Update 14th June 2010: At last they made this tool public. Download it here.
You RDP to a bunch of machines daily and you're still using the good 'ol built-in Remote Desktop Connection mstsc.exe?
Get in the game and use Remote Desktop Connection Manager (RDCMan.exe) - the single most useful tool I got as an Microsoft Sysadmin. Build a tree of your machines (each for each environment, each customer etc). You can even save the username password - sure, security-wise not a good idea, but entering your username/password hundreds of times a week take time. At least, make sure to encrypt the configfile - BitLocker or TrueCrypt anyone, or get SmartCard logins for your sysadmins.
You can also configure the RDP sessions in the group and then let it inherit (or not...) to all the servers in the group.
So every morning I connect to my lab or get to work, I can do a right-click of a group and select Connect Group and it will connect to all machines and will show me desktop thumbnails.
Any idea how to make it work in console mode for the remote desktop?
I recently downloaded this tool and really like it, but I am having some difficulty. An application on several servers that my team manages requires that we specify the /admin switch when using mstsc.exe to establish an RDP session. Is it possible to specify this switch using RDCM? I've poked around through the help file and various configuration dialogs but have not yet figured it out.
No problem - Properties on the machine, Connection Settings tab and there you have it - "Connect to console"
I think it's rather dangerous to be able to work with the miniature windows. I'd prefer to have an option to disable that feature.
I would really love to see a hot key for session full screen. How about Ctrl+F?
Ctrl-Alt-Break will toggle full screen on and off for the active window.
Is there hotkey to switch to/from Server Tree Panel ?
RDCMan is super but I miss this hotkey ...
Thank you SOO much for this post! I have been dreaming of this tool for the past 7 years!!
'connect to Console' works like an old '/console' switch and is ignored when connecting using new mstsc. Any idea how to force '/admin' switch?
Hmm.. As far as I can see if I select "Connect to console" it actually connects to Console on the server both on Windows 2003 and 2008 R2. Doesn't it work like that for you?