Remote Desktop Services

Remote Desktop Services in Windows Server 2008 R2, formerly known as Terminal Services in Windows Server 2008 and previous versions, is one of the components of Microsoft Windows (both server and client versions) that allows a user to access applications and data on a remote computer over a network, using the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP). Terminal Services is Microsoft's implementation of thin-client terminal server computing, where Windows applications, or even the entire desktop of the computer running Terminal Services, are made accessible to a remote client machine. The client can either be a full-fledged computer, running any operating system as long as the terminal services protocol is supported, or a barebone machine powerful enough to support the protocol (such as Windows FLP). With terminal services, only the user interface of an application is presented at the client. Any input to it is redirected over the network to the server, where all application execution takes place.
 This is in contrast to appstreaming systems, like Microsoft Application Virtualization, in which the applications, while still stored on a centralized server, are streamed to the client on-demand and then executed on the client machine. Microsoft changed the name from Terminal Services to Remote Desktop Services with the release of Windows Server 2008 R2 in October 2009. RemoteFX is being added to Remote Desktop Services as part of Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1.

RemoteApp

RemoteApp (or TS RemoteApp) is a special mode of Remote Desktop Services, available only in Remote Desktop Connection 6.1 and above (with Windows Server 2008 being the RemoteApp server), where remote session configuration is integrated into the client operating system. The RDP 6.1 client ships with Windows XP SP3, KB952155 for Windows XP SP2 users, Windows Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008. The UI for the RemoteApp is rendered in a window over the local desktop, and is managed like any other window for local applications. The end result of this is that remote applications behave largely like local applications. The task of establishing the remote session, as well as redirecting local resources to the remote application, is transparent to the end user. Multiple applications can be started in a single RemoteApp session, each with their own windows.

A RemoteApp can be packaged either as a .rdp file or distributed via an .msi Windows Installer package. When packaged as an .rdp file (which contains the address of the RemoteApp server, authentication schemes to be used, and other settings), a RemoteApp can be launched by double clicking the file. It will invoke the Remote Desktop Connection client, which will connect to the server and render the UI. The RemoteApp can also be packaged in a Windows Installer database, installing which can register the RemoteApp in the Start Menu as well as create shortcuts to launch it. A RemoteApp can also be registered as handler for filetypes or URIs. Opening a file registered with RemoteApp will first invoke Remote Desktop Connection, which will connect to the terminal server and then open the file. Any application which can be accessed over Remote Desktop can be served as a RemoteApp.

Windows 7 includes built-in support for RemoteApp publishing but it has to be enabled manually in registry, since there is no RemoteApp management console in client versions of Microsoft Windows.

Windows Desktop Sharing

Windows Vista onwards, Terminal Services also includes a multi-party desktop sharing capability known as Windows Desktop Sharing. Unlike Terminal Services, which creates a new user session for every RDP connection, Windows Desktop Sharing can host the remote session in the context of the currently logged in user without creating a new session, and make the Desktop, or a subset of it, available over Remote Desktop Protocol. Windows Desktop Sharing can be used to share the entire desktop, a specific region, or a particular application. Windows Desktop Sharing can also be used to share multi-monitor desktops. When sharing applications individually (rather than the entire desktop), the windows are managed (whether they are minimized or maximized) independently at the server and the client side.

The functionality is only provided via a public API, which can be used by any application to provide screen sharing functionality. Windows Desktop Sharing API exposes two objects: RDPSession for the sharing session and RDPViewer for the viewer. Multiple viewer objects can be instantiated for one Session object. A viewer can either be a passive viewer, who is just able to watch the application like a screen cast, or an interactive viewer, who is able to interact in real time with the remote application. The RDPSession object contains all the shared applications, represented asApplication objects, each with Window objects representing their on-screen windows. Per-application filters capture the application Windows and package them as Window objects. A viewer must authenticate itself before it can connect to a sharing session. This is done by generating an Invitation using the RDPSession. It contains an authentication ticket and password. The object isserialized and sent to the viewers, who need to present the Invitation when connecting.

Windows Desktop Sharing API is used by Windows Meeting Space for providing application sharing functionality among peers; however, the application does not expose all the features supported by the API. It is also used by Remote Assistance.

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