your remote access session work the way you want.
10. To find the IP address of the computer you want to connect to, click the Start Menu and in the Search box type in CMD and hit Enter.
11. The Command Prompt comes up and type in ipconfig and hit enter to get the IP address of that machine. You want to use the IPv4 address like in this example where it’s 192.168.1.134.
12. This is the number you want to enter in the Windows Workstation IP Address field.
13. After you have the address and options set, back on the main screen tap on the Connect button.
14. Now you have access to your Windows PC via an iOS device as though you were sitting in front of it. If you don’t set up the log in credentials in the options section you’ll need to log in first.
15. Now you can start accessing your programs, documents, and other files. You’ll also see there are controls to bring up the keyboard, main RDP Lite menu, and lock the screen in place.
16. Here is an example of connecting to an XP Professional computer.
17. Of course you can use RDP Lite with your iPhone or iPod touch as well, but will have less screen real estate to work with, so you’ll need to slide the screen around to get to where you need to be.
18. If you don’t enable Remote Desktop, enter the wrong IP address, or the PCs operating system isn’t capable of incoming connections, then you’ll see the following connection failed error.
While not as feature rich as Splashtop Remote which we previously covered, RDP Lite is free and can get you by if you need to access Windows remotely in a pinch. They also offer a paid version which is $5.99 in the iTunes App Store, and it offers more features and better keyboard controls.
RDP Lite isn’t the best remote solution for multi-tasking, but it’s free and allows you to easily access your Windows PC from iOS devices.