Remote Desktop Services

- When you need to manage physical workstations within the local network (LAN) running Windows.

- When managing virtual machines created by Microsoft Hyper-V.

- When you manage that end-users do not use on a regular basis like file and applications servers running Windows 10/11.

- When a cost-effective approach is needed.

Remote Desktop is well suited for smaller office bases where individuals need to access shared files or programs without having it installed in personal machines. In a small server setting with local access only this works to bridge the gap. It allows users to remote in to access files shared on a single server or remote machine. Not suited for individuals without an IT consultant as there are set up and maintenance issues that require knowledge and time. Also some down time.

RDS works best of all remote systems I've used. The biggest feature for end users is it looks and feels just like they are using their own computer, whereas some remote systems don't have the same ability for shortcuts, etc... like RDS has in it's arsenal.

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.

Great for working away from the office or for users that work from home. Might be less appropriate for users or road worriers in bad internet locations. This is where cloud apps might work better.

Remote Desktop Services is great for some uses, like remote access to servers for admins. For end-users, setup is complicated and costly, but the end solution is great for shared device environments or mobile users. Allowing a user to see the same desktop from any device, on-site or off-site, provides a smooth experience for them. User management is effective once configured.

Remote desktop works well in our environment when people in other offices need to connect to isolated systems.

Microsoft's Remote Desktop Services is particularly nice if you have a server license for a program and don't want to install it on everyone's machine but do want to give everyone access to the program. They can either use RDS to connect to the server, or you can set up a RemoteApp.

It's also nice if you have people who work on two different workstations in two different locations. We have several people who sometimes work at one desk and sometimes in an office, so it's nice for them to be able to access one machine or the other easily without having to walk back and forth.

One note, if users don't have an Active Directory account, or if you don't want to mess with putting people into various permissions groups, RDS may not be the best solution for them. This wasn't an issue for us since our organization was small enough that we could manage AD permissions and groups rather easily.

Remote Desktop Services is great for a non-critial role. We use it for support on desktop and servers, however, we do not use it as a primary for servers. There can be issues with restarts and when you need to see POST/BIOS.

Remote Desktop Services is especially good to access files and run programs remotely on the destination machine. It is Less effective if playing videos or accessing graphic content remotely.

Remote Desktop Services is well suited for companies where staff may have to quite often work from outside the office. With Remote Desktop Services established, now staff can have access to all their needed applications to modify all the data files on their network servers without having to step foot into the office. But I would not recommend attempting to copy very large data files back & forth between the offsite laptop and the network server. Even if you have access to very fast broadband internet speeds, the transfer rates are still not going to be as fast as you're sitting at your desk inside the office local area network environment.

RDS Is very well suited when you need to make a fast connection to a remote server without spending too much time in searching and configuring. RDS is not well suited for complex operations.

Remote Desktop Services works very well for remote users to be able to use local resources. It is also very helpful if your company needs to have tight control over what software people have access to. Performance can be less than what you might expect from software run from a local computer, however, since it is running over a network.

I guess it's better suited to test environments as there will be less security impact and fewer administration issues. Also user isolation will help with secure access, and the organization will be able to reduce costs in all areas and, additionally, remote desktop services can introduce the BYOD concept.

I always want to know what problem they are trying to solve. Remote Desktop Services has its place and is good for a number of reasons BUT, if it will not solve the problem there is no reason to implement it. If they are looking to address constrained bandwidth issues caused by some type of file replication, Remote Desktop Services can help solve that. If they are looking at how to reduce storage costs or redundant hardware and software at other sites, Remote Desktop Services can help solve that.

If there is an application that is required for the business to run and is needed by a small to large pool of end-users, a system administrator will need to set this up. For example, one company I worked for was running SAP as a client - server application that was installed on EACH desktop and laptop in the company. When we upgraded MS Office from 2010 to 2013, some SAP features did not work. SAP provided a patch, but I had to deploy a patch to each workstation within the enterprise. With RDS, a few servers and I was done and started another project.

- Do you have a well developed and managed application list? Without an understanding of the applications that are actually in use in your environment on a day to day basis, a shared remote desktop will not be very useful for your end users and will end up not providing a very good ROI.
- Are there applications that your users would benefit from being able to access from anywhere, or are there applications in your environment that are installed on a significant amount of machines and are cumbersome to update? In both cases you may see benefits to migrating those applications to a virtual environment.
- Is your network connectivity good across all sites - including low latency? RDS and remote desktop in general rely on solid network connections to maintain peak performance, although low bandwidth and high latency still work.