2. VHD Shell Integration
Windows 8 now offers direct shell
integration with VHD files, letting you seamlessly “mount” them as if
they were physical disks and then browse through them using File
Explorer. To do so, all you need to do is locate the VHD file in
question in the filesystem—remember, you can create them with Hyper-V
manager—and then double-click it in File Explorer. (Or, right-click and
choose Mount.)
When you do, the VHD is mounted and made
accessible as the next available drive letter, much as is the case when
you insert a USB drive or memory stick. This can be seen in Figure 6.
OK, fine. But why do this? Working in virtual
environments can sometimes be a lot slower than doing so with physical
PCs and disks. By bridging the gap—accessing a virtual disk from your
host, physical PC—you can perform actions like bulk file copies more
quickly than if you do so from within a virtual OS. When you’re done,
simply right-click the disk in Explorer and choose Eject to unmount it.
3. Remote Desktop and Remote Desktop Host
All versions of Windows 8, including
Windows RT, include the desktop-based Remote Desktop Connection
software and have access to the free Metro-style Remote Desktop app
from Windows Store, allowing you connect to remote computers using
Microsoft’s RDC technology and access them through a window, much as
you access virtual machines in a window using Hyper-V Manager or
Hyper-V Virtual Machine Connection.
As a Metro-style app, Remote Desktop offers a
full-screen experience and lets you configure multiple remote
connections, though you can only access one at a time. The Remote
Desktop interface can be seen in Figure 7.
Remote Desktop Connection is a bit more useful.
It runs on the desktop, but you can run multiple instances of this
application at a time and thus connect to multiple remote computers as
well. Remote Desktop Connection can be seen in Figure 8.
Figure 8: Connect to multiple remote machines simultaneously with RDC.
With Windows 8 Pro, you can also host remote
connections, a feature that is generally available only on server
operating systems like Windows Server 2012. That way, you or another
user (with the proper credentials) could use Remote Desktop or Remote
Desktop Connection to access your PC across the home network or, with a
VPN solution (or Windows Server’s DirectAccess feature), across the
Internet. This feature is called Remote Desktop Host.
To enable RDH, you need to access the
System Properties window. But the easiest way to find this interface is
to use Start Search: Type remote,
select the Settings filter in the Search pane, and then choose the
option called Allow remote access to your computer. The System
Properties window, with the Remote tab preselected, will appear as
shown in Figure 9.
By default, remote desktop connections are not
allowed for security reasons. To enable this type of connection, choose
one of the following options instead:
- Allow connections from computers running any version of Remote Desktop (less secure): While
it’s possible you may want to choose this option, only do so if you’ll
be connecting to your PC from a very old PC running Windows XP or
Vista, a non-Windows PC running some other OS, or a mobile device like
an iPad.
- Allow connections only from computers running Remote Desktop with Network Level Authentication (more secure): If
you will be connecting to your PC from a PC running Windows 7 or
Windows 8 (or Windows Server 2008 R2 or 2012), this is the way to go.
These OSes support Network Level Authentication (NLA), and this will
provide you with a more secure connection in which you’re authenticated
against the remote PC before the connection is fully established.
TIP
There’s an additional layer of complexity that occurs if you wish to
access a home computer that is sitting behind a router of some kind
from outside your home, perhaps from work. To do this, you will need
additional software, such as a Virtual Private Network (VPN), or you
will need to configure your router to allow such a connection. Since
the latter is complex and router-specific, we recommend the former.
LogMeIn Hamachi (logmein.com) is a great option for this, and it’s free for noncommercial use.
Optionally, you can further lock down the RDH by
specifying which users can access the PC. That is, when you use Remote
Desktop or RDC to connect to your PC, you will be prompted to supply a
username and password. By default, the currently signed-in user is
automatically OK’d at the time you enable RDH. But if you want to
configure other user accounts (or user groups) for this access, click
Select Users. Then, in the Remote Desktop Users window shown in Figure 10, add the users and/or groups you want via the Add button.
Note that these users must be already configured
for use on the PC, as they will sign in to their custom environment
when they access the PC remotely.
To test that Remote Desktop Host is working
properly, use the Remote Desktop client on another PC on your network
to try and connect to your PC.
