Greetings, RDPSoft friends and customers!
We’re thrilled to let you know that we’re nearing a beta release of Remote Desktop Commander Suite v8, and also want to introduce you to a nifty new tool that keeps you from granting your users local admin rights on your RDS and AVD hosts.
Our version 7 release of the Remote Desktop Commander Suite introduced a new Digital Employee eXperience (DEX) Dashboard, which assists RDS/AVD admins and help desk techs in pinpointing performance issues on their session hosts. Whether it is a host with too many users, poor latency between user and server, laggy apps due to slow file servers or database servers, or misbehaving service applications on a host, our DEX dashboard helps you visualize the biggest problem immediately.
Unfortunately, not all issues with a RDS or AVD connection are under your direct control. Users will always blame you for their poor user experience but, many times, it’s something on their side that is ultimately causing the issue.
What might cause issues on the client side, you may ask? Many things, such as:
- Poor WiFi – you don’t control your user’s home or office network, but you’ll certainly hear about it when their connection drops.
- Routing issues – you also don’t control their local ISP and the route the RDP protocol takes to your Remote Desktop Gateway, VPN, or AVD gateway servers.
- High CPU or memory load on their PC, due to background applications -or the fifty million browser tabs they have open on their personal PC- in addition to the ones they’ve opened server side
- High disk or network I/O on their PC due to open applications streaming videos or performing other high I/O tasks
- Out of date Windows updates or funky RDP client settings
Wouldn’t it be great to be able to glean all of this information with a few mouse clicks directly from the client’s PC? You would have the ammunition you need to show them that the problem is on their side, and also to suggest some things they can do to improve their experience. Well, in Remote Desktop Commander Suite v8, now you can. Please read on for more details and to sign up for the beta when it is released.
In this RDPSoft E-Newsletter:
Remote Desktop Commander Suite v8 Beta Introduces Client-Side Endpoint Diagnostics for Windows 10 and 11 PCs
Still Giving Users Local Admin Rights on Your RDS or AVD Hosts Due To Legacy Apps? A New Solution in the Market Helps You Avoid That
Fix My Session is a Hit! Implement It Today to Reduce Support Calls Related to Hung Sessions and Locked Profile Disks
Remote Desktop Commander v8 Beta Signup Link
New Client-Side Endpoint Diagnostics in Remote Desktop Commander Suite v8
Simple Installation of Client-Side Diagnostics on Endpoints
For Remote Desktop Commander’s DEX dashboard to obtain the new client-side metrics, the user must first install the diagnostic components on their machine. Fortunately, this is trivially simple, only involving two steps.
Step 1 – Build a Client Side Diagnostics Installer For Your End Users
From the Admin Tools menu, choose the RDPSoft Client Side Diagnostics Installer menu option. Then, adjust behavioral properties to suit your network, and click the “Create Client Installer Package” button.
Step 2 – Distribute the Installer to End Users
Next, publish the installer package to your users via a company website, or simply send it to them when you need to troubleshoot their endpoint. All they need do is run the executable, then close and reopen their existing RDS or AVD session – no admin rights are required, nor is a full install with the Windows Installer required. The new Client Side Diagnostics are compatible with the MSTSC client, the legacy MSRDC AVD client, and the modern Windows App for RDS/AVD on Windows 10 and Windows 11 endpoints.
The New, Expanded DEX Dashboard
Once a user has installed the new Client Side Diagnostics on their PC, you can review them easily in real time in the new DEX dashboard. Simply raise the DEX dashboard as before, by selecting the user’s session in the Remote Desktop Commander Session Navigator. You should now see the Client Side Metrics in plain view at the bottom of the window.
Beyond the basic metrics such as WiFi strength and client CPU and memory load, an administrator can quickly dive more deeply into other metrics that our Client Side Diagnostics components send across the RDP session to the server. For example, an administrator can choose the “View Advanced Performance Stats” to see which programs a user has launched on their client endpoint that are using lots of CPU, memory, or disk and network I/O. If these metrics are high, they might degrade the user’s remote desktop or the remote application experience being delivered over RDS or AVD.
However, that’s just the beginning of the troubleshooting capabilities. While Remote Desktop Commander has been able to display basic latency and packet loss metrics measurable from server side performance counters for years, the Client Side Diagnostics components have the capability to collect full differential traceroutes, between a reference Internet address and the address of your RDS or AVD deployment’s gateway or VPN server. Metrics like jitter, ISP geolocation of servers in the route to your edge device can be automatically gathered and displayed in a minute or so for review. The real global source IP of the client is also collected and geolocated.
Remember the Client Side Connection Analyzer we introduced a few years ago in the Remote Desktop Commander Suite? You could have a client run that program on their Windows endpoint, and then have them send you a file that you could analyze in the Remote Desktop Commander Client to see the reasons for their disconnects- whether they were out of date on their Windows updates or had any weird settings they were using for their RDP client.
Apparently, running that tool and actually emailing the file back to a technician was too difficult for some end users (bless their hearts), so you’ll be pleased to know that a new version of the tool is included in the RDPSoft Client Side Diagnostics installer, that will automatically build and transfer the file when requested by an Administrator automatically. The user doesn’t have to lift a finger! When summoned, an Administrator can quickly review the Client Side Connection Analyzer metrics that load automatically in a separate window.
Ready to Register For the v8 Beta?
Want to try out these new features before the full release this Spring? Please click here to sign up for the beta, and we will notify you when it is available to download in a few weeks.
Are You Still Giving Your Users Admin Rights on RDS or AVD Hosts Required By Legacy Apps? Let’s Fix That and Secure Your EUC Deployment at the Same Time.
Let’s face it – some legacy apps were written expecting – nay, demanding -admin rights on a local system. Back when users would run those apps on individual PCs, that might be workable, but having to grant admin rights on a shared RDS or AVD session host is a risky gamble, and not a secure proposition. If you don’t understand why giving users local admin rights on an EUC host is a bad idea, read our CEO Andy Milford’s RDPwned book (available at Amazon) that discusses privilege escalation and lateral movement. If you grant users local Administrator rights on your EUC hosts and then log into these hosts with Domain Admin credentials, a local Administrator can:
- Steal your Domain Admin credentials,
- Take over your session,
- Engage in Pass the Hash or Pass the Ticket attacks,
- And eventually take over your entire Windows domain.
While to date a few companies (e.g. Ivanti, BeyondTrust, and Tricerat) have tried to tackle this problem, their packages are often much more robust and costly than what a SMB, MSP, or even early enterprise company wants to budget for a specific security need. Imagine our pleasure when we learned that a new solution to this problem had been developed by a team with veteran experience in the EUC market – yet had been priced affordably for SMBs and MSPs.
This new solution solves the legacy app issue by selectively elevating only specific applications when they are launched by the user. As a result, the apps get the rights they need, but a potential attacker does not have broad local Admin rights in their session, which they could abuse to do all of the nefarious things I mentioned above.
We’re so impressed with this product that we’ve agreed to introduce it to our customer base via deal registrations – so, if you have legacy apps requiring local Admin rights without a secure approach yet in place or, if you’re already using a costly solution to tackle this problem but need to reduce your IT spend, please fill out the form that I’ve linked to here. We will introduce you to this new solution and the founders behind it, and also provide you with a 10% off coupon, should you decide to purchase after trialing it your environment.
Stop Dealing With Locked Profile Disks and Hung Sessions Manually. Deploy Fix My Session Today and Reclaim Your Time!
Ever since we released our brand new Fix My Session product late last year, customer response has been amazing. Many of our customers are upgrading their subscriptions to our new five product EUC bundle which includes this tool. Others, especially MSPs, are implementing it as a standalone product to cut down on customer support calls from users running RDS and AVD.
If you are running FSLogix in your RDS or AVD environments, or even legacy User Profile Disks (e.g. UPDs) in RDS, Fix My Session is a no-brainer insurance policy for when application updates, Windows updates, or FSLogix updates start locking profiles. But, even if you’re one of the lucky few organizations that do not use profile disks (e.g. everything is done in a local profile), empowering your users to rescue their own sessions when black screens occur or sessions freeze is also essential. In the new world of AI, IT teams are being pressured to do more with fewer staff. If you can remove the support calls related to locked profiles or hung sessions, our Fix My Session tool quickly pays for itself, and then starts saving you money.
Interested? Watch the demo videos here, and then reach out to our sales team to schedule a live demo. Are you an existing legacy Complete Monitoring and Management Bundle customer who now wants to add Fix My Session? Reach out to us via our sales contact form and let us know you’d like to add it. We’ll contact you to process a true up order and then convert your subscription over to the new five product EUC bundle.
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