If you are using Remote Desktop, you may find that no matter how fast your connection is, speed is an issue. Here are some tricks to help speed up your remote desktop settings.

1. Change the size of the remote desktop to the smallest size that will work for you. Something along the lines of 800 x 600 pixels usually works for me. The smaller the size, the less screen information that needs to be transferred, and the quicker changes can be made.

2. Reduce the number of colors used. Yes, if you do this the lovely desktop picture make look a little funky. But does this really matter when using remote desktop? If you reduce the number of colors used, or the number of bits, you can greatly reduce the size of the data blocks being transferred when the screen is redrawn.

3. If your remote desktop client allows you to set a connection speed, choose a very slow speed like 56k even if you have a fast connection. When you set a slow speed, it will change the internal setting of the remote desktop client to speed things up by dropping the "fluff" features. When you do this, you'll usually notice a very good increase in speed with only a minimal negative effect on your experience as a user.