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Remote Desktop Connection Client for Mac 2.0 Beta Available Now

Greetings from the Macintosh Business Unit at Microsoft! We appreciate the interest many of you have shown about the new RDC client for Mac. As announced on Mac Mojo blog a couple of weeks ago,  we released a public beta version of Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection (RDC) Client for Mac 2.0 on Tuesday July 31st. RDC for Mac lets you connect to a Microsoft Windows-based computer and work with programs and files on that computer from your Macintosh computer. The 2.0 Beta includes the following new features:

  • Universal Binary
    Runs natively on both Intel-based and PowerPC-based Macs.
  • Remote Desktop Protocol 6.0
    Provides better compatibility with Windows Vista, improved security features, and many other improvements.
  • Multiple Sessions
    Lets you connect to multiple Windows-based computers at the same time.
  • Improved User Experience
    Provides a true Mac experience and improved usability.
  • Improved Customization Options
    Lets you change application preferences, including keyboard shortcuts, while you are running a session. Changes take effect the next time that you connect.
  • Dynamic Screen Resizing
    Lets you resize your session window or switch to full-screen mode during a session.
  • Improved Printing Support
    Supports all configured printers on your Mac. No longer limited to PostScript printers.

Currently, RDC for Mac 2.0 (Beta) is only available in English, and supports only US English keyboards. Technical support is not available for this beta release.

For more information, including a list of known issues, see the Read Me for this application. After you install RDC for Mac 2.0 (Beta), open it, and then on the Help menu, click Read Me.

This Beta release expires on March 31, 2008.

Downloading

Go to this download page to get the RDC 2.0 for Mac beta build, which comes in .dmg format. After opening the disk image, double-click the Install Remote Desktop Connection package to start the installer and follow the install steps. Note that this is the same build as the pre-beta, and you do not need to reinstall if you already have the pre-beta build.

Submitting Feedback

We want to read your bug reports and suggestions! Please submit feedback at the RDC Connect site https://connect.microsoft.com/macrdc. You will need to sign in with a Windows Live ID to submit feedback. Read these tips for submitting bugs & suggestions, then click the Feedback link on the left. To discuss RDC beta issues with your fellow beta testers, please use the RDC public newsgroup microsoft.public.mac.rdc. You can access the newsgroup either by a newsreader or a browser.

Please remember all bugs must be filed through the MS Connect site. Due to limited resources on the MacBU RDC team, we will not be able to respond to all the public beta feedback. But rest assured that we will review all that you send our way!

Again, thanks for your interest. We cannot wait to hear about your impression of the new Mac client!

-David Liu and the MacBU RDC team

 
Published Friday, August 03, 2007 1:24 AM by termserv

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# re: Remote Desktop Connection Client for Mac 2.0 Beta Available Now

is there a tool available to connect from a xp client to mac also ?

thanx alot

tim braun

Friday, August 10, 2007 3:02 AM by tim braun

# re: Remote Desktop Connection Client for Mac 2.0 Beta Available Now

Tim, there is currently no tools for connecting to a Mac desktop.

Tuesday, August 14, 2007 5:33 PM by David Liu

# re: Remote Desktop Connection Client for Mac 2.0 Beta Available Now

How can I use TS Gateway settings for this version on a Mac? I do not see anything for setting this up in preferences. Thanks.

Friday, August 17, 2007 9:40 AM by John

# re: Remote Desktop Connection Client for Mac 2.0 Beta Available Now

@tim - if you need to connect to a Mac from a PC, Timbuktu works nicely, though it's not free. VNC is also an option, though not as versatile as Timbuktu.

Friday, August 17, 2007 10:56 AM by maczter

# re: Remote Desktop Connection Client for Mac 2.0 Beta Available Now

@tim try logmein free,  I use it to connect from mac to pc, and pc to mac.  The mac client is a beta but works like a champ

https://secure.logmein.com/products/free/

Friday, August 31, 2007 11:14 PM by J

# re: Remote Desktop Connection Client for Mac 2.0 Beta Available Now

That will be a very useful tool for me. Thanks.

Wednesday, September 05, 2007 12:01 AM by 上海翻译

# re: Remote Desktop Connection Client for Mac 2.0 Beta Available Now

Does this version work at all with Windows XP or Vista Home versions?

Lyn

Thursday, September 20, 2007 6:18 PM by Lyn Taylor

# re: Remote Desktop Connection Client for Mac 2.0 Beta Available Now

If you realy want feed back on the beta , make it simple.  You should not force people to get threw several levels of web pages , ask them to read how to file good bug reports , and then ask to sighn up for live , and so on.    

The way it is:

Help->Send Feedback-> popup with pointer to web page ->

  ( https://connect.microsoft.com/macrdc ) - > Get Live Id  or read fileing bug reports , click on left to leave feedback.  

This actualy doens't exist.

It should be:

Help -> Page with 2 fields and send buton (  email address + comment for me to fill out) .   If you don't get my feedback you can send me mail to ask for detailes.

I wanted to leave feedback , but all this crap made me change my mind.    

Friday, September 28, 2007 7:07 PM by deetle

# re: Remote Desktop Connection Client for Mac 2.0 Beta Available Now

installing Terminal Services Client 6.0 update on your xp machine appears to break the Mac remote desktop client....  I can still connect to the XP machine via RDC from an XP or Server 2003 machine but no longer from my Mac.  I now have to Remote into my server then from there remote to my XP.  

Same thing happened when I updated to Terminal Services Client 6.0 on the server.

Friday, November 02, 2007 9:07 AM by Denton

# re: Remote Desktop Connection Client for Mac 2.0 Beta Available Now

Any idea why I can not get to my local mac hard drive.  Any other drive connect to my macbook shows up fine (USB-flash drive, or CD).  Is it a possible conflict with parallels or 10.5??  It's quite frustrating.  I've also tried going back to RDC1.0  It doesn't seem to be a sharing issue either.

Tuesday, November 13, 2007 11:26 AM by JZSlenker

# re: Remote Desktop Connection Client for Mac 2.0 Beta Available Now

@JZSlenker: You'll probably have better luck asking on the microsoft.public.mac.rdc newsgroup.

See http://www.microsoft.com/communities/newsgroups/list/en-us/default.aspx?dg=microsoft.public.mac.rdc&cat=en_us_e9fbf464-08b5-4583-960b-d457dd96374b&lang=en&cr=us

Rob

Tuesday, November 13, 2007 12:20 PM by termserv

# re: Remote Desktop Connection Client for Mac 2.0 Beta Available Now

Nice upgrade.  I have one question - when I connect from my Mac with a 30" screen (2560x1600), I can't get better than 8-bit color depth if I choose "full screen".  If I choose "1440x1050" then I get 24-bit color.  I'm connecting to 2003 server.

Is this a TS or RDC limitation, or is it possible   that the server has a cheapo video card in it somehow influences the capabilities of TS sessions?

Friday, November 23, 2007 6:24 PM by Geekster

# Security settings in RDC 2.0beta

Very nice upgrade!

I would like to be able to use it in my work environment, but am unlikely to get the new version approved for use without being able to get technical confirmation of the security settings the app uses - I presume like the Windows equivalent, it would be using 128-bit RC4 encryption? Would it be possible to use SSL tunnelling to avoid man-in-the-middle attacks?

Also, as a matter of curiosity, what was the most recent version available before the current beta, and is it still available for download somewhere on the MS site? (e.g. I still have a copy of version 1.0.1 (build 030206) but it might have been surpassed because of security issues or something similar)

Sunday, December 09, 2007 10:46 PM by Philip Legge

# re: Remote Desktop Connection Client for Mac 2.0 Beta Available Now

When connecting to a Windows 2003 Terminal Server from my iMac running OSX 10.5.1 with the RDC 2.0 for Mac, the time on the Terminal Server is 1 hour behind my local machine (both the server and the iMac are in the same time zone +1 GMT)- any known work around?

Thursday, January 03, 2008 5:52 AM by TomZ

# re: Remote Desktop Connection Client for Mac 2.0 Beta Available Now

Hi there, nice update, but the hangings/locks while using VPN are very annoying. Making this tool unusable to me.

Cheers, Alex

Thursday, January 17, 2008 12:55 PM by Alex

# re: Remote Desktop Connection Client for Mac 2.0 Beta Available Now

Where do I get the needed TS CAL?! (And don't tell me to ask my networking guy internally, they do not support the Mac.)

Thursday, January 17, 2008 4:19 PM by Keith Esau

# re: Remote Desktop Connection Client for Mac 2.0 Beta Available Now

Forgot to mention that the VPN freezes are only happening with Vista as remote client. W2K3, W2K and XP working fine via VPN tunnel. Too bad if your main workstation runs a Vista..

Friday, January 18, 2008 1:40 PM by Alex

# re: Remote Desktop Connection Client for Mac 2.0 Beta Available Now

I use Windows Vista (and before that, XP) to administer more than 100 Windows 2003 servers in various data centers.  One problem that has plagged me for almost 8 years is that copy/paste intermittently stops working between my local workstation and the remote machine.  Access to the clipboard is definitely enabled, and it works briefly but then stops.  I've researched it more than a dozen times, and it doesn't seem to be caused by software locking, then failing to unlock, the clipboard.  It seems to happen most often when I'm copying from Office or pasting to Office on the local machine, but does affect Notepad and all other apps.  I just did a clean rebuild of Vista Business + Office 2007 Ent + McAfee + Windows Updates with NO OTHER SOFTWARE installed, and I had 10 joyous hours of productivity before copy/paste stopped working (2 hours after starting my machine up this morning).  I'm at my wit's end and frankly feel like dumping Windows.

Tuesday, January 22, 2008 1:59 PM by FrustratedWindowsUser

# re: Remote Desktop Connection Client for Mac 2.0 Beta Available Now

Sorry to hear about the difficulties you have been experiencing. The shared clipboard has been a source of frustration over the years. Take a look at:

http://blogs.msdn.com/ts/archive/tags/Clipboard/default.aspx

This posting explains why the system clipboard chain (which it the mechanism through which TS components are notified of clipboard updates) breaks so easily and what has been done in Vista and later to resolve this issue.

Tuesday, January 22, 2008 3:37 PM by Elton Saul

# Can I use Timbuktu without TS?

Can I use Terminal Services to install Timbuktu then use Timbuktu on its own later?

It appears that if TS is disconnected it stops Timbuktu from sharing the screen although the file exchange still functions.

Can anybody clarify this?

I need to be able to run Tmbktu w/o TS on occasions in order to run single copy of Filemaker Pro.

Sunday, February 03, 2008 10:17 PM by Nick Lightbody

# re: Remote Desktop Connection Client for Mac 2.0 Beta Available Now

Please help!  I'm trying to connect to Windows Server 2003 through my MacBook Pro 10.5.2 and I always get this error.

The mac cannot connect to the Windows-based computer.  The problem might be temporary.  Try connecting to the windows-based computer again, or contact your administrator.

It works fine when I try and connect from a windows computer to the server but I can't get it to work on my mac.

Help!

Friday, February 29, 2008 4:57 PM by Amanda

# re: Remote Desktop Connection Client for Mac 2.0 Beta Available Now

Fix the black and white printing!; why are we still unable to print in color from a remote session?

Wednesday, March 12, 2008 3:25 PM by Bart

# re: Remote Desktop Connection Client for Mac 2.0 Beta Available Now

Does the mac 2.0 Beta client support "Start a program" like the windows remote desktop connection? I am trying to publish a application instead of the desktop. In the windows remote desktop connection (mstsc), this featuture can be found under the "Options" tab and then selecting "Programs"

Wednesday, March 19, 2008 10:17 AM by Alex

# re: Remote Desktop Connection Client for Mac 2.0 Beta Available Now

The Beta expires on March 31st which is 3 days from now. Will there be an update before then?

Friday, March 28, 2008 2:57 PM by Tim

# Beta Expired :-(

The Beta is telling me to download the Final version -- but there doesn't appear to be a Final version...

Monday, March 31, 2008 6:08 AM by g

# Beta Expired... any word on update?

So... today is March 31st. The beta "expires" today, and I can't seem to find any word on when (or if) the final version will be ready. Anyone able to find it?

(When I first got the message the beta was "expiring", and the page the link took me to didn't have what it said it was supposed to have, the fist thought that popped into my head was "How very Microsoft...".)

Monday, March 31, 2008 8:48 AM by Chris

# The beta is expiring, but don't panic

Folks, I posted about the beta2 expiration on Mac Mojo blog. Please take a look of it at http://www.officeformac.com/blog/. Or here is the direct link: http://www.officeformac.com/blog/RDC-Beta-Users--Beta2-is-Expiring--But-DonAt-Panic

Monday, March 31, 2008 12:33 PM by David Liu

# re: Remote Desktop Connection Client for Mac 2.0 Beta Available Now

I really like LogMeIn (http://www.logmein.com) to go from windows to my Mac... The nice thing is that it is accessible either through your LAN or even over the net.

Monday, April 28, 2008 5:58 PM by Daniel VanWinkle

# Remote Desktop Client for Mac that works with Terminal Server 08

Any plans or ideas on when there will be a RDC for Mac that can connect to a  Terminal Server 08? I just tried ver.2 Beta 3 with no luck.

Sunday, May 04, 2008 6:40 PM by Sar

# re: Remote Desktop Connection Client for Mac 2.0 Beta Available Now

Are you connecting directly to WS2008 server and have issues with it, or attempting to connect via TSG?

Monday, May 05, 2008 12:57 PM by Nelly Porter (MS)

# virtual channels?

Does Mac RDC client support Terminal Services virtual channels like Windows RDC.

I want to port my Windows channel plugin for MAC also. How to do it?

Thanks.

Friday, May 30, 2008 5:33 AM by Alex

# re: Remote Desktop Connection Client for Mac 2.0 Beta Available Now

Copy/Paste within the client stops working CONSTANTLY.  The only solution seems to be to exit and re-launch.

I don't care about integration with the Mac clipboard if it comes at the expense of mostly not being able to use copy/paste within the Windows client.  Is there some way to turn off the native clipboard integration so this doesn't happen anymore?

Tuesday, June 10, 2008 5:27 PM by Cory West

# re: Remote Desktop Connection Client for Mac 2.0 Beta Available Now

Does this client support connecting via TSG using smart card?

Sunday, June 15, 2008 9:09 AM by Rohini Kumar BRP

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