RDCMan, or Remote Desktop Connection Manager from Microsoft, creates a single location for IT administrators to organize, group and manage connections, allowing users to manage multiple desktops.
$199
Starting Price
Remote Desktop Services
Score 9.1 out of 10
N/A
Remote Desktop Services from Microsoft is virtual desktop and remote user session technology.
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Pricing
Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection Manager (RDCMan)
Remote Desktop Services
Editions & Modules
1 User
$199.00
Starting Price
5 Users
$779.00
Starting Price
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Pricing Offerings
RDCMan
Remote Desktop Services
Free Trial
No
No
Free/Freemium Version
No
No
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
No
No
Entry-level Setup Fee
No setup fee
No setup fee
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Community Pulse
Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection Manager (RDCMan)
Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection Manager (RDCMan)
Remote Desktop Services
Likelihood to Recommend
Microsoft
The RDCMan software is highly effective at allowing me to organize and manage a large number of servers, and desktop computers. It’s quick and easy to use. It’s also highly reliable. In all the years that I have used it, I have never once experienced a crash or any other sort of error.
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.
When trying to connect to a server/machine, and it doesn't connect, there is a "Disconnected" message that is displayed in the thumbnail. There is no information beyond this that explains why the server/machine did/could not connect. It would be helpful to the IT Administrator to know this information, even if Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection Manager (RDCMan) kept a log somewhere where this information can be analyzed.
There doesn't seem to be an option for connecting to a server that is usually only able to be accessed from a jump server. This will not connect if the server is set up as a server/machine within RDCman. This would be a beneficial feature to have within RDCman. Maybe one of the missing options is to be able to set this in the prospects for the jump server (within the Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection Manager (RDCMan) window).
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.
Plenty of information and support online, and with many things it's pretty straight forward for the average tech to navigate and work with. But with most things online you're not the only person that's had the issue before, and using a search engine you should be able to figure it out.
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.
RDCMan outshines TeamViewer in every possible way. It’s fast, more reliable, and easier to use. I have had frequent crashes and issues when using TeamViewer, while none with RDCMan. Screen responsiveness also seems much better with RDCMan versus TeamViewer. I would often experience lag issues when using TeamViewer.
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.
One positive impact it's had was that it has made it easier to manage servers since this could be done from a central location and through only one program. This, in effect, has helped to increase efficiency and save the time of those doing server management.
Another positive impact was that it is a product that could be deployed/installed by almost anyone, and one that fits reasonably quickly. It also doesn't use a whole lot of system resources when running, so this, in turn, helps the IT/Server Administrators still be efficient in the other work they have to do.
