Remote Desktop Client Software

This section contains links to remote desktop client software for various operating systems. Clients are available for almost every desktop operating system, as well as mobile devices and some phones.

» Windows

» Mac OS X

» iPhone/iPod Touch

» Windows Mobile

» Linux/Unix

» Java

» Windows

Windows Server versions, Windows XP, and Vista Premium, Business, and Ultimate come with a bundled Remote Desktop client. For other Windows versions, you can download Microsoft's Remote Desktop client:

Microsoft Remote Desktop 5.1 Client

For Windows XP SP2, there is a Remote Desktop client upgrade to version 6.1, enabling additional functionality when connecting to Vista and Windows Server 2008 systems:

Microsoft Remote Desktop 6.1 Client

Devolutions has created a powerful client that can manage multiple remote desktop connections. Its available free from their website:

Devolutions Remote Desktop Manager

» Mac OS X

Microsoft has an OS X client for Remote Desktop:

Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection Client for Mac 2

There is also an open source native OS X client called CoRD has been developed by Craig Dooley and Dorian Johnson. You can get it from sourceforge:

CoRD Remote Desktop Client

» iPhone/iPod Touch

There are two remote desktop clients available for the iPhone or iPod Touch:

• WinAdmin – more feature complete and solid than WinRemote, but also more expensive at $11.99

  WinAdmin web site
  WinAdmin on iTunes Store

• WinRemote – a much cheaper alternative, at $1.99. It also has a free trial available.

  WinRemote web site
  WinRemote on iTunes Store

» Windows Mobile

Some Windows Mobile phones come with a Remote Desktop client, but many are deployed without the RDP client. Fortunately, some smart people over at pdaphonehome were able to extract the Windows Mobile 6 RDP client into an installer that works on WM5 and WM6. You can find it on their forums:

Windows Mobile 5/6 Remote Desktop Client

» Linux/Unix

Many remote desktop clients are available for Linux/Unix. The following are the major clients:

• rdesktop – a generic X Window System Linux/Unix remote desktop client. Most other clients are based of it in some way.

  rdesktop web site

• krdesktop – a KDE frontend for rdesktop

  krdesktop web site

• tsclient – a GNOME frontend for rdesktop

  tsclient web site

» Java

There are several cross platform Java remote desktop clients:

• jrdesktop

  jrdesktop web site

• properJavaRDP

  properJavaRDP web site