USB Over Remote Desktop

We have been looking hard into Terminal Services recently with the strong opion that things will be moving into the "cloud" very soon. The need for standalone high spec machines on your desktop is reducing, with the maintenance of software and hardware compared with a thin simple client with a basic Remote Desktop Client installed connecting you to a heavily managed and redundant virtual desktop.

Key Features you would want from a solution like this to provide for you are the following

  • Email
  • File Storage
  • Creation and Editing of Word , Excel and Power point files
  • Messaging through voice or chat
  • Web Browsing
  • Printing

Microsoft has already provided a solution for this , Terminal Services which runs on it's own on a separate box does exactly the above. Given Small Business Server 2008 provides enhanced printer support for clients and a smother user experience we where still looking for something to beat it.The other main player in this remote world is xen Desktop as shown here provided some nice examples , however only came with one small benefit which was the smother web performance. Given Xen Desktop is backed by Citrix theres a heafty price increase for the ability to have a faster rate of 40ms

USB Drives can be mapped in Remote Desktop with ease , microsoft just hide it away!

Open Remote Desktop Connection ( Programs , Accessories )

Select the options button , Local Resources tab , More Button , and then Tick Drives

Not only can you access your existing drive letters , but anything else you plug in will be mapped automatically