Because it is a built-in, free solution for a small set of managed computers. No extra licenses required. No budget. Setup and configuration is instanteneous.
All remote desktop or desktop virtualization services are quite costly and very complicated to set up. Microsoft's Remote Desktop Services has the advantage of being very available for many years, meaning practically any device can be used as a workstation. Tablets, …
We used RDS on-site primarily because of how easy it is for users to transition from their own desktop to a remote desktop. However, from off-site, there are VPN and other security considerations to take into account, and the process gets a little more complex. In this …
Solutions can be expensive and often offer more options than you need/want. Paying those extra dollars is tough when you have a budget. RDS in many cases works well and is cost effective.
Since Remote Desktop Services comes with the Windows OS, there's no need to install any additional software or agent for it to function. Even on the Mac, there's a client that can be installed for this to run properly. Unfortunately, unlike TeamViewer or Ultra VNC, Remote …
We have reviewed Citrix Xen Desktop and VMware's VDI solutions. For the cost, when compared to what Remote Desktop Services can provide us there was no contest. Remote Desktop Services can provide us all the features we require with little to no cost since we are an EA customer …
I also used 2x Client and Citrix in the past. Both worked nice. Citrix is a little more complex and once with Windows updates damaged a Citrix installation causing all ICA traffic to not accept connections. 2x Client was simple and free for 3 connections (or used to be). Both …
We selected Remote Desktop Services based upon price alone. Other solutions on the market are significantly more expensive, but if your company can foot the bill you should seriously consider products that have been on the market for longer. The lack of an ability to easily …
Remote Desktop services are well suited for people looking to connect to Local computers/Servers after connecting to VPN or Local Area Network. It is easy to use and performs superbly without any issues. However, it does not have support for connecting to Non-Windows-based Devices and Applications like Teamviewer beat RDP when it comes to connecting to machines outside one's network.
When you connect with RDS, everything looks and feels (and is) exactly like you're sitting at that desktop. This is great for us and for users.
You can sign in with RDS and the desktop will be the same as when you left it (if you choose to set it up that way).
Although they take some setup, RemoteApps are a very handy way to let users access a program without requiring them to actually connect to a remote desktop on the server.
Remote Desktop Services currently does not support multiple monitors on the terminal server. Unlike other applications such as Teamviewer, there's no feature to toggle between multiple screens even if they were connected to the terminal server.
Remote Desktop Services should provide an option to scale up or down the screen size after a connection is established. Currently you can only adjust the screen size prior to a connection is established. So you'll have to take a best guess at what display screen resolution will fit best on your screen.
Remote Desktop Services should offer some kind of menu to send special key strokes like Ctrl+Alt+Del to the terminal server. Currently the substitute for that particular combination is Ctrl+Alt+End. But I have yet to discover a replacement for other combination keystrokes such as Alt+PrintScrn.
The initial setup for Remote Desktop Services is complex, and licensing is costly. Each user connects to their virtual desktop hosted by a single server or group of servers, so a change or issue with servers quickly impacts every single user at the same time. Aside from that, users appreciate seeing their same personal desktop from any device or geographical location.
As with any Microsoft Server product, support for Remote Desktop Services requires a paid support package. These are license-based and very costly, on top of the already costly product licensing. Microsoft's licensing is complicated to begin with, so setting up licensing alone essentially requires a licensing expert's counsel. There is community documentation and support available on Microsoft websites, as well as community websites.
We selected Remote Desktop Services based upon price alone. Other solutions on the market are significantly more expensive, but if your company can foot the bill you should seriously consider products that have been on the market for longer. The lack of an ability to easily upgrade farm servers has been a challenge for us - although it is still faster than updating an application on 2000+ machines. The lack of a centralized management console in 2008 R2 is also challenging, but you get by with the tools available to you. If you don't have the money to spend on Citrix or VMWare Horizon, Remote Desktop Services is a decent replacement.