Remote Desktop Connection between Windows 7 and Windows 10

davidrosen

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Aug 17, 2013
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Hi all,

this is the first time I've ever really tried to do networking stuff, but if every tutorial I've found online is to be believed, it really shouldn't be this hard haha.

I have a Windows 7 64bit desktop and a Windows 10 64bit laptop. I'd like to run Chrome on my Windows 10 laptop and access it from my desktop so I can not have a browser running on my desktop, taking up all my ram.

So I went to system properties on the Desktop, made a workgroup name, already had a computer name. Rebooted. Did the same on the laptop with the same workgroup name.

I can see the laptop under my Network, and I can access the files on it in the shared user folder. This is the first time I've ever did this so I'm really happy! Haha.

But if I right click and go to "Connect with Remote Desktop Connection" I am given the old "Remote Desktop can't connect to the remote computer for one of these reasons:" and I'm sure you know the rest of it.

Now yes I did go onto the laptop and click allow Remote connections.

I also tried turning off both of my firewalls (didn't try fully disabling Windows Defender, just the firewall part).

Other than that, every troubleshooting thing I find seems to just be repeating the same steps, which I've tried over and over all morning.

Any ideas?

Thank you.
 
Solution
You cannot use Remote Desktop unless your Laptop is running Win 10 Pro. Also you need to physically set the connection up on the laptop.

Browsers really don't "take up all your ram" you should try something like firefox, its light, even chrome is way less bloated these days.

Rogue Leader

It's a trap!
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You cannot use Remote Desktop unless your Laptop is running Win 10 Pro. Also you need to physically set the connection up on the laptop.

Browsers really don't "take up all your ram" you should try something like firefox, its light, even chrome is way less bloated these days.
 
Solution

davidrosen

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my entire life revolves around Chrome and Google services. And my Desktop is for composing music so I need every last bit of performance I can get, but I want to have the internet on my big monitor and mouse and keyboard and speakers... So I've been told this is my best solution since even though I went out and bought a KVM switch, I never remember it's even there. I just want to have a window open that's already logged into chrome.
 

davidrosen

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now as for the Windows 10 pro necessity.... that sucks. is that true? why doesn't it just tell me that rather than keep attempting haha. would I be better off upgrading to windows 10 pro or downgrading it to windows 7? because if I can't set this up this laptop will literally sit and gather dust until the day i sell it for $50 in 10 years. it's the only reason I have it...
 

Rogue Leader

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Yes its 100% true and also you would need Windows 7 Pro to do RDP on it as well. IMO not worth it at all, and your laptop may not even work with Win 7. Your best bet is to upgrade it to Win 10 Pro. Then you need to enable remote desktop connections. Once thats done you go into RDP on your Win 7 machine, put in the IP address of your laptop and youre in.

You could also get a program like VNC and do that too.
 

davidrosen

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Aug 17, 2013
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ok thanks for the response... i guess i gotta decide if it's time to pull the trigger on the $99 upgrade because i was really set on getting this whole remote desktop thing setup this weekend.

see with my music, it's really a bad idea to be on the internet with my desktop, it's just pure stupidity, and yet i do it. constantly. even while i'm working haha. so i'm really trying to find a solution. i have a chromebook, a tablet, and this windows 10 laptop... i never touch any of them. my mind just draws me to doing the internet on my music desktop. so someone suggested this and it really seems like it's the solution for my personal habits.
 

davidrosen

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it worked :)

and so far so good, it seems to work really well.

i know about teamviewer, and also chrome remote desktop, but neither really works as perfectly transparent. i want it to feel like i'm really on the same pc. this seems to work pretty perfect so far...
 


You dont need PRO on both machines, you need pro on the laptop (the "server"), the viewer machine does not need to be PRO for remote desktop. I know this for fact because my home server is Win 7 pro and connect to it via RDP from Win 10 Home machines.
 

davidrosen

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my music pc is Windows 7 Pro already, but yeah, now that the laptop is windows 10 pro instead of home, it worked right away. gonna start getting to used to it over the weekend and if all is good gonna go as far as to just remove chrome from my desktop so i'm not tempted to be stupid anymore haha. i get the feeling that video playback isn't going to be PERFECT over this remote desktop connection, but otherwise it feels pretty perfect. i'm typing to you on it right now with no lag or visual downgrade.
 

Rogue Leader

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Correct I never said he needs Pro on both machines, he asked about using Windows 7 on the laptop (aka the "server") and I indicated if he did he would need Win 7 Pro on that laptop then. May as well keep and update 10.