Remote Desktop connects you to somebody’s workstation so you can fix it yourself rather than talking them through it. Open it from Tools, under Infrastructure.
Connect
There are three stages before you see a desktop, and each one mirrors the real thing.
- Pick the machine. Search for the hostname. If you do not know it, look the person up in Directory first: their record carries a Computer Name.
- Sign in. A domain login appears over the machine’s screen. Use your own domain account.
- Wait for the session. The connecting screen holds until the desktop is ready.
While you are connected
You get a working desktop to do the job on. What you need varies by ticket: installing a driver, changing a setting, running something from a terminal, checking the event log.
Disconnect
In the full-screen view, the Dashboard back control is hidden while you are connecting and while you are connected. The way out is Disconnect inside the remote session itself.
This is deliberate rather than an oversight. Leaving a remote session open on somebody’s machine is a real habit worth not forming, so the simulator does not let you wander off from one.
Once you have disconnected, the back control returns.
If you opened Remote Desktop in the split pane beside a ticket, the pane’s close control is always available. Note that closing the pane only puts the tool away, it does not end the session, so disconnect properly before you move on.
On a phone
The remote desktop is a wide layout and it pans inside its own scroll area on small screens. A hint appears the first time suggesting you rotate the device, and it can be dismissed.
If the machine will not connect
The picker tells you when a host is unreachable. That is usually the ticket rather than a fault: a machine that is off, or on a network segment with a problem, is something to chase in the Server Room or with the user, not something to retry.