Can you launch Remote Desktop via URL?

Question

Is it possible to have a URL that launches a remote desktop session? I realize it may be considered a security vulnerability for some, but the convenience would really save me a lot of time.

I would like to have a hyperlink like: remotedesktop://example.org where clicking on it launches mstsc.exe with the target computer filled in (in this case with example.org).

How best to set this up?

Answer 1

You could use a custom URL protocol handler, but this would mean the URLs only worked on computers where you had set this up. I think you'd also need a program to handle taking the url as remotedesktop://example.org and converting to /v:example.org - although a batch file could probably do this.

See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa767914(v=vs.85).aspx for more information.

Answer 2

I originally said no, but if you have XP, there is something called the Remote Desktop Web Connection. I initially forgot there was a version for XP.

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?DisplayLang=en&id=18145

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/284931

Answer 3

It's not quite what you want, but with Windows Server 2008/R2, you can have your RemoteApps and RDP machines shown on a TS/RD Web Access webpage.

In conjunction with TS/RD Gateway, you could have RDP working through port 443, which is useful in places that block other ports.