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Seamless RDP

Playing around with Seamless RDP on Ubuntu
By 26/10/10 [Last Edited by Joseph 21/12/10]
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Without the use of any emulators, Windows APIs etc, you can stream individual Windows applications to a Linux/Unix box via Windows terminal services by using SeamlessRDP and rdesktop. Here is Computer Management running on Xubuntu (Hardy Heron).





As you can see, you can have the streamed application running under the desktop in its own window unlike normally where you would be running it under a remote desktop. To use SeamlessRDP, simply place its files under a directory on the Terminal Server, e.g. C:\seamlessrdp which can then be invoked when you run rdesktop in SeamlessRDP mode. Take a look at the command line parameters of rdesktop, as I was able to create a shortcut on my desktop to a remote application (e.g. MS Word), where when clicked, would automatically log me on to the terminal server and start the application. Apart from the window theme, it looks like you are actually running the application locally on the linux box. You can also use rdesktop's other parameters to map local drives, audio devices, printers etc to the server which can be accessed by the streamed application.

Unfortunately, SeamlessRDP mode on rdesktop does not work with Windows NT4 Terminal Server Edition :(

Citrix MetaFrame does a much better job than SeamlessRDP at Seamless windows and application hosting. I have not tried the 2X RDP solution.