What is the Remote Desktop Services ActiveX Control?

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Updated: February 12, 2014

Applies To: Windows Home Server 2011

The Remote Desktop Services ActiveX controls allow you to access a networked computer, via the Internet, from another computer by using the Remote Web Access.

If you are using Internet Explorer 8 or later on a computer running Windows 7, you simply enable the ActiveX controls. On a Windows XP computer, after you enable the ActiveX controls, you must also enable the Microsoft RDP Client Control add-on in Internet Explorer 8. The following procedures describe both tasks.

To enable Remote Desktop Services ActiveX controls

  1. In Internet Explorer, click Tools, and then click Internet Options.

  2. On the Security tab, click Custom level.

  3. In the ActiveX controls and plug-ins section, do the following:

    1. Under Download signed ActiveX controls, click Prompt.

    2. Under Run ActiveX controls and plug-ins, click Enable.

  4. Click OK twice to accept the changes and close the dialog box.

  5. Restart or refresh Internet Explorer.

On a Windows XP computer, you must now enable the Microsoft RDP Client Control add-on in Internet Explorer.

To enable the Microsoft RDP Client Control add-on (required for Windows XP with Internet Explorer 8 only)

  1. In Internet Explorer, click Tools, and then click Manage add-ons.

  2. On the Manage Add-ons page, choose to show All add-ons.

  3. In the list of add-ons, locate Microsoft RDP Client Control (redist) – version 7 and ensure that the add-on is set to Enabled. If the add-on is set to Disabled, select the add-on, and then click Enable.

    Note

    The version number is subject to change with updates.

  4. Click Close to accept the change.

  5. Restart or refresh Internet Explorer.

To verify that Remote Web Access is working and you can connect to the web site

  • Open Internet Explorer, and enter the URL for the web site.

Important

For users to connect to an organization’s web site by using Remote Web Access, you must turn on Remote Web Access on the server, and users must have permissions for the Remote Web Access group on the server. Users are added to this group by default. However, you might occasionally need to restore a user to the group or remove a user. For more information, see Assign users access to Remote Web Access.