As an IT systems administrator or manager, its important to have the appropriate tools at your disposal to get your work done efficiently and accurately. Remote desktop connection tools are a key piece of the puzzle because they help you with troubleshooting and help you quickly resolve end-user issues.
Manually managing remote connections eats up time you could be spending on higher priority tasks. Using a remote desktop connection manager allows you to focus on more important things. My top choices are SolarWinds® Dameware® Remote Support [DRS] for on-premises use and SolarWinds Dameware Remote Everywhere [DRE] for use in the cloud. Read on to learn more about the best remote desktop connection managers or click on the links below to jump ahead to each tool review.
- SolarWinds Dameware Remote Support
- SolarWinds Dameware Remote Everywhere
- Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection Manager [RDCMan]
- Devolutions Remote Desktop Manager
- mRemoteNG
What Is a Remote Desktop Connection Manager?
A remote desktop connection manager is used to manage remote desktop administration for the different connections and sessions you have. Typical enterprises have multiple Remote Desktop Protocol [RDP] sessions per day and managing these manually means having to repeatedly enter your credentials. Logging in and keeping track of these sessions can become tiresome even without having to make SSH or Telnet connections for troubleshooting.
A remote desktop connection manager or RDP client consolidates your connections in one place, so you dont have to log in to numerous remote connection sessions per day.
Best Remote Desktop Connection Managers
There are several good remote desktop connection managers available today. Here are my top five.
1. SolarWinds Dameware Remote Support
Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection Manager [RDCMan] is useful for establishing regular remote connections. Like other tools, it can save login credentials, so you dont need to enter your credentials every time you want to create a remote connection.
RDCMan also supports connections between virtual machines and consoles, allows you to establish smart groups, and gives you the ability to import servers from a text file. This tool is useful for supporting RDP connections, but it cannot support other protocols for a broader range of remote connections. Its essentially an RDP client, and other tools are much broader in terms of their protocol offerings.
You can download RDCMan for free through the Microsoft website.
4. Devolutions Remote Desktop Manager
With this remote desktop manager, you can automatically launch and consolidate connections in one centralized window. You can also save your login credentials with one-click connections, making it easier to manage multiple remote sessions.
Devolutions Remote Desktop Manager makes it possible to share your remote sessions with your team members and manage and control other users access to accounts. With secure password vaults and two-factor authentication, this tool takes a secure approach to remote desktop connection management.
A free trial of the Enterprise Edition is available.
5. mRemoteNG
mRemoteNG is an open-source software designed to serve as a centralized tool for managing remote connections. It allows you to see your remote connections in an interface relying on a tabbing system, and it supports several protocols for establishing remote connections, including RDP, VNC, ICA, SSH, Telnet, HTTP/HTTPS, rlogin, and raw socket connections.
This free tool is light on features. As such, its best suited for home users and IT staff in a small business without the budget for a professional tool.
How to Choose the Best Remote Desktop Connection Manager Tool
When considering the right remote desktop manager for your business, think about the size of the company and the kind of problems youre trying to solve. If youre a small or midsized business or you want to play around with remote desktop connection management, a free tool may be enough. However, large companies will need a premium tool with a broader range of features to support complex and distributed troubleshooting.
For IT professionals looking for an on-premises solution, I recommend Dameware Remote Support. For a cloud system, my pick is Dameware Remote Everywhere. These and other premium tools offer free trials, which can help you choose the right tool for your business.