I’m a frequent user of Windows’ remote desktop feature. It’s a stellar remote control solution: It’s incredibly fast, almost like sitting on the remote PC, and has features like bringing over the clipboard and even sounds from the controlled computer.
Much better than VNC, really. VNC is painfully slow compared to it, even over multi-megabit internet connections.
There is one feature Windows Remote Desktop is lacking, though: File sharing between the computers.
I had recently heard about Microsoft’s Windows Live FolderShare, a synchronization service. Now, you might not initially think it’s a good option, it is Microsoft afterall… but Microsoft has been doing a fair share of good applications lately: Visio 2007, Visual Studio 2005+, even the new Windows Live Mail is actually very nice to use, despite not working in some browsers. Oh, and isn’t Microsoft the company which makes Windows, so their solution for syncing might actually integrate into it pretty nicely…
So I installed FolderShare on my laptop and desktop (naturally through Remote Desktop ;)), and I have to say it was a breeze. I only had to log in to FolderShare, set up a shared folder on the laptop and set up the desktop to sync to it as well – all very quickly and easily set up, didn’t even require a reboot. Syncing a couple of files I wanted to move was a breeze as well.
If you’re a Windows user and have multiple PC’s (or Mac, FolderShare supports Mac’s too), I would most definitely recommend checking FolderShare out.