How can I access a Remote Desktop on a Windows 2000 Professional (not
Server) machine from my Windows XP Professional machine?  I want to
use Win 2000 as the "server" and Win XP as the "client" (because my
tower has legal Win 2000 and my laptop has legal XP, so I would like
to "use" the tower box from the laptop's display while sitting
confortably on my living room couch).  Windows 2000 Professional
appears to NOT have any Remote Desktop server software available for
it ... or I'm just missing something fundamental.  I found the client
at microsoft.com, but don't see anywhere to download a server
application.  I don't want to pay a lot for a Remote Desktop server
application for my Windows 2000 machine ... I assumed this type of
service was just built into the Windows 2000 OS.  If there is no
built-in answer, I will just use NetMeeting's Remote Desktop Sharing,
but that involves going back and forth between the two computers a
bunch of times to get the sharing started up, so it's not as
convenient.  Thanks for the help!

kleucht-ga:

You are not missing anything fundamental - the Windows 2000 Operating
system does not come with the service (the server component) that
WinXP machines come with to serve the desktop display to other
machines (but as you know, you can install the clients to access WinXP
machines).

There are several possible solutions - one of the preferred ones is to
use the VNC program (Virtual Network Computing).  You can install the
VNC Server on the machine you want to connect TO, and the VNC Viewer
on the machine you want to connect FROM.  It is better to start the
VNC server as a SERVICE (it is in the documentation), so it will start
up when the WIN2K machine boots.

For VNC, start at http://www.uk.research.att.com/vnc/

Other information that may be of interest are

http://www.ntcompatible.com/thread17754-1.html

http://www.experts-exchange.com/Operating_Systems/Win2000/Q_20862458.html
 (scroll down)

[Possible several others if you search for VNC - you can also check
user experiences on groups.google.com ].  The several variations like
VNC, TightVNC, RealVNC are compatible with each other, but I'd
recommend selecting ONE server and client package for both (all)
machines (e.g., RealVNC for both server and client).  VNC also works
on multiple operating systems and the viewer can be used from a
browser (if you set it up that way enabling Java).

Best regards.