Can you launch Remote Desktop via URL?

Question

Is it possible to have a URL that launches a remote desktop session? I realize it may be considered a security vulnerability for some, but the convenience would really save me a lot of time.

I would like to have a hyperlink like: remotedesktop://example.org where clicking on it launches mstsc.exe with the target computer filled in (in this case with example.org).

How best to set this up?

Answer 1

You could use a custom URL protocol handler, but this would mean the URLs only worked on computers where you had set this up. I think you'd also need a program to handle taking the URL as remotedesktop://example.org and converting to /v:example.org - although a batch file could probably do this.

See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa767914(v=vs.85).aspx for more information.

Answer 2

For Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2012 R2 there is now the Remote Desktop Client URI Scheme Support

Example: rdp://full%20address=s:mypc:3389&audiomode=i:2&disable%20themes=i:1

See here for the details, including the full list of query string parameters.

Answer 3

I originally said no, but if you have XP, there is something called the Remote Desktop Web Connection. I initially forgot there was a version for XP.

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?DisplayLang=en&id=18145

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/284931

Answer 4

I think this would work, and might be the effect you are looking for:

With your local copy of Remote Desktop, set up a connection to the target host. But don't connect; instead, save the connection as an RDP file.

Place that file on your web server. Serve the file with a standard <A HREF='path.to.your/file.rdp'> link. (Note: you may need to update your web server config to "download" this file rather than "serve" it to the web browser.)

The user will probably need to know to run the downloaded file... but it should get their computer to launch RD and initiate a connection to the target host.

Answer 5

This might be useful to someone, but here's an Open Source .NET exe that registers the URL handling off to mstsc: https://github.com/richard-green/MstscLauncher

After running that, it will allow you to click links like this: mstsc://your-server/?w=1024&h=768

Answer 6

It's not quite what you want, but with Windows Server 2008/R2, you can have your RemoteApps and RDP machines shown on a TS/RD Web Access webpage.

In conjunction with TS/RD Gateway, you could have RDP working through port 443, which is useful in places that block other ports.

Answer 7

Old topic, but Chrome has a remote desktop plugin to do that.

You also have HTML5 based solutions like Guacamole for Linux or Myrtille for Windows.

Answer 8

Save the following text as C:\Windows\RDP.js:

var destination=(WScript.Arguments(0)) var search='rdp://' var rdpexe='C:\WINDOWS\system32\mstsc.exe' //WScript.Echo(destination) destination=destination.replace(search, '') destination=destination.replace('/', '') var ws = new ActiveXObject("WScript.Shell") //WScript.Echo(rdpexe + " /v:" + destination) ws.Exec(rdpexe + " /v:" + destination)

Save the next piece as RDP.reg:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\rdp] @="URL:Remote Desktop Connection" "URL Protocol"="" [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\rdp\DefaultIcon] @="C:\WINDOWS\System32\mstsc.exe" [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\rdp\shell] [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\rdp\shell\open] [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\rdp\shell\open\command] @="wscript.exe C:\WINDOWS\rdp.js %1"

Double click and woalya! When you click something like rdp://192.168.0.1 you will be connected to that server by RDP.