I am wanting to use the pb to access my windows desktop, such as transfer and copy files to pb, surf using firefox, watch movies, in other words everything i do on the computer.
Splashtop will let you duplicate you PC's desktop on your PB, so you can view videos on it, surf the web using Firefox, or do any thing else you can or your PC. But you must remember, that even if you're only using a 14" monitor with your PC, that monitor has four times the real estate than you PB screen has. So doing some, if not many, things, will probably be less than a smooth and satisfactory experience. Browsing with Firefox, for instance, would be a chore. For one thing, the finger touch operations are completely different than on the PB. To scroll on a webpage, you don't scroll like you do with the PB browser, you have to grab the scrollbar and move it. And if you think clicking on links can sometimes be difficult on the PB browser, the links are much smaller using Firefox through Splashtop (though you still can pinch to zoom). Watching video is generally pretty decent, assuming you have a fairly fast wifi connection. As for moving files back and forth from PB to PC, this is a no go with Splashtop.
ES File Explorer (needs sideloading), however, will let you move files back and forth, and will also allow you to stream supported audio and video from your PC to it's internal media player. You can't see you PC's desktop with ES, you can only see the shared folders on your PC with it.
Lan File Explorer will also let you stream supported media on your PB and transfer files from your PC to your PB. Streaming Now also will let you stream media to your PB, including some types that the PB doesn't support. Again, you'll only see shared folders on your PC for both of these.
As for Remote Desktop, don't have it so I don't know.
I've been very pleased with Remote Desktop for PB. I connect to a variety of different Win versions. Good success with the media I have played though I use it more for Windoze development and administration of the machines.
Remote Desktop uses RDP which is built into Windows and most of the other products require you to install a client on your PC. You may want to get a good stylus for tapping as everything is much smaller on your Playbook.
Splashtop doesn't play nice with my PlayBook. I don't usually play media remotely but when I do I use Orb. As for remote desktop, I use RDM+. It is usually solid and if I want to transfer files, I use box.net from PC to PB or just use the RDM app on my 9850 which supports file transfer. You can transfer files from PB to BB to PC. Some PC client downloads are required but don't leave a big footprint and consume minimal resources.
Probably the best PB app that can be used to move files from your PC to your PB or vice-versa is Ghost Commander. I say this even though I haven't been able to connect to my PC with Ghost under beta OS 2.1- it worked fine under 2.01. Its a dual pane file explorer in which you can navigate to a shared folder on you PC that has the files you want to move in one pane, then to the folder on your PB where you want to move the files to in the other pane, then multi-select the files to be moved, then hit move on the toolbar, and your done. But, like I said, it's not working for me under 2.1.
Everyone says Accesstogo is the best one but does anyone has a tutorial on how to set your desktop to use this app?
Who's everyone? If so, everyone needs to explain to me why accesstogo is better than Splashtop. I don't see it. Splashtop seems to show a truer picture of your desktop and is easier to use. Streaming vids to your playbook works fine with Splashtop, while using accesstogo to stream vids, well, the vids do stream, but they are unwatchable. Also, I think Spashtop works with all versions of Windows, seemingly not so with Accesstogo (Windows 7 home users, you're our of luck). And while Accesstogo has a paid streamer called Blaze that they claim works much faster than the basic app alone, at $69 for the privilege to get this improved performance, I, for one, am not going to find out if this is true.
