NetWatch, Inc. uses the built in Microsoft Windows Terminal Services Client (mstsc.exe) for a significant portion of our remote work. It can be secured, uses decent encryption and can be set to use complex passwords in Active Directory. However, although the registry does store information about the previous session at HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Terminal Server Client, the drop down list is limited to the last 10 connections. Even with that, you have to apply all of the settings to each connection, or save an unwieldy number of .RDP session files.

We wrote TS Commander to do a lot of the work of managing these sessions for us. The main panel of TS Commander allows you to list various categories to help you organize what each server does, or where it is. It also tracks whether or not the server is currently up, down, or has an error in the name with green, red, or yellow status lights as appropriate.

Also, as you might not want the application constantly in the background of your desktop, we allow it to minimize and restore from the system tray instead of closing unless specifically requested to close. This allows you to have it running for easy reach and access to those servers you need to terminal service into.

There are a whole host of options you can use with mstsc.exe when you launch it. We wanted to capture as many of them as possible, such as screen spanning for multiple monitors, taking control of the console session, and alternate port numbers. Each of these settings is stored for a specific terminal server session and launches from a double click on the main window. We also realized that many sessions required drives, printers, or other resources to map with it, so we added the over-ride ability to use a connection file you have previously created. However, rather than hunt all over your drive, or clutter your desktop, you can simply put them in a single directory and point TS Commander to the individual files.

There are a whole set of additional things we will add to TS Commander in the coming months, all of which will allow us to improve a tool we use in house, and have now made available to consumers as well.

If you would like, to try it, click below.

© 2008 NetWatch, Inc.