I do a lot of my work on my MacBook Pro and occasionally I need to access resources, files, or check something on my home desktop which is running Windows 7. One solution is to use VNC, which is great, but I rather install as few software on the machines as possible. Previously on Windows XP, it was really easy to enable Remote Desktop. On Windows 7 and Windows Vista, the way to enable Remote Desktop is a bit more buried in the newly redesigned Control Panel. I struggled with it for a bit, searching Microsoft’s support site, I came about the post to my answer. So here’s how you can connect from a Mac OS 10.5 Leopard machine to a Windows 7 machine via Remote Desktop.

Configure Windows 7

These directions are copied verbatim from the Microsoft site and reprinted here for future reference. These directions will work for Windows Vista also.

1. Open System by clicking the Start button, clicking Control Panel, clicking System and Security (System and Maintenance on Vista), and then clicking System.
2. In the left pane, click Remote settings. If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.
3. Select one of the “allow” options under Remote Desktop. For more information about these options, see What types of Remote Desktop connections should I allow?[Note: To be able to Remote Desktop into a Windows 7 machine from a Mac, you need to select "Allow connections from computers running any version of Remote Desktop (less secure).]
4. Click Select Users.
5. In the Remote Desktop Users dialog box, click Add.
6. In the Select Users or Groups dialog box, do one or more of the following:
   • To specify the search location, click Locations.
   • To specify the types of objects (user names) that you want to search for, clickObject Types.
   • In Enter the object names to select, type the user name that you want to search for.
7. When you find the correct name, click OK. The name will be displayed in the list of users in the Remote Desktop Users dialog box.

Connect via the Mac

Make sure you’ve installed either Microsoft’s Remote Desktop Client for the Mac or CoRD, which is what I use. I’ve used both, but I prefer CoRD for its simplicity and easier GUI.

Type in the IP Address or computer name and connect.