Remote Desktop without Active Directory

Actually, there aren't any AD settings related specifically to Remote Desktop.

Life would be a little simpler if you were in a strictly NT domain environment (you could use your domain users account for the following step).

However, since you aren't, there is still a way to do what you want. On any XP machine that you want to access using Remote Desktop, you will need to create a local user account using the Local Users and Groups mmc. Once the user account is created, make sure it isadded to the "Remote Desktop Users" group.

This should solve your problem.

To do this you need to use the Remote Assistance feature. However, this will only work between 2 XP computers. This does not require AD, nor do you need an account on the remote workstation.

The way Remote Assistance works is as follows:
1. User with problems sends you a Help request using email. This request is in the form of an invitation. The invitation is time limited.
2. You receive an email with the invitation as an attachment. You double-click the attachment which essentiallysends a message back to the user who initiated the invitation saying 'Okay, I'm available to help. Can I connect now?'
3. The user needing help will receive a pop-up window which gives them the choice of either allowing you to connect or not (essentially, either 'Come on in' or 'Don't bother me now').
4. If the user authorizes you to connect, an interactive session is started that does exactly what you want to do. You can follow the users mouse movements and keystrokes, or you can take control of the desktop while the user watches.

A couple of caveats:
1. As I said, the invitation is time limited. The invitaion you receive will specify the length of time the invitation is valid. If you try to use the invitation after it has expired, it won't work. An invitation "life-span" cannot be extended once sent. If the remote user still wants you to connect, he must initiate a new invitation.
2. You cannot use Remote Assistance to log-on without the users knowledge. The user must be logged and authorize you to connect.
3. Most important, where Remote Desktop will allow any Windows OS running the Remote Desktop client to connect to an XP machine, Remote Assistance can ONLY be used between 2 XP machines.

Hope this answers your question.

I'm sorry, but there is no other way using Microsoft-provided tools. I think you misunderstand Microsoft's use of the the term "interactive". The only two methods you have (using Microsoft provided tools) to "remote control" a computer running XP is by using Remote Desktop (in which case you run a seperate session than the currently logged on user), or through Remote Assistance (in which case you can "interact" with the currently logged on user).

If you don't (or won't) believe me, continueto wait for other answers which will tell you the same thing (or suggest other non-Microsoft tools), or spend your money calling Microsoft Tech support so that they can tell you the same thing.

Cheers.