Remote Desktop App Going Away: Should Windows Users Be Concerned?
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In the latest episode of Windows Weekly, Paul Thurrott explained the recent controversy surrounding Microsoft's decision to replace the Remote Desktop app with the new Windows app, sparking a bit of outrage among some IT professionals and power users alike.
As Paul explained on the show, Microsoft announced last year that they would be replacing the Remote Desktop app with something called the "Windows app" - a name that hosts Leo Laporte and Richard Campbell agreed was hilariously ambiguous. The Windows app was first released in a stable version just before Microsoft Ignite last year.
"The Windows app is a way to access remote instances of Windows in the cloud," Paul clarified, explaining that it's designed primarily for Windows 365, Azure Virtual Desktop, and Microsoft DevOps environments where users need access to cloud-based Windows instances.
The problem? The Windows app currently lacks a critical feature that many IT professionals and power users rely on - the ability to connect to local computers on the same network!
One of the most interesting aspects of the discussion was the clarification about what's actually changing. There's considerable confusion because there are multiple "Remote Desktop" tools in the Windows ecosystem:
- Remote Desktop Connection - The built-in Windows feature that's been around since at least Windows XP, sporting a Windows Vista-era UI that "inexplicably lasted forever" according to Paul. This is NOT going away.
- Remote Desktop app - The Microsoft Store app that was supposed to be a modern replacement for Remote Desktop Connection but never fully replaced it. This is the app being deprecated.
- Windows app - The new replacement that currently lacks local network connection capabilities.
"When I hear remote desktop, what I think of is that feature that's been in Windows since... NT something, probably certainly Windows XP," Paul noted, highlighting how the naming confusion is contributing to user anxiety.
Richard Campbell pointed out that while most average users don't connect to other computers on their local network, the Windows Weekly audience likely represents "a high percentage of people who do that."
Paul agreed: "The thing I'm describing, where I'm sitting like I am now on a home network, and I'm on this computer and I want to access the file share on the laptop over there... almost nobody does this. That said, the people listening or watching a show represent probably a high percentage of people who do that."
Microsoft has promised to eventually add local network connection capabilities to the Windows app. In the meantime, they recommend users rely on the built-in Remote Desktop Connection tool.
The hosts placed this controversy in the context of other Microsoft community outrages, with Paul noting, "In the list of things that Microsoft community folks could be outraged by." This joins other recent controversies like Skype changes, the new Outlook, and Windows 11's UI differences from Windows 10.
"Windows 10, which debuted with a UI that came from a phone that hasn't existed in a decade, somehow, is now nostalgic or beloved," Paul observed with some amusement.
For now, if you need to connect to computers on your local network, the advice is simple: continue using the built-in Remote Desktop Connection tool (accessible from the Start menu) until Microsoft adds this functionality to the Windows app.
Want to hear the full discussion about Remote Desktop changes and the hosts' fascinating tangent into the evolution of web browsers and attention spans? Listen to the complete episode of Windows Weekly on your favorite podcast platform. Paul, Leo, and Richard dive deeper into these topics and share their unique insights on the rapidly changing tech landscape.
