After a bit of break, it is time to resume our series of articles on Windows Live Mesh. This time I will cover a great feature I recently discovered: the ability to make remote desktop connections from a web browser. If you are using Windows Live Mesh, this is done very easily. Let’s see how it works.

Prerequisites - Internet Explorer & Windows Live Mesh

As with many good things in life, you must meet some prerequisites in order for this to work. First of all, you must use Internet Explorer. When trying to do this from other browsers (I tried in Firefox 7), you will be told that the browser is not supported.

Another important condition is that the computer(s) you want to connect to, be turned on and have Windows Live Mesh running, using your Windows Live ID.

Also, remote connections should be enabled on your computers. To learn how to do this, check our guide: Enabling or Disabling Remote Desktop Connections in Windows Live Mesh.

Connecting From the Web

First, sign in to SkyDrive and then go to Devices. Alternatively, sign in at this address: https://devices.live.com .

There you can see a list with all the computers synchronized by Windows Live Mesh using your Windows Live ID. For each computer you can see its status. If a computer is turned on then, beneath its name and status, you have a link which says "Connect to this computer". Click on it.

A new window opens in Internet Explorer, where the see the status of the connection is being displayed.

Depending on the connection speed, after a while you will be seeing the login screen on the remote computer. Select the user-name you want to login with, type the correct password and click on the login button.

You are now welcomed by the desktop on the remote computer.

Configuring the Remote Connection

Just like its desktop counterpart, the web remote connection offers some configuration options and features. All can be found on the top bar shown in your browser window.

All the configuration details are as in the desktop version of Windows Live Mesh. If you want details about them, read the "Options for Managing Remote Connections" section in our previous tutorial: Connecting to Remote Computers via Windows Live Mesh.

Disconnecting from a Remote Computer

Disconnecting from the remote computer can be done in several ways:

• By closing the browser window where the remote connection is being done;
• By clicking on the name of the remote computer and in the top bar and selecting Disconnect;
• By clicking on the X button when viewing the connection in full-screen mode.

Conclusion

This is a pretty cool feature, isn’t it? And you are now one of the very few people that know about it and how to use it. It can be handy when you don’t have one of your computers and laptops around. You can connect to your home computers from work, a friend’s house or any other computer with access to the Internet and Internet Explorer.

Related articles:

Enabling or Disabling Remote Desktop Connections in Windows Live Mesh
Connecting to Remote Computers via Windows Live Mesh
Windows Live Mesh - Sync Folders Between Computers & the Cloud