Remote Desktop Preview now available on Windows 10 Mobile and Continuum

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Today sees an update (v844) of Microsoft's Remote Desktop Preview client for Windows 10, going fully universal and adding support for both Windows 10 Mobile devices in general and Continuum support for the Lumia 950 or 950 XL in particular. If 'dialling in' to a work computer is something you need to do often then it potentially just got a whole lot easier.

From the MSDN blog post (it's quite long and worth reading, these are my extracts):

Today’s update (version 844) of the Remote Desktop Preview client for Windows 10 adds support for both Windows 10 Mobile devices and Continuum for phone for compatible devices like the Lumia 950 or 950 XL. The client is still in development as we continue adding more key features including support for Azure RemoteApp. It’s been great seeing all the feedback and excitement for using this client on Windows 10 Mobile and on Continuum. This is a great time for you to make feature requests or report bugs and other issues you might have with the client as we prepare to come out of preview.

Remote Desktop Preview is a Universal Windows App. The UI should be familiar if you’ve used our client on a Windows PC. We’ve adapted the UI to handle devices of all sizes. This means that you’ll now have the option to connect to a remote PC (optionally through a Remote Desktop Gateway), access Remote Resources (see below), manage a list of credentials and Gateways, and change global settings from your phone, PC, or tablet. 

Note that the main app UI can be used in either portrait or landscape modes. However, for now the in-session experience is limited to landscape mode when running on mobile devices. Expect to see support for portrait mode in-session in a future update.

Use your mobile device like a PC with Continuum so you can access any apps

If you own a Lumia 950 or 950XL, you can use the Remote Desktop Preview client on a larger monitor or TV with Continuum. Continuum enables you to connect a capable mobile device to any screen with the Microsoft Display Dock or a Miracast capable device, and power a PC-like experience on that screen. You can attach a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse to your mobile device or a USB keyboard and mouse to the dock before connecting to a remote PC and using any apps (including Win32) that you have available in the remote session.

This is a great way to be productive from your mobile device when you can extend your work to an additional larger screen. 

Figure8

Figure 8: WordPad running as a RemoteApp on Windows 10 Mobile

You can download the Remote Desktop Preview here. It's also available in various versions for Windows Phone 8.1Windows 8.1iOSMac OS X, and Android.

If you want to get involved in helping the client evolve, get going in the Remote Desktop clients forum.

We'll have more on Continuum in a month or two when Microsoft has developed the core code for Windows 10 Mobile a little more. In the meantime, here's my somewhat damning review.

Source / Credit: MSDN