The Remote Desktop Experience on Windows 7
I’ve been a big fan of Remote Desktop since it was introduced in Windows XP, and in my opinion this feature is one of the most important reasons to choose XP Pro, Vista Business/Ultimate or Windows 7 Pro/Ultimate rather than the Home editions. Although the Home editions include the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) client, they do not include the RDP host service. Thus you can use a Home edition computer to connect to the desktop of a Pro/Business/Ultimate machine, but you can’t connect to the Home machine’s desktop remotely (unless you use some sort of third party software or service, such as pcAnywhere or GoToMyPC).
I have two main desktop systems: my “upstairs office” computer, a Dell XPS dual core currently running Windows 7 RC, and my “downstairs” computer, an HP Core i7 (Nehalem) running Windows 7 RTM. For various reasons, sometimes I need to work in one location and sometimes in the other. I like being able to move from one computer to the other and take up where I left off working, without the need to close documents on one system and find and reopen them on the other. I can just start an RDP session and work on my downstairs computer while I’m upstairs, or vice versa.
The remote desktop experience has gotten better with each generation of Microsoft operating system. Windows 7 RDP includes a number of important improvements.
Windows 7 RDP provides better multiple monitor support, so that you can expand the remote desktop across all monitors regardless of the client monitor configuration. This was possible with Vista’s “span mode,” but is much easier to implement on Windows 7. All you have to do is check a box on the display tab in the Remote Desktop Client 7.0, which is included with Windows 7 (mstsc.exe).
In Vista, monitor spanning worked only if your primary monitor on the client machine was on the left, your monitors had the same vertical resolution, and the total of all resolutions was no more than 4096 x 2048. In Windows 7, the client monitors can be arranged any way you want and there are no restrictions on the resolution. Under the hood, Vista span mode sees the multiple monitors as one big monitor, whereas in Windows 7, each is presented to applications as a separate monitor.
Another great feature in Windows 7 RDP is full support for Aero glass – well, almost. The remote desktop experience isn’t completely the same as being at the local machine. As indicated by my remark above, you can get the Aero Glass effect over the RDP connection – unless you choose to have your remote desktop span monitors. In other words, you can have monitor spanning or you can have Glass, but you can’t have both. But when using a single monitor, Glass works great – as long as you have a Vista or Windows RDP client computer. You don’t get Aero when connecting to your Windows 7 computer from XP.
There are also “under the hood” improvements to RDP that speed up the performance of RDP, and you can now get the full user experience when playing DirectShow videos over RDP (you need to install the appropriate codecs on the client). Additionally, RDP now supports two-way audio (previously it was “audio out” only).
If you love Remote Desktop, you’re likely to love it even more with Windows 7.
- Debra Littlejohn Shinder, MVP (Enterprise Security)
deb@shinder.net www.debshinder.com
James Dough on September 09, 2009 at 05:10 AM
Persoanlly I don't like the build-in Windows remote desktop. It needs to be configured, connection process is complicated, I have to train the other user how to do it... That's why I chose http:/www.techinline.com Techinline Remote Desktop. The simplest service for remote desktop at the very affordable price.
bluetooth headset on September 12, 2009 at 04:22 AM
I just tested the RDP client of Win7RC as guest.
Opened a connection to Ubuntu 9.04 server (no desktop) While I did not experience any dropouts I did notice that both cores of the CPU went to max and pretty much stayed there and the data transfer to a terminal window had the net bandwidth maxed out as well.
None to impressive. I can VNC and RDP from Vista little to no CPU and very low bandwidth as well as other Linux and Windows XP clients. I suspect that this may have something to do with your experience as well.
rog on October 14, 2009 at 03:21 AM
it seems that windows 7 remote desktop is incompatible with older versions? if you log into a windows 7 machine from a windows xp machine, the windows 7 will show a black screen (and needs to be rebooted). in my view this is horrible. i would not had upgraded if i knew...
DrAT on October 23, 2009 at 04:37 AM
it seems that windows 7 remote desktop is incompatible with older versions? if you log into a windows 7 machine from a windows xp machine, the windows 7 will show a black screen (and needs to be rebooted). in my view this is horrible. i would not had upgraded if i knew...
Go to 'Control Panel>System>Advanced System Settings' and select the 'Remote' tab. Click the radio buttion under 'Remote Desktop' to 'Allow connections from computers running any version of Remote Desktop (less secure)'.
asnandrey on October 26, 2009 at 08:46 PM
I'm using an external monitor at home and can't seem to use both monitors under RDP. That checkbox for "User all my available monitors for the remote session" does not have any effect!
co on December 09, 2009 at 09:42 AM
Agree with above post. I have 2 monitors at work, and two monitors at home. When I Remote Desktop from home, I cannot get the "use all my available monitors" option to do anything.
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Mariana on July 30, 2010 at 07:53 AM
ThinVNC is another alternative: a pure web app that uses HTML5 to replace the old VNC. ThinVNC is free for non commercial use:
http://www.supportsmith.com/ThinVNC/HTML5-VNC.aspx
:)
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On http://www.undesktop.com you can find ThinStuff XP/VS Server, a Terminal Server RDP software that runs also on Windows XP Home.
It's cheaper too
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David B. Kite on November 12, 2010 at 10:33 PM
My experience with the "Use all my monitors for the remote session" is that it is not a GUI replacement for the command line mstsc /span command. It is so much cooler then that. I have only gotten it (the check box option) work on my TS session to a windows server 2008 R2. The result was that I have an RDP session that acted like it is truly multiple monitors, not just one big monitor. IE, the task bar was on one screen, the windows maximized to one screen etc... The only thing else I have seen work like this is the citrix zen desktop. It does not seem to work from windows 7 to windows 7 (where I really need it), or windows 7 to windows 2008 (not R2). There you have it. Very cool, but not in place everywhere I would like it.
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I think there is no comparison of windows vista remote desktop with windows 7 like windows vista each and every failure it's desktop is also fail to give users more secure and enhance remote experience.
However i have not check remote desktop of windows 7 but i am sure enough that it will also superb as it's windows is light, smart, more secure and easy to use.
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Kate on June 13, 2011 at 08:03 AM
Our company uses ScreenConnect (http://www.screenconnect.com) for all our remote support needs. Works great! Not free, but for those who use remote support regularly, it's well worth the investment.
Daniel Lord on June 21, 2011 at 01:46 PM
The in-built Remote Desktop feature seems complicated in comparison to the many add-on remote access software available for download on the Internet. To see a comparison of these programs, check out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_remote_desktop_software.
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