Remote Desktop Problem

In a nutshell, I've setup Remote Desktop on my main PC, and can connect from my laptop, and it works wonders. However there is one very annoying thing - from the welcome screen where I choose between one of the two users (my main user being Hugo Hudson who is an Administrator) I have to manually (from in front of the home PC) log in as this user until I can see the desktop before I am able to connect remotely.

In other words, after the system boots up, and is waiting for me to choose a user, if I then try to use Remote Desktop I am presented with the usual login box, my username and password is accepted, I begin to see a default desktop with the windows background and then the connection fails. Meanwhile watching my main PC's screen, for a few seconds the user Hugo Hudson shows 'logged in' underneath the name, then returns to showing nothing (implying not logged in). Obviously this is very annoying since it means that if I reboot my PC (via Remote Desktop for example) then I can never log in again, and I'm sure this isn't how things are supposed to be. What can I do to fix this?

HOWEVER, there is something else that I should mention first, which may or may not be relevant. When I first installed XP in my 'infinite wisdom ' I decided to remove both Client for Microsoft Networks and also File and Printer Sharing from the LAN connection that my main PC uses to connect to the router. This was for security - I don't file share nor printer share, so I didn't want them kicking around. However, and this may or may not be related, I discover that my list of services on my computer does NOT include 'Workstation'. I am running XP Pro, and if I use Administrative Tools -> Computer Management -> Users -> Pick a User -> Member Of tab, I get the error message: 'The Workstation service has not been started'. Also looking at this webpage: http://www.theeldergeek.com/workstation.htm implies that this is A Bad Thing(TM).

So I am basically saying this:
a) is it even possible to connect using Remote Desktop without manually accessing my machine after, say a reboot?
b) if so, am I unable to do it because of the lack of a Workstation service?
c) even if not, does it matter that my version of XP (Pro) is missing the Workstation service?
d) if so, how do I get it back?!

Phew. Any help at all will be seriously gratefully appreciated.

Hugo

I've never used RD with the Welcome Screen enabled, but I'm sure it works. You don't have to worry about security with Client MS Networks installed. You need it installed. If you have a router, then it most likley has a hardware based firewall.

I would try to reinstall the client by going to the properties of your NIC, click the Install button and go from there. You can enable File and Print Sharing, it won't hurt anything.

Thanks very much for taking the time to reply, I have to report on my progress - the problem is now solved. Your advice to reinstall the Client for Microsoft Networks was indeed good, and did indeed re-enable the Workstation service, but in fact had nothing to do with the problem.

In fact what the problem was is that I have the latest NVIDIA drivers installed. They come bundled with a heap of stuff, but amongst other things they install a service by the name of NVIDIA Display Driver Service. (Start+Run, type 'services.msc' then OK). When this service is running, for some unknown (to me) reason one is unable to log into a remote desktop account unless the user has manually logged in first. This is absolutely insane but well worth knowing! The simple fix is to select the service and hit 'stop this service', then double click it to modify the properties, and change startup type to disabled.

That is strange. Did you find this out from Nvidia?

Actually I trawled the web with Google, and found someone else with exactly the same problem. He too was experiencing a log-off directly after the attempted log-in using Remote Desktop, he too could log in fine if he'd already done so manually at his PC. He found that disabling this NVIDIA service did the trick.