Want to run Microsoft Office on your Android tablet, but tired of waiting for Microsoft to, you know, actually release it? You can always use Splashtop, Teamviewer, LogMeIn, or another tool to remote control a PC from your Android phone or tablet, letting you sort of run desktop apps like Office.

Or you could use Microsoft’s official tool, which is now available in the Google Play Store. You can use it to login to a Windows desktop to access files, control apps, and even stream audio and video from your PC to your Android device.

Update: Microsoft Remote Desktop is also available for iOS.

Microsoft Remote Desktop for Android

Microsoft Remote Desktop uses the RDP protocol and supports secure connections using Network Layer Authentication.

The app lets you use multitouch gestures on your phone or tablet to interact with the Windows software, and lets you use your Android keyboard to enter text.

The mobile app is available as a free download, which is pretty cool. What’s less cool is that the basic version of Windows 8 doesn’t actually support the remote desktop feature. You’ll need Windows 8 Pro (or another version of Windows with RDP host capabilities.

via Android Police

 

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4 replies on “Microsoft releases Remote Desktop app for Android, iOS”

  1. I really like the app on my iPad mini, here’s hoping the new version of Remote Desktop for OS X that’s coming is equally polished.

  2. I’ll have to give it a go.
    It should be interesting to see how it compares to the many existing 3rd party offerings I’ve used for a couple of years.

    1. Yawn. Microsoft has a lot to learn about tablet computing. The UI is terrible and it can’t even locate servers using SMB, you have to type in IP addresses or DNS names. Delete!

      1. Mind, the purpose of the Remote Desktop app is just to have a basic something to fall back on… Much like the Windows calculator and Notepad apps!

        You can find better 3rd party apps for just about anything but it’s still good to have something to fall back on in a pinch, like the other basic tools usually included with a typical desktop OS.
        So just think of Remote Desktop as you would notepad, etc…

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