The Life of Brian

Active Directory, Group Policies, Server Core and the Life of Brian

Unbelievable Remote Desktop Software!!!

I’ve been looking for a good tool that allows me to manage a large amount of servers via Remote Desktop for…well for as long as I can remember.  I’ve become tired of the Remote Desktops MMC because of its lack of features.  Yesterday I found a truly unbelievable application that I have to share with all of you.  Its name is VisionApp Remote Desktop  and best of all it is FREEWARE!

VisionApp Remote Desktop allows you to manage your servers via Remote Desktop with the following features:

·      Sort Servers Alphabetically (This made me so angry that I couldn’t do this with Microsoft’s Remote Desktop MMC.  When you have to manage a lot of servers it really sucks that when you add new ones that follow a naming convention that they fall out of order now.)

·      Create folders to help sort different types of servers (I created folders for my Production, Integration, Development and Virtual servers.  This has made it extremely easy to find what I’m looking for.)

·      Tabbed Remote Desktops (Tabs are huge right now and this tool takes full advantage of them.  I can now open several different types of servers from different folders and access them via the tabs on the top.)

Please take some time to evaluate this product yourself as it is a huge timesaver.

Posted: Jan 04 2007, 07:26 AM by BrianM | with 20 comment(s)
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Comments

Robert. said:

Sounds interesting.    I'm going to download, but why is the install 143 Mb?!!!

# January 4, 2007 2:28 PM

Robert. said:

Oops - click the wrong link.  Download is quite small < 1Mb.  Nice tool - thanks!

# January 4, 2007 2:57 PM

BrianM said:

Yes please make sure you down load this one - visionapp Remote Desktop (vRD 1.4)

# January 4, 2007 3:07 PM

Thomson said:

Hi BrianM

Do you know the tool RoyalTS?

It looks the same, it's OpenSource and you can get it from http://www.code4ward.net

You need DotNet Framework 1.1 for it.

# January 25, 2007 7:25 AM

sj said:

Looks like a nice replacement!  Especially since I couldn't find a way to use the Remote desktop snapin on Vista.

Thanks!

# January 30, 2007 8:50 PM

Derek said:

Wow! This is exactly what we have been looking for!  We too have been cursing the lack of features with the RD mmc for months.  Thanks for sharing!  Our whole IT department thanks you!

# February 15, 2007 3:26 PM

Frank Roth said:

Hi guys,

we have just released the new version of visionapp Remoet Desktop. We have fixed some bugs and added a lot of new functionality (Vista support etc...).

Please check for the new features:

http://www.visionapp.com/25+B6JmNIYXNoPTE3ZjI1OThkNmMmdHhfdHRuZXdzW2JhY2tQaWRdPTImdHhfdHRuZXdzW3R0X25ld3NdPTQ4Ng__.0.html?

Feel free to download the new version:

http://www.visionapp.com/freeware

Have fun with vRD 1.5!

Frank

visionapp

# April 22, 2007 2:40 AM

damien said:

What an awesome find! Thanks for the tip!

# May 27, 2007 11:10 PM

Scott Taylor said:

Definately great! Been looking for something like this for a long time now, the out of box tools are such a pain!

# August 16, 2007 10:44 PM

KB said:

Nice tool, I just wish it had MMC integration capabilities.

# October 26, 2007 9:37 AM

Kirk said:

Does this support Network Authentication??? This gripes me, I have Vista and want to connect to other vista machines or windows 08 machines and I can't use tsmmc!!!

# December 4, 2007 3:07 PM

PJ said:

Just set up all my servers - a great inprovement on the mmc snapin.  

Looking at the features in the next (commercial) release, I'd be happy to pay 46Euros - I mean how much time does it need to save to pay for itself?

Thanks for the information

# January 31, 2008 4:31 AM

Donovan said:

I like the promise of the tool, but like KB I wish there was mmc integration.  I use the Remote Desktops mmc with other snap-ins as well (DHCP, ADUC, etc.).  Having all these tools in one place is great.  Not being able to sort them SUCKS.  It would probably take someone at Microsoft an hour to fix Remote Desktops to work as it should. Too bad we have to wait till the next server release to get a refined version of Remote Desktops.

# May 14, 2008 10:02 AM

Steven Maynard said:

I've recently switched from LogMeIn Rescue to Techinline Remote Desktop (www.techinline.com). It's by far the simplest to connect to the remote computer since it requires absolutely no installation on either end. When comparing to the high priced services on the market such as LogMeIn, Webex, VNC, gotoassist, at $30 a month it's a steal! Although it's not as full-featured as LogMeIn Rescue, it's perfect for simple remote support work that I do

# July 10, 2008 10:35 AM

Bryan said:

Beats MMC hands down!  Great tool!  

# August 13, 2008 3:48 PM

tjcarst said:

I would like to try this app, but there seems to be something wrong with the registration page.  I keep getting this error:

We could not validate your mail address.

Terri

# August 21, 2008 2:48 PM

BrianM said:

Hi Terri,

I'm not sure what the problem might be.  You may want to contact them.  It may take a day or two but they have always gotten back to me with my questions.

# August 21, 2008 3:00 PM

Preetam said:

Thank you for this info, tool is amazing

# August 28, 2008 7:17 AM

Seal said:

Hey,

I just read, that visionapp has now a new freeware version of vRD. vRD 2008 Express. It seemed to be like the commercial version but with some limitations.

# November 3, 2008 7:30 AM

BrianM said:

Indeed it does look like it is available now. www.visionapp.com/.../products-freeware.html

I don't like the limitation of 15 objects though.

# November 3, 2008 3:04 PM
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