Filed under: Software
Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection 2 now available
This is news that is certain to make Mac based Windows Admins (of which I am one) very happy: Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection 2 is finally out of beta. The final release includes all the new features that Microsoft added, some of the highlights include:- The ability to open multiple instances of Remote Desktop without resorting to a hack (though I do believe that each connection spawns a new instance of the app itself).
- Redesigned UI
- Support for Network Level Authentication (which makes connections more secure)
Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection 2 is free, and a Universal app. And as always, I would be remiss if I didn't mention the very capable CoRD, which is an open source replacement for Microsoft's tool.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
onedollarbill said 5:13PM on 7-01-2008
Nice, but currently the link to download the application is offline. 2:13pm PST
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onedollarbill said 5:16PM on 7-01-2008
NM - They have two places on the page. The one at the bottom which lists the 1.03 version as well is not active, but there is a section with the various .dmg files in the middle.
agjinc said 5:32PM on 7-01-2008
CoRD is amazing, I couldn't do my job without it. RDC is clunky at best, so far...
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skramarsky said 5:38PM on 7-01-2008
So, is it any different from RDC 2.0 Beta 3 which has been out for ages?
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Tony said 7:53PM on 7-01-2008
They've done some work to fix the keyboard issues.
OTOH not enough - it's *still* physically impossible to type the # character on a UK keyboard. So much for them fixing all the reported bugs. So it's still unusable. Great.
Tony said 8:06PM on 7-01-2008
..and checking the forums this was reported more than once. sigh.
RDC 1.0 FTW. The only version I've ever found that works flawlessly with everything I can throw at it.
jc5810 said 6:20PM on 7-01-2008
I prefer CORD's interface (one window with the browsing tab on the side), but every time I log out of a system, CORD crashes. Most annoying if I have other connections open.
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Brian said 7:08PM on 7-01-2008
Have you tried the latest beta, much better and fewer crashes.
JKT said 9:40PM on 7-01-2008
I have been using CoRD for about 6 months and I cannot recall it crashing a single time. Have you run any permissions repairs and/or directory repairs (a la DiskWarrior) on your system to ensure there aren't other causes for the crashing?
EMoShunz said 6:47PM on 7-01-2008
i prefer cord as a rule, however...
since my company switched to windows server 2008, i can not connect using cord...can't find any solutions on the interweb yet either :(
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Richard Dolan said 7:25PM on 7-01-2008
Since discovering CoRD, I think I might have used MS RDP twice...
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Tony said 7:55PM on 7-01-2008
I never got on with CoRD. Its keyboard mappings are utterly screwy eg. in the release version Ctrl+Tab doesn't work at all, and in the beta Ctrl+Tab the works but half the keyboard characters come out wrong, and it crashes every 15 minutes.
Unfortunately it also appears to be abandonware... so there's no hope of fixes.
Richard Dolan said 8:06PM on 7-01-2008
I agree that there are a couple of screwy things, but I can live with them for the ability to quickly move between 3 or 4 servers without having to navigate through a mess of windows. This is typical for me as I may be on a TS, SQL, and SharePoint server all at once, for example. CoRD is the closest thing to RoyalTS in my experience.
Fritz Laurel said 9:09PM on 7-01-2008
Why is there an installer with this?? And why does it require me to put in my password??
Why can't MS just make a regular app that you just drag over like I seem to remember doing w/ v.1?? They have to make everything difficult. I refuse to install this piece of crap!
Even their Mac guys don't get it.
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JKT said 9:53PM on 7-01-2008
I think it's truly bizarre in this age of multithreading and advanced virtualization for MS to only allow multiple sessions through RDC via running multiple instances of it. OMG, this is archaic methodology. And the app is *how* many Mb in size?? It appears RDC is symbolic of all that is wrong up in Redmond.
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Jash Sayani said 8:48AM on 7-02-2008
If I install this on my Mac, can I remotely connect to My Mac using Remote Desktop on PC ?
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EMoShunz said 9:27AM on 7-02-2008
i'm afraid not, you need an rdc server (apple makes a nice one). there are options like 'team viewer' and 'log me in', they are free, but really really slow.
Francisco De La Cruz said 10:53AM on 7-02-2008
Does anybody rdesktop?
Initially had some issues compiling, bit it is all I use on my MBP.
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Wally said 1:54PM on 7-02-2008
YAY! I had no idea this was available for macs. Thanks for bringing it up!
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kL said 5:06PM on 7-02-2008
"Beta" used to mean software that is *feature-complete*, and in testing phase.
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