Remote Desktop in Microsoft Office 2004 folder

[College Professor]

I work at a community college in Canada. I teach Graphic Design and use a
Apple G4 Laptop running OS X 10.4. While I was looking through some folders
recently I noticed a folder called "Remote Desktop" buried in the Microsoft
Office 2004 folder. Has anyone ever seen this folder when they installed
Office unto their system?

I checked it out on the web and it seems Remote Desktop is made by Apple as
a way to manage computers linked on a server.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[William Smith]

I work at a community college in Canada. I teach Graphic Design and use a
Apple G4 Laptop running OS X 10.4. While I was looking through some folders
recently I noticed a folder called "Remote Desktop" buried in the Microsoft
Office 2004 folder. Has anyone ever seen this folder when they installed
Office unto their system?

I checked it out on the web and it seems Remote Desktop is made by Apple as
a way to manage computers linked on a server.

You're confusing two products.

The Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection (RDC) client is for connecting
to Windows XP, Vista or Terminal Server. For more information have a
look here
<http://www.microsoft.com/mac/downlo...download/MISC/RDC2.0_Public_Beta_download.xml>.

Apple Remote Desktop (ARD) is Apple's administrative tool for managing
Mac OS X systems. For more information have a look here
<http://www.apple.com/remotedesktop/>.

Hope this helps!

--

bill

William M. Smith, Microsoft Interop MVP - Mac/Windows
Entourage Help Page <http://entourage.mvps.org/>
Entourage Help Blog <http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/>

 

[College Professor]

Thanks, but I am not sure what the Remote Desktop folder does for Microsoft
Office 2004. Is it a utility? Why do you need one on a Mac?

 

[William Smith]

Thanks, but I am not sure what the Remote Desktop folder does for Microsoft
Office 2004. Is it a utility? Why do you need one on a Mac?

I support folks at work who use Windows as their only computer. But at
home they have a Mac. We allow VPN connections from personal computers
to our company network and my home Mac folks are able to use RDC to
connect to their computers at work and work from home.

Also, if you have a Windows computer and a Mac at home but they are in
different locations then you can work at the Mac and use RDC to connect
to your Windows computer over the network.

If you're geeky like some of us then you may be running a Windows Server
at home that's stuck in a closet out of the way. I can do all my
administration and changes to the Windows Server from my Mac. The same
applies if you're like me and administer Windows Servers but use a Mac
as your workstation.

Hope this helps!

--

bill

William M. Smith, Microsoft Interop MVP - Mac/Windows
Entourage Help Page <http://entourage.mvps.org/>
Entourage Help Blog <http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/>

 

[CyberTaz]

Hi Prof -

I'm guessing here, but to offer you a less technical "insight" - Is it
possible that you had the Mac (or at least Office) set up by the IT folks?
If so they may have simply used the same "standard" installation procedure
as they would for in-house Macs which might include the RD software -
especially if the school has a mixed bag of Mac & PC users.

That may explain how it got there, but like Bill says there are at least 2
different "remote desktop" apps, so it isn't certain which one you have.
Neither should be of concern other than whatever amount of disk space it
occupies... Have you noticed any anomalies?

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[College Professor]

Hi Taz,

Haven't noticed any anomalies, but I can't figure out why the IT department
left it in the folder. Is it standard with the 2004 version of Microsoft
Office?

Can they connect to my Mac from an outside Windows server using VNC or the
Remote Desktop client for Mac? I don't care if they look in on me at the
College, but I have concerns about someone invading my privacy at home. I
removed the Remote Desktop folder after I discovered it.

Thanks for your help.

 

[CyberTaz]

Well, I'm just guessing here, but my expectation is that it was more likely
there as an inadvertent oversight rather than as an attempt to emulate Big
Brother Further, it's intent would more likely be to enable the Mac user
to reach out rather than have someone reach in. IIRC, it has to be iniated
on both sides.

 

[William Smith]

Hi Taz,

Haven't noticed any anomalies, but I can't figure out why the IT department
left it in the folder. Is it standard with the 2004 version of Microsoft
Office?

It's bundled with Office 2004 but is also freely available on
Microsoft's site.

Can they connect to my Mac from an outside Windows server using VNC or the
Remote Desktop client for Mac? I don't care if they look in on me at the
College, but I have concerns about someone invading my privacy at home. I
removed the Remote Desktop folder after I discovered it.

The RDC client bundled with Office 2004 allows *you* to connect to a
Windows XP workstation or Terminal Server. It's not something that can
be used to connect from Windows to Mac.

Don't be concerned with it if you don't need it. It's harmless to you
and can't be used against you.

--

bill

William M. Smith, Microsoft Interop MVP - Mac/Windows
Entourage Help Page <http://entourage.mvps.org/>
Entourage Help Blog <http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/>