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A few months ago Microsoft released an update to the Remote Desktop client that, among other things, added compatibility with Vista. I’ve just recently had the chance to try this out, and it’s pretty neat - it looks better, and seems to perform better too. I did hit one snag though. When I enabled Remote Desktop on my Vista machine, I checked the box that said only clients using Network Level Authentication (NLA) could connect. I thought this would work, since the release notes for the new Remote Desktop client said that it supported NLA. However, upon connecting from my XP laptop, I got this:

“The remote computer requires Network Level Authentication, which your computer does not support. For assistance, contact your system administrator or technical support.”

I did a little research, and here’s the deal. NLA simply isn’t available on XP (or at least, isn’t installed as a part of the new Remote Desktop). So to connect to Vista from your XP machines, you’ll need to uncheck the “requires NLA” box in Vista. After that it’s smooth sailing.