FixMe.IT is a cost-effective remote support application that is designed to enable instant, secure, and trouble-free connections between remote computers anywhere in the world. The vendor's value proposition is that with FixMe.IT, support teams can quickly and securely view, diagnose, and resolve technical issues on a remote computer without pre-installing software.
$30
per seat
Remote Desktop Services
Score 9.0 out of 10
N/A
Remote Desktop Services from Microsoft is virtual desktop and remote user session technology.
FixMe.IT is an absolute price-performer. Far less expensive than many of its competitors, it offers all the major features small outfits like mine need. While not nearly as robust as other offerings such as TeamViewer and GoToAssist, its price point simply can't be beat. Thus, small consulting firms that primarily deal with Windows-based PCs will see a huge cost benefit. Larger MSPs are probably better off with a more expensive but flexible solution.
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.
Option to follow users' mouse if they have more than one screen but you are only using one screen to display their computer. It allows them to show you things without fighting for the mouse or having our view of their screen be too small.
Lightweight. The app for on-demand remote controll, unattended access, and even the expert are all very small and not resource intentsive
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.
Not sure if we are able to display multiple screens at the same time. For example the server and some workstations. I know we can click back and forth easily, but not sure if we can display them at the same time.
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.
It is all just done through email so there is no tracking of tickets but there is not much need since they will respond multiple times a day if needed. I never have any issue with them though. They are very well trained.
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.
