Is Windows 10 remote desktop any good?

Ever need to access a computer remotely? Its easy to do in Windows 10, but Microsoft has provided a few different ways to get there.

One is the old, familiar Terminal Server-based Remote Desktop Connection [RDC], also known as MSTSC for its executable name mstsc.exe. Another is the newer Remote Desktop, a Universal Windows Platform app that Microsoft calls URDC, with package name Microsoft.RemoteDesktop_10.2.1535.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe. Figure 1 shows these two remote desktop clients side-by-side on a current Windows 10 desktop.

Figure 1: Old-style Remote Desktop Connection [RDC or MSTSC] on the left, newfangled Remote Desktop [URDC] on the right. [Click image to enlarge it.]

On the left, you see the old application-style Remote Desktop Connection [MSTSC]. Its been unchanged for a more than a decade. The General tab offers controls for quick connections, with other tabs [Display, Local Resources, and so on] for more detailed controls over the remote PCs appearance, resolution, performance, and so forth. On the right, the newer Remote Desktop app [URDC] presents a sleeker, more modern appearance. It also makes controls and settings more directly available [through the Settings control at the upper right corner of the app window] and shows a thumbnail view for active connections so users can see whats on a remote desktop.

Theres a third face to Remote Desktop also, but its designed to provide access to managed virtual machines [VMs] and virtualized applications via Azure [or equivalent in-house virtualized and managed infrastructures]. Its called the MSRDC Windows Desktop, and it works through a local or Azure-based Active Directory [AD] environment with an associated email-based login, such as .