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Test Drive the new Microsoft Remote Desktop Preview app for Windows 10
Published Sep 08 2018 07:05 AM 4,559 Views
First published on CloudBlogs on Jul 10, 2015

My name is Shalini Akella. I’m a program manager on the Remote Desktop team working on Remote Desktop apps for Windows platforms. Today, I’m happy to announce the preview of the Remote Desktop app for Windows 10 Universal Windows Platform. So you can go ahead and download from the Windows Store.

You can experience the power of Windows with RemoteFX in a Remote Desktop client designed to help you get your work done wherever you are.

Here are some highlights from the app:

Easy management of desktops using connection center

The connection center is your starting point. It allows you to easily manage your desktops. You can add new desktop connections and edit or delete existing connections. Selecting one of the desktop tiles launches the connection.

To get started, select the Add button (+) at the top of the page.

Figure 1: Connection center

Add a new desktop

The fastest way to add a new desktop is to enter the PC name and click Save . You’ll be asked to enter your account info each time you sign into the remote PC.

Figure 2: Adding a new desktop

Or you can save your user account and use it every time by selecting a previously added user from the User account list.

Figure 3: Selecting existing credentials from the list

You can also nickname the desktop so you don’t have to enter the full name or IP address every time, and can spot it easily in the connection center. For example, this is very useful when using an IP address to connect to a remote PC.

Figure 4: Add nickname to a connection

Manage your user names and passwords

After you’ve added some user accounts to connect to remote PCs, manage them from the Settings page.

Figure 5: Settings page for editing user account

Here you can edit and remove accounts, or create new ones to be used with desktops later on or update the password for an existing user account if the password has expired.

Figure 6: Editing user account settings

Connect to a remote system through a Remote Desktop Gateway

Remote Desktop Gateway lets users connect to resources on their corporate network - PCs, Remote Desktop Session Host servers, or personal or pooled VMs on a Remote Desktop Virtualization Host server. It also improves security by limiting the exposure of these resources to the public Internet. Once the gateway server has been set up, you can configure the app to use the gateway to connect to a desktop behind it.

Adding a gateway

The easiest way to add a new gateway is to do so while adding a desktop connection. To get started, click the + icon on the toolbar at the top of the connection center.

Figure 7: Add a gateway while setting up desktop connection

Enter the name of the remote PC, optionally save the user account used to connect to it and then click on More .

Figure 8: Add a gateway

In the Gateway page, you can save gateway settings specific to a connection.

Enter in the gateway Server name and choose or add the User account you’d like to use for the gateway. When done, select the Save button.

Figure 9: Enter the gateway information

Finish configuring your desktop connection and then select Save to add it to your Connection Center. Select the tile will now connect to the remote system through the gateway if a direct connection cannot be established first.

Figure 10: Tap the tile to connect through the gateway if needed

Manage your gateways

If you need to make changes to a previously added gateway, first go to the Settings page by selecting the settings icon at top in Connection Center. From there, go to the Gateway section to find a list of all your gateways. You can add a new gateway by clicking Add , and edit an existing gateway by clicking Edit .

Figure 11: Tap settings option from Connection Center to edit Gateway settings

Figure 12: Edit existing gateway

Note: If your gateway has been configured to only allow RDP over HTTPS, it will not be supported in today’s release. However if RPC over HTTPS is enabled (most common scenario), you will be able to connect. Support for RDP over HTTPS will be added in a future release. Learn more about Remote Desktop Gateway .

Try it now

I encourage you to download this preview app from the windows store and enjoy the experience on your Windows 10 device. To upgrade your Windows 8.1 device to Windows 10 Developer Preview and get access to all the tools, start here

This is only the beginning. Keep an eye out for future updates where we will add exciting new features including Enterprise-focused improvements such as Remote Resources (RemoteApp and Desktop Connections). General availability is planned for later this year.

The Remote Desktop app is also available on your other devices running Windows 8.1 , Windows Phone 8.1 , iOS , Mac OS X , and Android .

Note: Questions and comments are welcome. However, please DO NOT post a request for troubleshooting by using the comment tool at the end of this post. Instead, please post a new thread in the Remote Desktop clients forum and share feature suggestions on our UserVoice page. Thank you!

Version history
Last update:
‎Sep 08 2018 07:05 AM