The program has the filename mstsc.exe and in Windows 2000 and prior, it was known as Microsoft Terminal Services Client (MSTSC or tsclient).

RDC presents the desktop interface (or application GUI) of the remote system, as if it were accessed locally.

[6] Later versions of the protocol also support rendering the UI in full 32-bit color, as well as resource redirection for printers, COM ports, disk drives, mice and keyboards.

Audio is also redirected, so that any sounds generated by a remote application are played back at the client system.

[4][6] Moreover, a remote session can also span multiple monitors at the client system, independent of the multi-monitor settings at the server.

RDC prioritizes UI data as well as keyboard and mouse inputs, as opposed to print jobs or file transfers.

[6] RDC can also be used to connect to computers which are exposed via Windows Home Server RDP Gateway over the Internet.

The Windows version of the app is no longer being updated with new features or support for Azure Virtual Desktop.

[11][12] is one of the components of Microsoft Windows that allow a user to initiate and control an interactive session[13] The web client uses the TLS secured port 443 and does not use the RD Gateway to transport traffic, instead relying solely on the remote desktop session host aspect of remote desktop services.

There also several graphical frontends to rdesktop including tsclient, Gnome-RDP, and KDE Remote Desktop Connection (KRDC).

[28] Around 2011, the project decided to abandon forking and instead rewrite under Apache License, adding more features like RemoteFX, RemoteApp, and NTLMv2.

[31] This server is in turn used by Microsoft to provide graphics support (WSLg) in its Windows Subsystem for Linux.

[32] Remmina is a free and open-source remote desktop client for POSIX-based system that supports RDP along with a verity of other protocols.