If you are a Windows admin, you probably have had times when you are managing multiple servers and have many connections open to many different Remote Desktops. Microsoft allows you to plug the remote desktop ActiveX control into a MMC console, but that's a pretty lousy solution to the problem. Then it came to me... Why not use the latest "tabbed browsing" interface paradigm to remote desktops? It's awesome in Firefox, Opera, and IE 7, how come nobody has done this for remote desktops? Turns out that it has been done before, but I only could find commercial products and the demos were... well... lacking. And I'll leave it at that.
So I decided to write my own. It sounded like a really fun project. And boy has it been!
RD Tabs was born. Yes, it's a very uncreative name. "Remote Desktop Tabs"
My admin friends love it and gave me lots of great feedback. And now I'm ready to share it with the public. I plan to add lots of new features in the future and RD Tabs will notify you of updates, so you don't even have to think about it to stay up-to-date.
Some of the major highlights of RD Tabs:
- Up to 100 simultaneous remote desktop connections in a tabbed user interface.
- Favorites can be saved and categorized into folders.
- RDP 5.2 with optional TLS authentication and encryption is fully supported.
- Respects Microsoft's Windows security model and works just as smoothly running under an administrator or limited user account.
- Respects Terminal Services GPO setting to prevent saving of passwords in favorites.
- "Full Screen Mode" still shows tab bar for quickly switching desktops.
- Automatically notifies you of new versions of the software.
- Plus much more!
RD Tabs requires the .NET Framework 2.0.
RD Tabs respects the Microsoft Windows security model. All user data is stored in the user's Application Data folder and global default settings can be modified by admins by editing the application.config file in Program Files.
RD Tabs has been tested on Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, but it should also work in the upcoming Windows Vista (I haven't tested it).
Download version 1.0.6 at the following links...
[Edit: Feb 10, 2007] Version 1.0.6 is no longer available. Please visit the RD Tabs home page for the latest version.