Rdesktop
Free remote desktop software
title: "Rdesktop" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["free-network-related-software", "free-software-programmed-in-c", "thin-clients", "remote-desktop-software-for-linux", "software-using-the-gnu-general-public-license"] description: "Free remote desktop software" topic_path: "technology/operating-systems" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rdesktop" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Free remote desktop software ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox software"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | rdesktop |
| screenshot | Rdesktop-ON WIN 95.jpg |
| screenshot size | 200px |
| caption | rdesktop connected to a Windows NT 4.0 Terminal Server Edition host |
| developer | rdesktop team |
| released | |
| latest release version | 1.9.0 |
| latest release date | |
| operating system | Unix-like |
| Microsoft Windowswindows build (unofficial) | |
| genre | Microsoft Remote Desktop Services client |
| license | GPL-3.0-or-later |
| discontinued | yes |
| :: |
| name = rdesktop | logo = | screenshot = Rdesktop-ON WIN 95.jpg | screenshot size = 200px | caption = rdesktop connected to a Windows NT 4.0 Terminal Server Edition host | developer = rdesktop team | released = | latest release version = 1.9.0 | latest release date = | operating system = Unix-like Microsoft Windowswindows build (unofficial) | genre = Microsoft Remote Desktop Services client | license = GPL-3.0-or-later | discontinued = yes
rdesktop is an implementation of a client software for Microsoft's proprietary Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP). Rdesktop is free and open-source software, subject to the requirements of the GNU General Public License (GPL-3.0-or-later), and is available for Linux and BSD as well as for Microsoft Windows.
As of August 2013, rdesktop implements a large subset of the RDP 5 protocol. Unlike Remote Desktop Connection in modern versions of Windows, rdesktop still supports the older RDP 4.0 protocol used by Windows NT 4.0 Terminal Server Edition and Windows 2000 Server.
Feature set
RDP5 features supported:
- Bitmap caching
- File system, audio, serial port and printer port redirection
- Mappings for most international keyboards
- Stream compression and encryption
- Automatic authentication
- Smartcard support
- RemoteApp like support called "seamless" mode via Seamless RDP
- Network Level Authentication
Still unimplemented are:
- Client redirection upon reconnect (of disconnected session)
- Remote Assistance requests
- USB device redirection
Support for the additional features available in RDP 5.1 and RDP 6 (including multi-head display spanning, window composition and console connection) have not yet been implemented, although some have been officially documented on MSDN.
Use
Rdesktop is commonly used on desktop ReactOS and Linux installations to connect to Microsoft Windows running Remote Desktop Services. There are many GUI clients, like tsclient, Gnome-RDP and KDE Remote Desktop Connection (KRDC), which are graphical front-ends to rdesktop. The program has also been integrated into several thin client Linux distributions like Thinkstation and the PC TSC project, as well as some thin client appliances.
References
References
- (August 2022)
- [https://planetrdp.com/ buy rdp] admin Rdesktop
- See for example, [http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc241682(PROT.10).aspx], [http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc241877(PROT.10).aspx], [http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc241551(PROT.10).aspx] some documents of RDP 6.0
- [https://bestbuyrdp.com/usa-admin-rdp/ USA Admin RDP]
::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::