Microsoft has finally released Remote Desktop Connection Client for Mac 2 after nearly a year in beta. It allows Mac users to, according to Microsoft, “easily connect to remote Windows PCs.”
Microsoft’s website states, “With Remote Desktop Connection Client 2, you can quickly, simply and securely connect to Windows-based PCs to access Windows-based files, applications, devices, and networks from your Mac.”
Features include:
• One Mac, unlimited Windows. New Multiple Session Support gives Mac users simultaneous access to multiple Windows-based PCs or to a network server that hosts remote applications and files. Since it works with Vista and is a Universal application, Remote Desktop Connection Client 2 is compatible with the latest technologies on Windows and Mac platforms.
• A more Mac-like experience. A redesigned user interface makes this application more customizable. Create your own keyboard shortcuts; and even access and change preferences during active sessions.
• Print everything off your Mac. Access and print from Windows applications to any printer that can be configured from your Intel- or PowerPC-based Macs.
• Get fast updates and easy help. Microsoft Error Reporting Tool and Microsoft AutoUpdate are included so you can anonymously submit data on software related issues and get software updates as soon as they are available. Remote Desktop Connection Client 2 also takes advantage of the new Helpviewer and improved help topics for quick access to fresh online product help from within the application.
• Reduce security breaches. Network Level Authentication (NLA) is a new authentication method in Windows Vista that offers security enhancements that can help to protect the remote computer from hackers and malicious software. It completes user authentication before you establish a full Remote Desktop Connection. Please see Windows Help for more details on network level authentication.
This free download runs natively on both Intel-based and PowerPC-based Macs and supports eight languages: English, French, German, Italian, Swedish, Spanish, Dutch, and Japanese.
More info and download link here.
Microsoft’s Remote Desktop Connection/Terminal Services actually works very well and is better than Apple Remote Desktop and any VNC solution in several respects:
— ability to have the remote computer’s sound play locally (ARD? please?) as well as share local disks and printers with remote computer.
— quite fast over slow connections, makes use of some sort of graphics caching, and its protocol is obviously very efficient. When I connect to my Windows servers from home through VPN, CoRD lets me manage them very well, and the screen refresh is much, much better than ARD 3 from my MacBook Pro to my Xserve over the same connection.
— and here’s a big advantage – RDC connects to a “terminal” session by default on the remote computer– that is, the remote computer’s actual monitor shows the computer is locked by Administrator, does not show what that administrator is doing, thus you can have multiple people connected to their own sessions simultaneously, if you want. While multiple simultaneous GUI users technically could be achieved in OS X as it is in Linux and Windows, it’s not an easy, built-in function. You can use ‘curtain mode’ from Mac to Mac with ARD, but too often it results in a locked screen I can no longer connect to– the remote computer must be shut off and rebooted manually.
As for Chicken of the VNC, that has been outpaced by a mile by JollysFastVNC – it works much much faster, faster than even Apple Remote Desktop. But the capabilities of RDC and any VNC are by no means identical. RDC is much much more than “screen sharing.” In fact, it technically isn’t ‘screen sharing’ at all.
Don’t get me wrong, ARD has a lot of features not found in RDC, too. However, it could be so much better.
The protocol to use RDC on Windows is obviously known, as the CoRD product uses it well. I hope ARD 4 can incorporate it, which would make ARD much more useful in our multi-platform environment.