I have a marvelous proof of that. Unfortunately, the margin is too small to contain it.

OK, so the basic idea is that you're using your computer (the client) to connect to the other computer (the server) and remotely control it as if you were sitting in front of it. I strongly recommend using VNC because it's easier to set up. You just install it.

That said, here's what you should be doing with the Windows built in functionality. You need to either give your user account on the server a password, or create a new account (which is what I detail below). Windows won't let you do Remote Desktop with an account that doesn't have a password.

1. On the server, right click My Computer and choose Manage. Open the Local Users & Groups option and click Users. Under the Action menu, choose New User. Fill out the User Name and give it a password. Uncheck the box that the user has to change its password on the next login, and check the Password Never Expires box. Click Create, then Close. Close the Computer Management window. Congrats, you've created a new user in Windows.

2. On the server, right click My Computer and choose Properties. Click the Remote tab and check the box to allow remote users to connect to this computer. Make a note of what it says is the "full computer name". Then click the button to select remote users. Click Add. Then type the user name (which you typed in the User Name field when you added the user) of the user you created in step 1. Click Check Names and it should add some stuff to what you typed, and underline it. Click OK until you get out of all the windows you've opened.

3. On the client, open the Start Menu, point to All Programs, then Accessories. Choose Remote Desktop Connection. Type the "full computer name" you noted in step 2 above and click Connect. You should be presented with a login screen. Give it the user name of the user you created in step 1, and its password. You will see your server computer's desktop and be able to control it as if you were sitting in front of it.

THere's your hand-holding. Now go get me a gin and tonic.

It's asking for the computer name you're trying to connect to. Control Panel > System > Computer Name.

Yup, you'll have to set one. It is possible to configure Windows to autologin even with a password so this isn't too big a nuisance.

It's on the machine you are connecting to, not on the machine you're on.

Yep. I knew that. Otherwise it doesn't make much sense.Ah. Would have been nice if they'd said that. It wasn't at all obvious. To me, anyhow. But that's no big surprise.

Yeah, such things very often are cryptic.

This is a XP Pro only feature, they figure it will be used in a business environment and that normally means someone reasonably competent on staff or at least showing people how it works.

Microsoft's documentation is at best skimpy and when it's addressed to professionals it's usually a joke. Dig into the really technical stuff and you find an awful lot of documentation that amounts to this-is-this.

In any event, it worked!

Of course it makes sense once you do it and see what's going on. I feel really stupid for not sussing that out immediately, but I really thought I was following their directions.

Much thanks for the tip -- at least you didn't castigate me for being "not worthy"

I realize how cryptic the directions tend to be. It's very hard for the technically trained to write directions for the untrained and it's impossible for the untrained to write the directions because they don't know what to write. The result is most such directions vary from poor to abysmal.