How to Enable Remote Desktop Web Connection on Windows

Introduction

Remote Desktop Connection is one useful tool of Windows which allows you to manage remote servers so you don’t have to go to in front of each server and do your tasks. This feature saves lot of time and effort of IT staff. But on the Internet, the firewall or security devices may block this kind of traffic (TCP port 3389). So it would be great if we can remote desktop through web (HTTP) which is a common protocol. This comes to Remote Desktop Web Connection.
Note: This article is works on Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 as terminal servers.

The Remote Desktop Web Connection is the Remote Desktop Connection client packaged as an ActiveX control that can be embedded in a Web page to provide access to a Terminal Server or a computer running Windows XP Professional or Windows Server 2003 with Remote Desktop enabled. Remote Desktop Web Connection provides most of the same functionality as the Remote Desktop Connection software; but it does not require a private network, or virtual private network connection.

Requirement

On the server side, you need Internet Information Server 4.0 or later. Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 already have this component but first it must be installed from Add/Remove Programs
On the client side, it can be run on Windows platform with Internet Explorer 4 or later with enable ActiveX.

Section

Enable Remote Desktop Connection on Terminal Server
Install Remote Desktop Web Connection
Test Connection

Step-by-step

Enable Remote Desktop Connection on Terminal Server

On Terminal Server, open System Properties. You can do this by open Control Panel -> System.
Or right-click on My Computer, select Properties.
On System Properties, click on Remote tab. Verify that the Enable Remote Desktop on this computer is checked. This will allow remote desktop connection from remote computer to this computer.
Note: You can allow specific user to connect to this server remotely by click on Select Remote Users. By default, Administrator is already has access.

Install Remote Desktop Web Connection

This section requires Windows CD when you installing components.
Open Add or Remove Programs from Control Panel.
Click on Add/Remove Windows Components on the left side.
On Windows Components Wizard:
For Windows Server 2003, double-click on Application Server -> Internet Information Services (IIS) -> World Wide Web Service. Then, check on Remote Desktop Web Connection.
For Windows XP, double-click on Internet Information Services (IIS) -> World Wide Web Service. Then, check on Remote Desktop Web Connection.
Note: You’ll see that other components which required by this tool are checked automatically.
Click OK until you back to the first page of Windows Components Wizard, click Next to install the selected components.
Now, you’ve finished set up Remote Desktop Web Connection.

Test Connection

On client, open Internet Explorer and navigate to “http://computername/tsweb” where computername is the terminal server’s computer name.
It requires you to install Remote Desktop ActiveX Control. Click Install.
Now try to connect to the terminal server, change resolution size as you want and click Connect.
Note: You don’t need to specify the server name since you’ve just connected to the terminal server (in the URL).
You’ll see desktop of the terminal server in the Internel Explorer.
You can perform any tasks as the Remote Desktop Connection.