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Remote Desktop Connection Client for Server 2003 MISSING from MS Website??

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Ok, am I the only one that’s noticed that ‘Remote Desktop Connection for Server 2003’ (Remote Desktop Client 5.2.3790) is *MISSING* from Microsoft’s download site now?? – And the link is broken on their Windows Server 2003 page? When you click the link ( http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=a8255ffc-4b4a-40e7-a706-cde7e9b57e79&DisplayLang=en ) , you now get the following error message:

‘The download you requested is unavailable. If you continue to see this message when trying to access this download, you might try the “Search for a Download” area on the Download Center home page. ‘

I also used to simply go to the Microsoft Download site, and type in the following keywords: remote desktop 2003 .. which would bring up the Remote Desktop Connection (client) to download. The only thing available now via Microsoft.com seems to be the WEB Connection client .. which is unacceptable to me because a) You have to run a IIS webserver to host it (vulnerabilities, exploits, etc.) – b) and extra setup and an extra server to boot (and crash) – BLAH.

Have I missed something major … or does anyone know the reason why they would just simply (and quietly without explanation) remove it from the MS website? I still have local copies that I use to install at our Remote sites .. but it really makes me wonder now what the heck is going on.

If they (MS) think they can convert us all over to their WEB (Active-X) vulnerable crap, they have another thing coming. What about all the MASSIVE spyware the leaches onto IE Browsers? How does this prove MORE realiable than the stand-alone client if a user might not even be able to OPEN their browser? Sigh – MS at their political game again.

Anyone know anything about them removing it? I’ve searched all over the web (Google, Yahoo, MS newsgroups, etc.) – and no one seems to have noticed – or at least said anything about this but me?

Topic

Is this what you are looking for??

In reply to Remote Desktop Connection Client for Server 2003 MISSING from MS Website??

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=80111f21-d48d-426e-96c2-08aa2bd23a49&DisplayLang=en

Reply To: Remote Desktop Connection Client for Server 2003 MISSING from MS Website??

In reply to Is this what you are looking for??

Thanks, but no.

That is the ‘5.1.2600.2180’ version that is included in Windows XP SP2.

That uses the old 5.1 RDP protocol (hence the version number) as far as I know.

The newer ‘5.2.3790’ which is distributed with Windows Server 2003 is the latest. Still not sure what has happened to it on MS’s website??

RDC 5.2.3790 has better printing support

In reply to Reply To: Remote Desktop Connection Client for Server 2003 MISSING from MS Website??

RDC 5.1.2600.2180 supports only LPT printers and shared printers. RDC 5.2.3790 also supports TCP/IP printing on client computers. That’s good reason to use RDC 5.2 over 5.1.

You don’t need IIS to use RD web connection 2003. Just download and install the package. Look for default.htm in the installation location, and run it. Just be aware of spywares that intercepts whatever being sent to TS server.

Ah .. good to know

In reply to RDC 5.2.3790 has better printing support

Thanks for this good reply. I did not know that about the newer 5.2.3790 client.

Also, another thing I noticed that 5.2.3790 does that the older 5.1 does NOT – it lets you use port numbers on the Computer address line (123.123.123.123:3390) for instance – if you want to change the HOSTING port on the Terminal Server/Remote Desktop Computer.

And secondly, it lets you use the ‘/console’ switch to actually connect to the CONSOLE session on the remote computer – which can really come in handy doing remote support when you want to set exact settings that will be sure to ‘stick’ when you change them.

I did not know you didn’t need to run a Webserver on the other end (host end). Are you certain about this? I could have sworn I read this somewhere – and it makes sense since you are accessing a host through a web page? Or does it just load the client THROUGH the web browser and connect to the standard port (3389)?

But lastly, I totally agree about the spyware issue. How can a ‘web client’ be more reliable than a stand-alone client – when spyware is SO prevelant nowadays. If the client end is bogged down with spyware – and can’t even browse or OPEN their browser – then how could this be better?

Kevin

IIS is not required for RD Web Connection

In reply to Ah .. good to know

Remote Desktop Web Connection 2003 is a client component of TS/RD architecture, it acts like standalone RDC client 2003/XP. Run “tswebsetup.exe” on a client computer, it will create a few files, one of which is “default.htm”. Load “default.htm” into IE, and you will have an RDC interface. No IIS is involved.

But the web interface doesn’t allow you to specify different port or console. Having said that, I still prefer the standalone RDC client 2003.

Ah ok .. thanks

In reply to IIS is not required for RD Web Connection

Thanks for this great info.

I would also think that it doesn’t allow you to connect local COM (serial) ports … Printers .. and Drives? But I could be wrong here too.

The major thing we need is printers and especially COM ports – for the Inventories we do with handheld barcode scanners. They MUST download scanned barcode data via mapped remote COM (serial) ports – and I would really bet the web client doesn’t allow mapping of them like the stand-alone RDP 5.2.3790 client does.

IIS is not required for RD Web Connection

In reply to Ah .. good to know

Remote Desktop Web Connection 2003 is a client component of TS/RD architecture, it acts like standalone RDC client 2003/XP. Run “tswebsetup.exe” on a client computer, it will create a few files, one of which is “default.htm”. Load “default.htm” into IE, and you will have an RDC interface. No IIS is involved.

Sorry to reply twice – wouldn’t let me edit post

In reply to Remote Desktop Connection Client for Server 2003 MISSING from MS Website??

Sorry to reply again – but it wouldn’t let me edit the post. Kept taking me to ‘Page could not be found’ on Techrepublic’s site (NOT IE error msg .. but Techrepublic website error?).

Any rate, wanted to mention that this ‘5.2.3790’ version uses the newer 5.2 RDP protocol … and that XP SP2 RDP Client that you mentioned uses the 5.1 RDP protocol .. AFAIK .. because of the version number (5.1.2600.etc).

download

In reply to Sorry to reply twice – wouldn’t let me edit post

hey, could u also give me some link or a site that offers whrere to download the rdp client 5.2..version?
thanks in advanced

Reply To: Remote Desktop Connection Client for Server 2003 MISSING from MS Website??

In reply to download

Well, I tell you what I did .. 🙂 I have a copy of the 5.2 RDP Client from when it WAS available … and I uploaded that to a private web directory on my website where I can download it when needed. I can send the 5.2 client to you via email, ftp, or whatever. Just send me a private message with details of where you want it. If it’s via email, your email will have to accept attachments of at least 3.7 megabytes and be able to hold the full 3.7 megabytes in your email box.

Kevin

I would like the 5.2 RDP Client

In reply to Reply To: Remote Desktop Connection Client for Server 2003 MISSING from MS Website??

Please forward a copy of 5.2 RDP Client to me. I too have been frustrated with this process as well. Thanks – Dave

david.jobe@srs.gov

Done

In reply to I would like the 5.2 RDP Client

Done … check your email Dave.

Let me know if you don’t get it for whatever reason and we’ll figure out another way.

Also, anyone else that needs it, please send me a private message on the boards and I’ll get to it as soon as I can.

Thanks,

Kevin

Actually here is a link..

In reply to download

(original post):’I’d be glad to give you a link if I had one .. but the one I’m using is a private website of mine … and I can’t have everyone using all the bandwidth on it.

If someone can offer to host it somewhere for free, I’ll be glad to upload it and post the link. Just keep in mind it’s around 3.7mb for the full client file – so you would be hit with 3.7mb of transfer each time someone downloaded the file.’

EDIT: I actually found a link on a good website that has this file hosted. The only thing I notice is that it is in a .MSI installer format (so you would need the Windows Installer on your computer – most 2000 and XP machines already have this) … and it’s only around 1mb instead of 3.7mb. But here it is .. as long as they don’t complain about the bandwidth of people downloading it (wouldn’t think so since they are already hosting it):

http://www.workthin.com/EXE/msrdpcli.msi

If anyone else has some good links for this package, please let me know and I’ll update this message with them.

Also, I can still provide the original FULL .EXE self-executable file for anyone that needs it on a request basis. Just send me a private message on the board here. Again, if someone can provide a place to host this file for free, I will be glad to upload it.

Thanks,

Kevin

What the ???

In reply to Remote Desktop Connection Client for Server 2003 MISSING from MS Website??

I too used to type in that exact search at microsoft.com\downloads and get a match every time. Suddenly its gone ??!!!

Nope

In reply to Remote Desktop Connection Client for Server 2003 MISSING from MS Website??

Craig,

If you’ll notice, this is the Remote Desktop WEB Connection client … and not the STAND-ALONE Remote Desktop Client 5.2.3790 that we’ve been talking about.

Thanks anyway though.

Still no explanation from Microsoft as to why they’ve removed it. The only thing we can come up with is that they’re trying to migrate us over to the WEB-based client – which for many reasons as we’ve explained on this thread, we do NOT like – and will not use it for these reasons (mainly the reliability of a STAND-ALONE client versus a WEB-BASED client – which is susceptible to compromise in Internet Explorer by Spyware, Malware, and Browser-Hijackers – where a STAND-ALONE client is much less likely, if at all, to be compromised in this way.)

So I see

In reply to Nope

You are right. My apologies. It does look like they just removed the standalone client from their site. MS seems to move their stuff all the time without changing their links, so I frequently use Google to make up for MS’s disorganization. With all the talk about security, I’m surprised that MS is still pushing ActiveX. Even more oddly, they do have a standalone client for connecting to XP Professional.

Craig Herberg

Missing RDP 5.2 client

In reply to Remote Desktop Connection Client for Server 2003 MISSING from MS Website??

I’m Carl Carter-Schwendler, one of the program managers on the Terminal Server team at Microsoft. It came to my attention a while back that the RDP 5.2 client on the download website was not properly signed. When I realized this I immediately pulled the download from the web as per company policy.

I am currently working on re-deploying properly signed binaries to the same location. In the meantime you can use the binaries on the Windows Server 2003 CD.

Just to be clear, there is no strategy at Microsoft to migrate users to the ActiveX Web Control.

Carl Carter-Schwendler
Program Manager
Terminal Services

——————

This posting is provided “AS IS” with no warranties, and confers no rights.

An explanation from Microsoft directly

In reply to Missing RDP 5.2 client

Original post

Missing RDP 5.2 client
I’m Carl Carter-Schwendler, one of the program managers on the Terminal Server team at Microsoft. It came to my attention a while back that the RDP 5.2 client on the download website was not properly signed. When I realized this I immediately pulled the download from the web as per company policy.

I am currently working on re-deploying properly signed binaries to the same location. In the meantime you can use the binaries on the Windows Server 2003 CD.

Just to be clear, there is no strategy at Microsoft to migrate users to the ActiveX Web Control.

Carl Carter-Schwendler
Program Manager
Terminal Services

——————

This posting is provided “AS IS” with no warranties, and confers no rights.

From: carlcs@… Date: 04/07/05

Finally, thank you Carl. As you can imagine though, this threw a LOT of us Administrators into a ‘loop’ thinking different things as to why this happened – and with no explanation on the former web page for this download (and actually the download page MISSING on MS’s website) – we did not know what to think – except that we KNEW it had been there, and couldn’t figure out why it was now missing.

There are clearly features such as /console and direct port (:3390) missing from the 5.1 client, that made us want to use the 5.2.3790 version.

I think a lot of us noticed this ‘unsigned’ issue with the official 5.2.3790 release – but most of us knowing we either downloaded it directly from MS – or got it off the CD – didn’t think twice about installing it on our clients.

While your reasoning and intentions are very good, we just ask that an explanation, at the very least, be provided in the future for things like this – because as you can see from this thread – it left a lot of us very confused about the cause of it’s removal – and definitely questioning it’s security status (exploits, etc.) as well.

Thank you again for the explanation – and we look forward to the ‘official signed’ version very soon.

Kind regards,

Kevin M. Russell
Computer Works
Fort Smith, Arkansas

[Author]

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