Universal Remote Desktop Coming To Windows 10 Soon

jones_supa writes: For those using the Continuum feature of Windows and who work from home or in the office, you'll be pleased to know that the Remote Desktop Universal app is not only happening but will be released soon as a Technical Preview. This follows up on the Remote Desktop preview, which is already available for PC. The news came from Jason of the Microsoft Continuum team: "We've heard a lot of buzz around being able to connect to a remote desktop from Continuum for phone. We are excited to share that the Remote Desktop Universal Windows Platform (UWP) app will be released very soon in Technical Preview."

Comments

What is it?

[Anonymous Coward]

OK slashdot: you need to get a grip. You are losing readership rapidly. But some effort into it: in the summary, explain what the feature is, explain what Continuum. No, I don't want to visit 5 links to figure out what you are talking about. It should be in the summary. Do your job, or close up shop.

Re:What is it?

[MightyYar]

I use Windows every day, and very frequently use Remote Desktop - both to work from home and to work from the lab. I have no idea what Continuum is, and so I looked it up. It seems like it's just a fancy way of saying that your device can look like either a tablet or a desktop without changing the OS - but that is not exactly worthy of geek-slobber. Is this news item really "You can now remote desktop from your tablet!"? I'm... underwhelmed. Teamviewer, Chrome, etc. have been able to do this for a long time and they are free. They also work without abandoning Windows 7.

Re:What is it?

[Anonymous Coward]

Uh, I must have been living under a rock. I've never heard of "Continuum". A "widely talked about" feature of Windows 10 MOBILE? How many people are using Windows 10 MOBILE? 10?

Re:What is it?

[Anonymous Coward]

Continuum is a feature of Windows 10 Mobile (renamed mobile OS no longer following in line from Windows Phone 8.1). It allows your phone to be hooked up to monitors/TVs and controlled like a desktop, which includes hooking up (directly or via Bluetooth) a keyboard and mouse.

Windows 10 running on tablets already inherently support this kind of thing by switching out of tablet mode (or even semi-confusingly while in tablet mode), but it's a very different thing to allow apps from your phone to be scaled up to PC resolutions.

Android tried it a few years ago, but it was a very different beast. Continuum benefits from "Universal" apps, which can _literally_ be the same app running on a full PC, scaled via a different UI (and only the UI) to run on a phone. Some apps, like the Office suite go about this by having a "mobile" app that is scaled down feature wise to simplify it, but it still offers a full PC resolution option that is more usable rather than just with your finger(s).

This is pretty much the "killer feature" of Windows 10 Mobile; combined with the "Universal" apps, it's the only thing that may actually save Windows 10 Mobile by making it truly brain-dead simple to make a PC app that converts almost seamlessly in a mobile app with little-to-no code changes.

Re:What is it?

[MightyYar]

Ah, so it's a Windows Phone thing. No wonder no one knows what it is.

I'll hold on to my geek card for now.

Re:What is "Remote Desktop Universal"

[pr0t0]

I just read a forum talking about, and people are acting like they've never heard of RDP (or LogMeIn, or VNC or Hamachi from a decade ago). One guy stated something like, "imagine a photographer being able to edit the photos he just took by logging into his home PC and using Photoshop from his hotel room". I don't have to imagine that. I've done that...years upon years ago. I don't get it. I have a Microsoft-built RDP app on my Android phone. I have Chrome Remote Desktop too.

Re:What is "Remote Desktop Universal"

[Bugler412]

Remote desktop on the phone screen itself is a done deal. Continuum, the new feature in WIndows 10 Mobile that lets you attach the phone to a "real" screen and use it like a Windows 10 PC (for universal apps only), an updated or new universal app is needed that will run on the big screen when in Continuum. Existing WinPhone 8.1 apps can't do that and need to be updated to support use in Continuum on the big screen. I have one of the new Lumia's with the Continuum dock, it's a pretty slick feature, but mostly a demo right now since very few universal apps, especially from 3rd parties, have been updated to support use in Continuum and therefore can run only on the small phone screen.

Re:Windows Phone - Windows From Phone

[pushing-robot]

How I understand it:

Windows 10 has a 'Desktop Mode' and a 'Tablet Mode'; in the latter the UI is more tuned for touches, gestures, and small displays.
App developers can likewise create separate desktop and tablet UIs.
On a desktop, Windows and apps will use their desktop UI, on a tablet, Windows and supporting apps use their tablet UI. On a convertible device like the Surface Book they can even change as the screen is docked and undocked.

This is Continuum.

Continuum didn't extend to RDP, though, so when you used a tablet to connect to your desktop, Windows would still render the desktop UI. This change will allow your desktop to switch to the tablet UI when you connect via a tablet or other touch device. Of course, it's still up to app developers to support it.

I can see a glimpse Microsoft's vision

[The-Ixian]

And I really like it.

I think it would be absolutely fantastic to unify all of the operating systems into one. The UI being the only thing to change between different sized screens.

A full computer in my pocket that I can use as is, or use it with 4 large monitors, keyboard and mouse, or anything in between. One computer to do everything.

I think this is what Microsoft is ultimately driving toward and I think it is pretty awesome if they can pull it off.

Re:I can see a glimpse Microsoft's vision

[The-Ixian]

Yes, from what I have heard, it sounds like MS will be doing a Surface Phone at some point in the near future.

I think this implies the x86 CPU in a small device.

Re:Windows Phone - Windows From Phone

[pushing-robot]

After reading more I don't think my initial interpretation was correct.

"Continuum" is the Windows 10 feature that switches UI based on device.
"Continuum for Phone" is a different feature that lets you connect a Windows 10 phones to a screen+keyboard+mouse and work in a desktop-like interface.

Unfortunately, many people say "Continuum" when they mean "Continuum for Phone" so it's a mess trying to decipher what's really going on:

1) The summary and some reports describe Continuum coming to to Remote Desktop, which would mean your UI will switch based on what device you're using.
2) Other reports talk about Remote Desktop coming to Continuum, which could mean MS is updating their phones' RDP app to run under the desktop-like "Continuum for Phone" interface.

The original release from Microsoft specifies "Continuum for Phone", so at this point I'm putting my money on the second interpretation. Sorry for adding to the confusion.

Re:Windows Phone - Windows From Phone

[PhrostyMcByte]

Continuum is the ability for you to plug a Windows Phone into a screen, keyboard, and mouse, and have a near-desktop experience. It relies on apps coded for the Universal Windows Platform, which is designed to let apps scale between phone, tablet, and desktop modes with a single binary. This announcement is that Microsoft has made an RDP client under UWP, so people will now be able to remote into work from their Continuum desktops.