New MacBook Air with a Windows 7 Desktop

I am selling my Windows 8 ultrabook and replacing with a MacBook Air. I have a Windows 7 Desktop I would like to use to run programs that my mac won't be able to run. I have a online business and some of the software that I use are only able to be installed on Windows based computer.

My plan is to have all the adobe programs, illustrator, photoshop etc installed on my mac. The ftp client I use, webcrawling software etc I want to have on my desktop.

I was thinking for this setup. If I am making new graphics on my mac and I save it to a dropbox folder then it should be on my desktop and ready to use.

Questions I have... I would like to access the desktop 24/7 from my macbook remotely. So if I have to upload something when I am at home I can just login to the desktop and a few click I will have that file or be able to upload to my websites.

Any programs you would recommend me using? I am not sure if macs come with something already installed to access windows computers remotely as long as there is internet access and easy file sharing.

I know I will need internet access wherever I am with my macbook which is fine. I would prefer to stay away from Bootcamp because I don't want to use up the memory on my Macbook Air (will be delivered today). Only issues I have had in the past with connecting remotely is if the windows desktop installs a update then I am locked out of the desktop if it shuts off or reboots and is at the login screen.

I am sure there are some users in the same boat, I would like to know how you have this configured, that works for you.

Use Microsoft Remote Desktop. It is free and gives you the most usable remote experience

Welcome to the forum.

I'm a little confused I'm afraid. Do you want Windows ON your Mac or are you just wanting a remote connection to your existing Windows machine? Or do you want both?

Sorry for being confusing. I just want to be able to access the desktop remotely. The issues I have had in the past the desktop would restart with an update and then I wouldn't be able to access the computer until I went home and logged back in.

Loading windows on a macbook air would take up to much memory since I will be installing the adobe suite.

As rshames said, if your version of Windows 7 will support it, Microsoft Remote Desktop would work for you.

But, just for the devil of it, I'd take a look at TeamViewer it's much much better if you need to remote access across the Internet as well as the local network.

MS RDC can be a real pain to configure reliably for Internet connectivity

Go with TeamViewer. It is free for individual use, very easy to set up, and works well. I have a setup similar to what you are describing. I even use dropbox for file moving.

My work computer is a Windows 7 machine that I use to edit video, do graphic work etc. I have a MB Air for home. I recently went out of town for 8 days and had an issue arise at work where I needed to access a file, make some changes on it, and start filezilla to enable an upload to an ftp server of said file. Worked smoothly and flawlessly.

Plus, you can log on to the computer from your laptop - no problem if you turn of the "hit ctrl, alt, del" feature to log on. (I discovered that was an issue - no alt key on a mac!)

Teamview can also be set up to "wake" your computer if it is off say due to a power failure. There are some setup requirements that have to be done on the windows machine such as "wake on lan" turned on and I forget what else but they have excellent instructions on their site to explain it.

I have used both and I have found that Windows Remote Desktop works well on a local network but not so well when used outside the local network. Teamviewer will work very well even over a slow connection.

Lisa

Got to agree with Iclev. TeamViewer is an excellent program.