Windows RT is a nice little computer. It is designed specifically to run applications from the Windows Store. It does not have the same architecture of WinTel machines, and therefore cannot run the applications like you run on your desktop or laptop. This doesn’t mean you have a horrible platform as there are thousands of RT enabled applications doing most things a person can want.
What do you do when you have one of those few niche applications you wish you could run on your Windows RT computer? For a long time the answer has been, get a different computer; you are out of luck. Now you have an option.
Kurt Mackie shares in the June 2014 edition of the Redmond Magazine that Microsoft presented a remote desktop application for Windows RT at TechNet, and has recently released it to RT users. The client is able to connect to and run applications hosted in a Micrsoft Azure Remote Desktop Service. So, you can install traditional software in your Azure Remote Desktop Service, connect to it from your RT computer, and run the program as if it were installed locally.
When you think about it, this is not really magic. Since Microsoft gained the rights for hosting virtual machines from Citrix they have had remote desktop services as an option for Windows Server machines. Adding Remote Desktop Services to Azure is not much of a stretch. The key was the creation of an RDP client capable of running on RT. Again, that isn’t new. There have been Citrix clients available to run on Linux, Mac, etc. for years.
I haven’t looked at the client aspect of this new feature on RT enough to know if it is limited to Azure Remote Desktop Services, or if you can connect to self-hosted servers, or your WinTel computer running Window 7, 8 or some other single user operating system. It may even be able to connect to your Citrix servers.
The Surface RT computer series is a less expensive platform that the WinTel counterparts. Does this capability of using an RDP client make it a more attractive possibility for the business, average user, etc.? Are you using an RT machine? Are you finding not previously having RDP features a hindrance to owning one? Does this now enable the RT to be a tablet or notebook for IT professionals supporting servers remotely from time to time?
Leave your comments here or drop an Email response to btaylor@sswug.org.
Cheers,
Ben