Windows Remote Admin and Management of Windows XP

I need information about remote management of Windows XP Machines. I need to restrict the usage and privileges on about 10 machines controlled by one server.

Are there any good guides online to read ?

Or any good book to buy ...

Also can this be done using Win XP or will I absolutely need a server OS such as Windows 2000 or Windows 2003 ?

It's for a business ... so it will need to be totally legit.

 

All updates on Windows, anti-virus and other applications on the machines should be done remotely if possible.

Also Wake-On-Lan etc, would be really useful.

It would also be better if I can assign fixed IPs to the machines so that I can install VNC on them ....

I am googling for all this info and I have found some guides ... but if you can post what you know about, that would be great as well.

 

Sounds like you want an Active Directory setup and you'll need some flavour Windows Server for that.

Software Update Services - For windows updates

WOL is hardware Mobo/NIC dependant, nothing to do with the OS.

 

Server 2000 or Server 2003 along with Win2k or XP client machines will do this easy peasy
you dont need to install VNC
just use Remote Desktop, its built into XP and 2003 server and can be easily added to 2k with the XP cd
you can also configure RD settings and priviledges from active directory
you dont need to use ip's either, just put the hostname in
works very well

 

I prefer VNC to remote desktop myself, I use it in the network I admin. Again use Microsoft's SUS for remote updates (it's free). I use statis IPs on all of my networks, mainly for ease of tracking.

 

Best bet seems to be Win2k. It seems to sell for around £100 while Win2k3 sell for £700-1500+.

But what about updates etc ? MS has stopped updates for Win2k havent they ? No more service packs etc.

And about licensing ... would I need any special licensing for what I require ? I may also need to add a further 5 computers or so at a future date. I will also need to sort out shared printing, etc as well as network shares which should be accessible from all PCs.

As for remote desktop, I might go with VNC because I am already familiar with it. But I will consider Remote Desktop as it is already built into Windows....

 

I use both VNC and remote desktop for different purposes. With remote desktop the connection is faster on a LAN, VNC seems to suffer a little from lag. Its no good for showing a user how to use a specific bit of software for example as it locks the computer and starts a new session that only the remote client can see (sometimes a bonus). You can use Remote desktop over the internet but its worth changing the port used in regedit, you would need to for all the client pcs at least unless you remote into teh server and the remote from the server to the clients.

 

They've only just stopped supporting windows 98, win2k is alright for now

 

Is there a way I can initiate the in built remote admin in WinXP Pro without having to physically accept the connection.

Say I'm on machine 1 and want to control machine 2, can I do this without leaving machine 1 (ie I dont want to have to stretch over to the other side of the desk to click accept connection)

 

are you sure thats Windows 2000 Server and not just Windows 2000? seems a little cheap...
RD is not exactly a complex app, over lan the default settings are fine so its just a case of enabling RD on the client machine (my computer -> properties) and then typing in the hostname/ip into RD on the other machine...

yoda, remote desktop and remote assistance are different, RD is just like VNC, you connect to the other machine enter user/pass and it logs you on and locks it locally

 

You were right, that is Win2k ... Win2k server is around £400 range.