I’ve previously covered several elements of Microsoft’s BYOD technologies for Windows 8.1, including Work Folders, Workplace Join and Device Management, but an old favourite gets thrust into the spotlight as part of this strategy, and that is Remote Desktop. Whether we are talking about presenting a Windows desktop or an application, RDP has become more important as non-Windows platforms have taken the lion’s share of the mobile device world. While versions of Office and other productivity and LOB applications are becoming more cross platform than ever, there are still many applications out there that are Windows only, and may never move to other platforms.

The RemoteApp and Desktop Connections is what we need to find in Control Panel.

To start with this is unpopulated, so the Access RemoteApp and desktops link on the left needs to be clicked.

We have two options here – we can specficy the correct URL, or something that is usually easier to remember – your email address.

After entering our email address, we click Next.

We can now review the details and then click next again.

We are prompted for our credentials.

Once the credentials are verified, the connection resources are added.

 

The notification area alerts that we are now connected.

We get confirmation that there are 10 programs available and 1 desktop available.

Now we can see the summary and status information.

By selecting View resources we can now see the traditional explorer view of the connections.

And from the Start Screen we can also see those new connections as well.

And once we view the properties, we get more information, including the URL and the recent results.