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RDC Menu 2.20b1

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Menubar item to launch MS Remote Desktop Connection Client. Shareware ($24.95)

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3.3 MB (Beta)
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Xutils

RDC Menu is a connection manager and multi-launcher for Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection Client.

Remote Desktop Connection Client for Mac allows you to connect from your Macintosh computer to a Windows-based computer and work with programs and files on that computer.

With RDC Menu you can easily store all your settings for Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection Client, and connect to multiple servers concurrently.

RDC Menu also adds an icon to your menubar, allowing you easy access to launch the Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection Client.

What's New

Version 2.20beta1:

NEW - Rewrote support for settings file format in MS RDC 2.0 beta 3
NEW - Added local tab to settings for the sound, drives and printers
NEW - Added drive and folders sharing options in MS RDC 2.0 beta
NEW - Added printer sharing options in MS RDC 2.0 beta
NEW - Added option to always shareware default printer
NEW - Added options for user defined arbitrary display sizes
NEW - Added options o disables some warnings in MS RDC 2.0 beta
NEW - Rewrote the way that the menus are updated when bookmarks change
UPDATED - RDC Menu Bookmarks window to more closely resemble layout in MS RDC 2.0 beta
UPDATED - Sparkle updated framework

Version 2.20beta1:

NEW - Rewrote support for settings file format in MS RDC 2.0 beta 3
NEW - Added local tab to settings for the sound, drives and printers
NEW - Added drive and folders sharing options in MS RDC 2.0 beta
NEW - Added printer sharing options in MS RDC 2.0 beta
NEW - Added option to always shareware default printer
NEW - Added more...

Requirements
PPC / Intel, Mac OS X 10.4 or later.

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RDC Menu User Discussion (Write a Review)

ver. 2.x:

(1)

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Overall:

(3)

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-4

indiekiduk tipped on 30 Jun 2008

Cord is a better remote desktop client that supports clip board sharing and has proper support for the apple special keys, also has bookmark support. I find the MS RDC too buggy.

[Version 2.20b1]

Finkel commented on 27 Nov 2007

I recently gave this app a bad review but have since got it working. I just needed to delete the prefs.

[Version 2.13]

Finkel reviewed on 26 Nov 2007

I purchased this app when i was running Tiger and it worked great. Then upgraded to Leopard. RDC stopped functioning. So i wrote the developer, but no response. Today I noticed an updated version, stating Leopard support. Unfortunately I am still having the same issue which is "invalid file name" when the app is launched and the inability to create bookmarks. Would also like to say that since this is not a cheap utility the developers should respond to their customers emails.

[Version 2.13]

1 Reply

xutils (developer) replied on 27 Nov 2007

Try deleting your preference file and relaunching RDC Menu.

Thanks

+36

Ooshnoo commented on 29 Aug 2007

Not sure why I'd pay for this when I can just right click on a folder in my dock that contains all my reconfigured RDC connection files.

[Version 2.10]

misleb commented on 17 Jan 2007

Nice little utility. Too bad it went from freeware to crippleware. Bookmarks are nice.. but not $25 dollars nice. For $25 dollars I'd expect to get an actual remote desktop client, not jut a utility that runs the old MS version. This whole utility would be worthless if it were easier to run multiple copies of the same program from the Finder. I mean, that is all this utility does, after all.

[Version 2.01]

11 Replies

xutils replied on 19 Jan 2007

I'd say it does more than just launch RDC, the bookmark feature is a huge time saver

misleb replied on 19 Jan 2007

My point is that if you could launch multiple copies of a program in the Finder, you wouldn't need bookmarks or RDC Menu. You'd simply have a folder full of saved RDC config files and doubleclick on those. I'm not saying RDC Menu is useless. Just that bookmarks are hardly worth $25. I mean, considering what other software you can get for $25. But maybe I'm just a little spoiled coming from the Linux world where developers don't ask for unreasonable sums (usually no sums!) for trivial features. Honestly, I'm tempted to write my own RDC menu with "bookmarks" and release it free just out of principle. :-)

+11

kiddailey replied on 30 Jan 2007

Remote Desktop Client ALREADY almost has bookmarking functionality -- it keeps a running list of recently connected servers.

I agree, $25.00 is waaaaay too much.

The good news is that there are already other RDC launchers out there (look for them here and on Google), or you can just launch multiple copies of RDC by duplicating the app.

misleb replied on 30 Jan 2007

Making copies of the app is a pretty sloppy way of launching multiple instances.

Anyway, I did manage to put together my own RDC launcher w/ bookmarks. I just have to finish the preferences pane to set the directory that contains the connection profiles and also to insert the app into the Startup Items for the user.

It really was pretty trivial to do. Granted, it isn't as polished as RDC Menu. No language translations, for example. And it doesn't have a built in connection profile editor (but that was redundant anyway, right), but it gets the job done. With no hackery required.

+11

kiddailey replied on 01 Feb 2007

Let us know when you have it put together enough to share... or, if you'd like to make it open source, we could develop it further as a team.

misleb replied on 09 Feb 2007

Ok, I don't have a web site for it just yet, but here's the binary and source if you'd like to have a look.

http://student.pnca.edu/~misleb/RDCBookmarks-src.tgz
http://student.pnca.edu/~misleb/RDCBookmarks.dmg

(hope those get converted to links)

This was partially a test to see what I could do with the RubyObjC bridge, so most of it is in Ruby, and not Objective-C. You'll need RubyObjC to build it. It isn't an Xcode project either. It builds with Ruby's rake. You'll notice that I ever so shamelessly stole icons (with some modification) from RDC Menu. If the RDC Menu dev wants, I'll change them. But, really, I think Microsoft owns the Windows logo. ;-).

The idea behind RDC Bookmarks is that you have some folder (or folder structure) containing connection profiles that you've created with RDC. RDC Bookmarks takes that folder structure and creates a menu. The menu will be built to represent the folder structure.

Let me know what you think. You (or anyone else) can contact me directly at misleb at pnca.edu. Maybe I'll start an official site for the program. I have not licensed it, but I imagine it would just be GPLv2. Maybe even BSD. I don't really care if anyone "steals" the code. Just don't take credit for it. ;-)

misleb replied on 09 Feb 2007

Oh, and one more thing. For some reason the Preferences pane doesn't always come to the front. It'll be somewhere mixed in your other app Windows (annoying, I know). I have no idea why. makeKeyAndOrderFront: should bring the Window all the way to the front, but it doesn't. If you can tell me why, that would be awesome.

-matthew

+11

kiddailey replied on 19 Feb 2007

Very nice! I like how you didn't try to recreate Remote Desktop Connections preference panel and instead just used the profiles that RDC already creates.

If you're going to steal the icons, steal the grayscale one -- I actually created that one myself for RDCMenu :)

I'd definitely be willing to create an icon set for you if you do decide to setup a site for this little goody.

+11

kiddailey replied on 19 Feb 2007

I forgot to mention - it would be nice to add a generic "Launch RDC" item to the menu for those times when I need to setup a new profile :)

Robert Morton replied on 27 Jun 2007

OK, that little hack is perfect (well close enough). As for a generic launch RDC, save a profile without a server name in it. I called mine " Generic" so that it appears at the top of the list.

+11

kiddailey replied on 27 Jun 2007

Great idea, thanks! I've been using the little RDC bookmarks app for a while now and it works great.

Anonymous reviewed on 03 Aug 2005

Cool!! I'm so used to manually duplicating the RDC application and then launching it twice that this will help out tremendously.

It would be nice if it listed the recent connections from the RDC client and allowed you to automatically connect to a selected one, but I'm not sure if that's even possible.

The only really bad part about this handy app is the menubar icon -- which simply sucks. It's pixelated and doesn't match the other monochromatic menubar icons. I made a replacement icon though, which you can download here:

http://www.kiddailey.org/files/other/RDCMenuIcon.zip

Only downside is that it's a tiff, so it doesn't have the white "onclick" state that png icons have (or, at least I can't figure out how to make it work with tiff).

[Version 1.01]

Anonymous reviewed on 03 Aug 2005

Would be far more useful if it could load a "saved connection" (settings file) rather than simply launch the RDC app into its default state. Running multiple instances is about the only helpful thing it does so far.

[Version 1.01]

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