Using RDP+rdesktop to run remote windows apps on linux desktop

Note: in the following machine-name is the network name of your windows box (either real or virtual).

1. Get rdesktop 1.5.0 or later from http://www.rdesktop.org/. I used 1.6 which is in the Ubuntu Karmic repository, so i just did
   apt-get install rdesktop
2. Prepare your windows machine:
   • Enable remote desktop Start-Settings-System → Check Remote Desktop
   • Enable “Welcome screen” and “Fast user switching” in Settings-Useraccounts. If you don't do this, you will not be able to use seamless mode and possible have problems keeping your sessions alive.
3. create a short shellscript containing your command line, e.g.:
   rdesktop -g 1024×768 -k de-ch -u user -p password machine-name

Notes:

• Performance is very good and can be tuned further using the commandline parameters of rdesktop.
• I use this to run outlook 2003 which runs on a windows XP vmware virtual machine. Startup time and responsiveness is excellent, definitely production quality!
• Other applications, which you have not yet found replacements for, can be run in the same way.

To enable seamless RDP mode (running applications without a desktop, taskbar etc.) you need a small server side component is available as open source from Cendio (http://www.cendio.com/seamlessrdp/):

1. Get the server side component, “seamlessrdpshell” from http://www.cendio.com/seamlessrdp/seamlessrdp.zip, or my local copy
2. Unpack the files to some directory on the windows machine server, such as c:\seamlessrdp.
3. Test seamless mode: rdesktop -A -s “c:\seamlessrdp\seamlessrdpshell.exe notepad” machine-name. If you get a full screen windows display with no notepad running, remeber to enable “Welcome screen” and “Fast user switching”.