Remote Desktop Services Components

Remote Desktop Services (RDS) lets users interact over a network with applications executing on a remote Windows server or PC. While the application is running remotely, users see and interact with it on a local device, such as a PC, Macintosh, or thin-client Windows terminal. RDS uses the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) to send the user’s input to the remote application and display the application’s output on the user’s local device.

Four major RDS components support a variety of remote connection scenarios, and use of any of the four requires a client (device or end user) to be licensed.

Session Host. The Session Host (called Terminal Services or the Terminal Server role in prior versions of Windows Server) allows multiuser access to desktop applications such as Office executing on a Windows Server machine. All user sessions execute within the context of a single Windows Server OS instance. The Session Host can provide users with an entire remote desktop—i.e., a full set of desktop applications along with the standard Windows Start menu, taskbar, Windows Explorer, etc.—or present an interface to only a single application, a feature called RemoteApp. A RemoteApp application is displayed in its own resizable window on the user’s local PC, with its own entry in the taskbar, and notifications, pop-up windows, local drives, and printers all work the same way as they work for a local application.