Remote Desktop Protocol Capabilities
A protocol must be used between the client and the server for the Remote Desktop
connection. That server could be an RD Session Host, a client OS running inside a
virtual machine that is part of a VDI collection, or even just a regular desktop that
someone wants to remotely connect to. Windows uses the Remote Desktop Protocol
(RDP) that with Windows Server 2016 and Windows 10 is currently at version 10. As
RDP is updated, so too is the Remote Desktop Client (RDC) that is provided as part of
Windows.
RDP has improved greatly with each new version, which typically corresponds to new
versions of the Windows operating system. For the best experience, the client should
support the same version as the server; otherwise, the only features available will be
those of the lowest common version. For example, if a Windows 8.1 box running RDP
8.1 connects to a Windows Server 2016 session host that supports RDP 10, the usable
features will be limited to those supported by RDP 8.1. Therefore, it is a good idea
always to update the RDP client to the latest possible version on your clients. To verify
the RDP version supported by your Remote Desktop Client, start the client
(mstsc.exe) and click About, as shown in Figure 11.16.
Figure 11.16 Showing the supported version of RDP
Initially, RDP just had to handle the sending of changes to the display as bitmap
updates and passing the keyboard and mouse input. Today, the reality is that a remote
desktop could be a user’s primary workspace, so RDP has had to evolve to offer a lot