How Do I Set the Win8 Remote Desktop to Map Local Drives?

Question

In the past, Remote Desktop clients had an option to share local resources with the remote host. This made it trivial to transfer files by mapping the drives. In the new Windows App Store Remote Desktop client, however, I'm not seeing that option.

Is that option still available? Maybe hidden somewhere?

Answer 1

Looks like it has indeed been removed, however you can still use the old classic client. To do so:

1. Switch over to the metro start screen
2. Start type "mstsc"
3. Then hit enter.
4. Expand the options when it opens
5. Switch to the Local Resource Tab
6. Click the more button and select your local drives.

Answer 2

While this functionality seems to be removed from absent in the Remote Desktop app, you can still enable this option in the built-in RDP client (Remote Desktop Connection) by selecting Options > Local Resources > More.

Answer 3

Not all RDP clients support sharing all types of local resources. The MS desktop RDP client included with Windows does, and pretty much always has.

The Windows Store app in question is not the same client program, so there's no guarantee it will support the full RDP protocol. They may add those features at some point, but that's speculation.

As Jens Ehrich points out in his answer, the Windows 8 desktop RDP client (v6.x) still fully supports all previous features, plus all the new ones in RDP version 8.

Additionally, all Windows Store apps are highly limited as to what parts of the File System they can access, which could greatly hamper what you are attempting to accomplish. :)