back when I had wiwdows XP on my desktop I used to be able to use my laptop, also xp, to see the "desktop pc's," desktop and run program on it.

Now I have vista premium on my desktop and 7 on the laptop. I can't seem to get it to work now. Was it remove or disabled in windows 7

Reason I ask is I have been teaching a friend to use CS5, "photoshop" and can't always go there but would like to connect to her system and control it over the internet. Is this still possible without additional software? TIA

Remote desktop is only for Vista Business & Ultimate. I saw several installs from others for Service Pack1 but there is no telling what malware they included or methods they build in to spy on you. Logmein will allow a primitive connection however the graphics aren't very good. You might try to goggle others but logmein is the only one I've tried.