Remote desktop client (?)

What capabilities do I need?

[HeyJim]

Sales people are telling me that I need XP Pro on both my laptop and my office desktop computer when I want to access my office desktop from home with my lap top.

As I read help files and info on the web I think I'm reading that if I have XP Home on my laptop I can access the files/programs on my office desktop machine as long as Remote Desktop is enabled on the office desktop machine. Is this correct?

I'm about to buy a laptop in large part so that I can work from home on occassion. I'm prepared to pay extra for XP Pro but if I don't need Pro capabilites to access my work computer that is running Remote Desktop then, well, I guess I'll save the money.

Do I have this correct, that if we limit this question to the XP OS that only the machine being accessed needs to have XP Pro?

[mattglet]

Only the machine you need to access (i.e. your office computer) needs XP Pro. You can download the remote desktop component for free from Microsoft, and install it on your laptop. Once it's installed, you just enter the IP of your office computer, hit connect, and you're all set.

To nutshell your question, you don't need Pro on your laptop, Home will be just fine. You only need Pro on your office computer.

[HeyJim]

Thanks, Matt.