Editing Remote Desktop Protocol (section)

== Features ==
* 32-bit color support. 8-, 15-, 16-, and 24-bit color are also supported.
* Encryption: option of legacy 56-bit or 128-bit [[RC4]] and modern MITM-resistant TLS since version 5.2<ref name=WS2003SP1TLS/>
* Audio Redirection allows users to process audio on a remote desktop and have the sound redirected to their local computer.
* File System Redirection allows users to use their local files on a remote desktop within the terminal session.
* Printer Redirection allows users to use their local printer within the terminal session as they would with a locally- or network-shared printer.
* Port Redirection allows applications running within the terminal session to access local serial and parallel ports directly.
* The remote computer and the local computer can share the clipboard.
* Compression goes beyond a [[framebuffer]] and takes advantage of font knowledge and tracking of window states (inherited from T.128); later extensions add more content-aware features (e.g MS-RDPCR2).

Microsoft introduced the following features with the release of RDP 6.0 in 2006:
* Seamless Windows: remote applications can run on a client machine that is served by a Remote Desktop connection. It is available since RDP 6.<ref name="MSRDPERP">{{cite web |url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc242568(v=prot.10).aspx |title=[MS-RDPERP&#93;: Remote Desktop Protocol: Remote Programs Virtual Channel Extension |publisher=Msdn.microsoft.com |access-date=2014-02-13 |archive-date=April 14, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120414024103/http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc242568(v=prot.10).aspx |url-status=live }}</ref>
* Remote Programs: application publishing with client-side file-type associations.
* Terminal Services Gateway: enables the ability to use a front-end IIS server to accept connections (over [[port 443]]) for back-end Terminal Services servers via an [[https]] connection, similar to how [[Remote procedure call|RPC]] over https allows Outlook clients to connect to a back-end Exchange 2003 server. Requires [[Windows Server 2008]].
* [[Network Level Authentication]]
* Support for remoting the [[Windows Aero|Aero Glass]] Theme (or Composed Desktop), including [[ClearType]] font-smoothing technology.
* Support for remoting [[Windows Presentation Foundation]] applications: compatible clients that have [[.NET Framework 3.0]] support can display full [[Windows Presentation Foundation]] effects on a local machine.
* Rewrite of device redirection to be more general-purpose, allowing a greater variety of devices to be accessed.
* Fully configurable and scriptable via [[Windows Management Instrumentation]].
* Improved bandwidth tuning for RDP clients.{{citation needed|date=November 2011}}
* Support for [[Transport Layer Security]] (TLS) 1.0 on both server and client ends (can be negotiated if both parties agree, but not mandatory in a default configuration of any version of Windows).
* Multiple monitor support for allowing one session to use multiple monitors on the client (disables desktop composition)

Release 7.1 of RDP in 2010 introduced the following feature:
* [[RemoteFX]]: RemoteFX provides virtualized GPU support and host-side encoding; it ships as part of Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1.

The latest version of RDP supports [[Transport Layer Security]] (TLS) version 1.1, 1.2 and 1.3 to protect RDP traffic.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/openspecs/windows_protocols/ms-rdpbcgr/592a0337-dc91-4de3-a901-e1829665291d | title=&#91;MS-RDPBCGR&#93;: Enhanced RDP Security | date=April 23, 2024 }}</ref>