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Thursday, 12 March 2009
by Michel Roth
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For I think a couple of years now I have been using vRD, visionapp Remote Desktop manager, as my RDP connection manager since I make more RDP connection than I would ever want to know. Recently they pinged me that they had updated vRD (a couple of times). The latest version is vRD 2009. I tried it and loved it!
The first thing I noticed it that it fixed a nasty bug that made me loose the clipboard every now and again. Outside of that there's a ton of new features. These are the new notable features since version 1.5 (which is only two versions ago) and 2008:
- Allowing the exporting of vRD settings to an XML file (encrypted passwords of course)
- Save connections into a DB so multiple admins can use the DB at the same time
- A search option for connections
- Copy connections (hurray!)
- Smart sizing of connection windows
- ICA support
- VNC support
- SSH support
- Reconnect (disconnect and subsequent connect) hurry!
- Restart/Shutdown server (yikes!)
- Automatically reconnect after reboot (hurray!)
- WoL support
- Management board support (HP iLO etc.)
- Import Connections via AD and .csv and other versions of vRD (HURRAY!)
- TS Gateway support
- Log off users
- Connection History reports
So a ton of new features. Actually it has become much more than a RDP connection manager. I still love it. It only requires .net framework so this makes it an easier candidate for those of you how want to App-V/ThinApp/SVS it.
Version 1.5 was total freeware. vRD 2009 also is freeware (limitware?), albeit with some limitations. You start out with a trail mode which has the following limitations:
- Usage only for 30 days (both local and database mode)
- Neither export nor backup of objects
- 3 concurrent connections only
After 30 days you will be offered the choice to buy or to continue in freeware mode. The freeware mode has the following limitations:
- No database mode, only local mode is available
- 3 concurrent connections only
- Only 15 objects may be exported or backed up
- No email or hotline support (support forum is available)
All in all this does not limit your ability to use the tool. The 3 connection limit is not that big of a problem since you can just disconnect (Hurray for TS)
As with the previous versions of vRD the nice folks at VisionApp have allowed me to offer the vRD2009 at Thincomputing.net.
So if you want to check it out - you want to check it out- give it a go from the Thincomputing.net download section.
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vRd 2009 is a rock solid product. I have use the free version of vRd for RDP connections to home and work servers for some time now. I finally decided to purchase a license last fall and I've had no regrets since. If you have to manage a large number of remote server connections, you can't beat the functionality of vRd 2009, period. I can't wait to have a need to try out some of the new functionality such as VNC, SSH, etc. Keep up the great work VisionApp.
The new features in vRD come from mRemote (http://www.mremote.org/).
It's last free version had all the above features with no limits. It was merged w/vRD and the limited version of VRD was introduced.
If you want those features for free, try th elast version of mRemote!