How To Use Remote Desktop Connection Manager

How To Use Remote Desktop Connection Manager

How To Use Remote Desktop Connection Manager

For downloadiong the application you can visit below link.

 

Anyone that has to manage multiple computers understands that having multiple terminal service windows open is a pain. To combat this problem Microsoft has provided Remote Desktop Connection Manager (RDCMAN). I recommend RDCMAN to all my customers. What I have noticed however is, my customers struggle with getting all the servers they want into RDCMAN.

Note: Make sure the remote desktop is enabled on the servers that you want to manage from RDCMAN

In this blog I will cover how to quickly import all the servers from a lab environment into RDCMAN file. These steps can be used in production as well. The only difference might be that you may not want to import all your production servers into one RDCMAN session. In these scenarios using PowerShell servers can be filtered out. For example, if you’re the Exchange administrator for your organization, and all the Exchange servers are homed in the same Organizational Unit (OU), you would only export the servers in the Exchange Server OU.

From a computer with PowerShell 2.0 or higher, open PowerShell has an administrator

Within the PowerShell window type or copy the syntax below. This command will import the PowerShell commands to manage Active Directory.

Import-Module ActiveDirectory

Now that the Active Directory commands have been exposed to PowerShell, the Get-ADComputer can be used to return all the computer names stored in Active Directory. The Select command will only grab the computer name, the FT command will remove the table heading, and the > will export the pipeline to a text file.

Get-ADComputer -Filter ‘ObjectClass -eq “Computer”‘ | select name | ft -HideTableHeaders > C:exportServers.txt

The output should look something like this:

NOTE: Make sure there are no whitespaces in the text file. You can remove whitespace by opening the file in Excel and saving the file as a text file or using find and replace (Control + H) in notepad.

Lets open RDCMAN and get these servers imported. RDCMAN is located under C:Program Files (x86)Remote Desktop Connection Manager

Within RDCMAN go to File > New and create a new rdg file. I named my rdg file as lab

Right click on Lab.rdg and select Properties > select the Logon Credential tab > uncheck Inherit from Parent > enter your User Name Password Domain

Once your User name Password Domain have been entered click OK to save your settings

Within the RDCMAN window click Edit > Import servers…

In the Server Settings tab click the Browse button

Navigate to the Server text file and import the file

Now you should see all the servers in RDCMAN and be able to connect to any of the servers

Top 3 Free Remote Desktop Connections Manager

Top 3 Free Remote Desktop Connections Manager

Top 3 Free Remote Desktop Connections Manager

this article taken from: https://www.nextofwindows.com/top-3-free-remote-desktop-connections-manager 

Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP), developed originally by Microsoft, is a network protocol that provides a way for people to get access to a computer remotely with a nice lightweight user interface along with input devices like keyboard and mouse. Both Windows 7 and 8 come with a native Remote Desktop Client that lets you connect to the remote machine through this protocol. However, for people who constantly need to manage multiple machines at once, you will need a program that manages multiple connections for you to make your life easier. And here are 3 of them that are free and great for you to consider.

Remote Desktop Manager

Remote Desktop Manager - Dashboard

It’s a feature-rich remote connections manager that manages not only multiple remote desktop connections but many other protocols like VNC, Citrix, HTTP, FTP, LogMeIn, TeamViewer, Putty, etc.. You can save credentials locally in the database protected by the AES encryption, or in the external applications like LastPass or KeePass, or on their new released Devolutions Online Database.

What’s good about this tool is that it also supports and integrates pretty well with many popular services as well. Such as:

  • Intel AMT support – to allow remote console asset access even when the computers are off.
  • Hyper-V dashboard – to manager hyper-v powered VMs.
  • Windows PowerShell support
  • Advanced Data Source support, including Amazon S3, Dropbox, FTP, SQL Server, etc..
  • Integrated password manager
  • Microsoft Azure Console
  • Many VPN connections
  • etc..

If you are looking for one that is not only managing remote desktop connections but also many other things, this Remote Desktop Manager could be your answer. The Standard edition is FREE, and according to this comparison sheet, it could just be good enough for most of your IT tasks.

Please also check out our full review of the product here.

Terminals

Terminals

Terminals is another feature rich, tab-based remote desktop clients manager that uses Terminal Services Active Client (mstscax.dll). Other than RDP connections, Terminals can also manage most of other popular connections as well, such as VNC, Console, SSH, VRRC, Citrix, RAS, HTTP, etc.. As a bonus, it also handles a variety of networking operations like Ping, Trace Route, WMI Explorer, TCP Connections, DNS Lookup, Time Sync, etc..

Terminals is an open source project that has been quite actively maintained and developed for some years. It’s on stable version 2 and can be running on Windows XP, Windows 7, and Windows 8. Both 32-bit and 64-bit editions are supported.

Remote Desktop Connection Manager

Remote desktop connection manager

Microsoft itself also offers a manager tool called Remote Desktop Connection Manager 2.7 (RDCMan) that helps you manage multiple remote desktop connections. It’s similar to Windows Servers’ built-in MMC Remote Desktop Snap-in but more flexible.

It works on Windows 7, and server version from 2003 and up. For Windows XP, you will need the latest version of RDP client in order to use it.

/update on Nov. 24, 2014/

The RDCMan 2.7, released on Nov. 11, 2014, is a major feature release. New features include – Virtual machine connect-to-console support – Smart groups – Support for credential encryption with certificates – Windows 8 remote action support – Support for Windows 8, Windows 8.1 / Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2

MultiDesk

MultiDesk

MultiDesk is another simple tab-based remote desktop manager that only manages multiple RDP connections for you. All connections can be managed through a server/group folder structure. It’s free and portable. all configurations and connections are saved in the save folder in an XML file. Since it’s portable, you can easily carry it with you so you can get access to it with all the same information.

We actually have reviewed this tool before. Check it out if you want to know more.

That actually made the no. 4 tools I covered here, instead of 3 I intended, but I guess you wouldn’t mind knowing one more option.

RD Tabs

RD Tabs is another tab-based remote desktop manager that not only put Remote Desktop sessions to the tab but also provides extra features such as favorites with advanced editing, command line scripting, connection thumbnails, encrypted passwords, detached connection windows, remote desktop screen capture, remote terminal server information/management, RDP 6.0 support, etc. As one of our lovely commenters, Samuel Davis, states, it’s simple as hell.

Remote Desktop Manager - RD Tabs

/update on Nov. 28, 2014/

2 new additions were mentioned by one of our visitors, mRemoteNG, and 2x Clients. Since they both look pretty good, we are adding them to the list here as below.

mRemoteNG

mRemoteNG is a fork of mRemote, an open source, tabbed, multi-protocol, remote connections manager. It supports not only RDP protocols but also some of the other popular ones as well, including VNC, ICA, SSH, Telnet, etc. It’s a simple program to use and manage all your remote desktop connections from a central location.

mRemoteNG - confCons.xml - 2014-11-28 10_38_26

2x Client

I actually have been using 2x Client for quite a while, not on my main Windows desktop but on my mobile smartphones. I don’t feel its Windows Client offering more compelling features than the ones I mentioned above, but they do have a wide range coverage on other platforms, Linux, Mac, iOS, Android, Windows Phone, and Chrome App. They even have versions for Windows Embedded Systems.

So if you are looking for one mainly used not on Windows Desktop platform, 2x Client might be the one to go. The user experience on 2x Client is better than Microsoft’s own RDP client on both iOS, Android, and Windows Phones.

Verdict

I personally have used Terminals for years and absolutely like it. It’s rock solid and has everything I wanted. However, the Remote Desktop Manager looks so promising and so powerful. It can be your powerful weapon to cover all your needs within one consolidated environment.

That doesn’t mean you should overlook the other tools we mentioned in this post. Both Microsoft RDCMan and MultiDesk are simple and just work. If you are the guy who doesn’t always fall in love with an all-in-one kind of tool. These two are probably your answer. Besides, if managing Windows Servers via RDP is all you needed, why you need a tool with a bunch of features you will never use?

As for managing a bunch of connections on a mobile platform, both Remote Desktop Manager and RD Client from Microsoft work really well.

How To Use Remote Desktop Connection Manager

How To Use Remote Desktop Connection Manager

 

Anyone that has to manage multiple computers understands that having multiple terminal service windows open is a pain. To combat this problem Microsoft has provided Remote Desktop Connection Manager (RDCMAN). I recommend RDCMAN to all my customers. What I have noticed however is, my customers struggle with getting all the servers they want into RDCMAN.

Note: Make sure the remote desktop is enabled on the servers that you want to manage from RDCMAN

In this blog I will cover how to quickly import all the servers from a lab environment into RDCMAN file. These steps can be used in production as well. The only difference might be that you may not want to import all your production servers into one RDCMAN session. In these scenarios using PowerShell servers can be filtered out. For example, if you’re the Exchange administrator for your organization, and all the Exchange servers are homed in the same Organizational Unit (OU), you would only export the servers in the Exchange Server OU.

From a computer with PowerShell 2.0 or higher, open PowerShell has an administrator

Within the PowerShell window type or copy the syntax below. This command will import the PowerShell commands to manage Active Directory.

Import-Module ActiveDirectory

Now that the Active Directory commands have been exposed to PowerShell, the Get-ADComputer can be used to return all the computer names stored in Active Directory. The Select command will only grab the computer name, the FT command will remove the table heading, and the > will export the pipeline to a text file.

Get-ADComputer -Filter ‘ObjectClass -eq “Computer”‘ | select name | ft -HideTableHeaders > C:exportServers.txt

The output should look something like this:

NOTE: Make sure there are no whitespaces in the text file. You can remove whitespace by opening the file in Excel and saving the file as a text file or using find and replace (Control + H) in notepad.

Lets open RDCMAN and get these servers imported. RDCMAN is located under C:Program Files (x86)Remote Desktop Connection Manager

Within RDCMAN go to File > New and create a new rdg file. I named my rdg file as lab

Right click on Lab.rdg and select Properties > select the Logon Credential tab > uncheck Inherit from Parent > enter your User Name Password Domain

Once your User name Password Domain have been entered click OK to save your settings

Within the RDCMAN window click Edit > Import servers…

In the Server Settings tab click the Browse button

Navigate to the Server text file and import the file

Now you should see all the servers in RDCMAN and be able to connect to any of the servers