The Windows Windows App is real - replacing Remote Desktop app
Microsoft is once again shifting things around and making things confusing for users of its products. After the Microsoft Teams debacle, it is now renaming the Remote Desktop app to the Windows app on some platforms.
On Windows, it is launching the Windows App without replacing classic remote desktop apps, at least for now it seems.
The Windows App
What is the Windows App? Microsoft says it is the "gateway to Azure Virtual Desktop, Windows 365, Microsoft Dev Box, Remote Desktop Services, and remote PCs". The app is available for different devices, including Windows, macOS, and iOS, as well as a web browser version.
The app is in preview right now. Mac OS and iOS users who run the classic Microsoft Remote Desktop app on their devices get a banner at the top that informs them about the change of name. It reads: "In an upcoming update for Remote Desktop the client will have a new name, Windows App!".
Microsoft published a getting started support page. There Microsoft does not provide an explanation for the name change. It does, however, list several of the application's features that are designed to enhance the remote experience.
It lists:
- Multiple monitor support.
- Custom display resolutions.
- Dynamic display resolutions and scaling.
- Device redirection, such as webcams, audio, storage devices, and printers.
- Microsoft Teams optimizations.
Clearly, these have little to do with the name change.
Some features, Microsoft calls them experiences, are not available for all platforms either. In fact, the Windows Windows App is the only one that supports all listed features. The macOs version lacks support for localization and Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) schemes. The iOS app lacks those and support for integrated apps, and the web version lacks support for integrated apps and URI schemes.
Functionality is limited in other areas as well, with the Windows App for Windows supporting all features and the app for all other platforms lacking in one way or another. You can check out the feature comparison listing here.
Not everyone is happy about the name change. There is a substantial thread on Reddit and also talk on Twitter about the change. Not everyone is opposed to the name. Some argue that the name is helpful for users who are not that technical. This may make it easier for them to find the right app to connect to the Windows-world.
The Windows app is also available for Windows. You can download and install it from the Microsoft Store right now. It is then available next to the existing remote desktop apps of the operating system.
Microsoft has yet to say whether the new app is going to replace the classic apps, or if it will be an option that won't replace anything on Windows.
The situation is different on macOS and iOS. Microsoft clearly states that the Windows App will replace the existing app.
Is Windows App a great name for a remote desktop app? Feel free to leave a comment down below to let us know!
Lame shit.
It appears that Microsoft staff have nothing better to do than rebrand things to confuse end users. 90% of the time, they must record footage of their regular day at work for Tiktok, with 5% of the time spent making changes just to make it appear as if they did anything. The remaining 5% attempt to up sell 365, Bing, MSN everywhere, making their products appear cheap and scammy. Every single one of them should be fired.
How about they focus on something practical, like making the right click menu, taskbar, and start menu usable again, as they were in prior versions of Windows before 11 destroyed everyone’s productivity?
Oh, the day that that they shift focus on the courtship behavior of the Japanese bat mouse.
As soon as I see the word “Cloud” I switch off. I’m only interested in applications I can install and control locally. The Windows App isn’t one of those. It’s just a conduit to relieve you of your hard earned cash and sign you up to all the other Microsoft cloud apps which you might not want and most certainly don’t need.
As far as I’m concerned Microsoft can stick it where the sun don’t shine.
In its current version it’s not a replacement for the Remote Desktop app. For login you need a business, school or university account, which I don’t have
It is change almost just for the sake of change. Almost, if you ignore the bigger picture. They don’t care much about the name, the point is the changes they want to make.
What a few of you are missing is that there is a complete out-with-the-old-in-with-the-new going on.
Like really complete, for everything the users are used to.
Some things have already happened, others are in progress, some are yet to be done.
Here is a list of some examples:
control panel
notepad
paint(3d)
wordpad
explorer
msie (-> edge -> (chromium) edge)
start menu (internet-ification)
search bar (ditto as start menu)
‘Office’, 365 still being pushed hard as subscription and cloud edition.
‘Teams’
MSVS – which for years has been very unhappy if it has not been able to phone home for some time. Getting “copilot” integration, so they have an excuse to look at your stuff even if you happen to not have it on github.
I’d put all of github on there as well (they own that site, remember?), but there they already have your stuff. Don’t ever trust that they live up to words about private repositories or won’t snoop on corp github accounts that are supposed to be isolated from the rest. There is just no way you can reasonably conclude it is not being mirrored and mined. At best you may have a lack of “smoking gun” evidence that it has happened to you yet. As they say, cloud is another way of saying other peoples computers…. so gl with that while hanging on to misconceptions such as being too insignificant to be targetted – Capacity has grown a lot and everyone is targetted, some are just higher priority (often/realtime) some are more “backlog” low priority (less often/when there is idle capacity).
ALL the old is going to be ripped out and be replaced with cloud/azure-friendly stuff that wont be friendly to you.
They want this. They want those things in place, so that when they feel ready they can do the really big rugpull. And you will NOT have the old things still in working order to fall back on.
It is about forcing that MS account and the monetization of it. About being able to hold things hostage behind account-tiers and subscriptions and their servers, about you surrendering unconditionally complete access to all your stuff. That is rather hard to do with the old stuff still around where people can flip them the middle finger and keep working – so they are throwing out all the old, a few things at a time, salami-method style.
Do you think ‘recall’ is for your benefit and wont be lifted to cloud with ‘onedrive’ or “backup”? They want your stuff (and everything you look at) and all that input capture they do with telemetry was not giving them everything. They finally realized the phonecall analogy: if you want to listen in on a conversation, just bugging your microphone is not enough, that only gets you half of the conversation.
They are basically thinking that since it works for apple (icloud, lifting everything on your idevice), then why not for them too, except with more greed and one-up’ing it.
Cortana may have been dropped (for now), but it is a matter of time before they try to do Alexa style always-listening again.
If you think I am painting a ‘these are signs of the end days’ picture then that is correct. It is the intent to warn you. The windows world and PC world is being stiched up as they are getting close to the final megalomanic goal. It won’t just be ‘our way or the highway’, the aim is really ‘our way or no way’. Locked down as hard as a xbox. Freedom is about to be locked away and everyone (at least every plebe) will have to pay subscription to not lose access to their own stuff, most of which they’ll demand you forfeit the rights to anyway as part of the TOS/EULA, so they can have it “legally” without pay.
Well nobody (except possibly at work) is forcing you to use Windows. So if you don’t like it (which might possibly be attributed to intelligence), then just don’t use it.
There are plenty of alternative options, ranging from totally closed source (eg MacOS) to mostly or completely open source like Linux to weird stuff like ReactOS, Plan 9 or the newest Version of Amiga OS. And if your heart desires, you may also still run total mainstream OSs like OpenVMS, MVS, OS/2 or TempleOS instead. There’s also an internet enabled hack of the old C64 OS and GEOS, if you are truly hardcore.
Nobody forces you to use Windows, if you don’t want to. And if you don’t want to, you really shouldn’t.
Idiotic naming by ms
“Some argue that the name is helpful for users who are not that technical. This may make it easier for them to find the right app to connect to the Windows-world.”
That’s an idiotic argument. They could have called it “Windows Connect” which would make it more obvious that it’s a remote connection app.
Microsoft is staffed by morons – like most tech companies, actually. The tech employees are incapable of design and can’t by any stretch of the imagination be considered actual “engineers”, despite the lofty “software engineer” title, and the product managers are incapable of understanding the tech. And the senior managers only care about their stock portfolios and their corner office. Or like Gates, trying to manage the planet.
Sometimes I wonder if Microsoft is solely managed by fools. In any case, I don’t know anyone who uses that stupid app. The most users search Remote Desktop Connection or msts.
So, instead of uninstalling Remote Desktop, uninstall Windows app for Windows. What an asinine name.
What’s in a name? Well, apparently a lot to Microsoft who continues its quest for the perfect name for everything. Because it is easier to change a name then actually improve the product.
Great! It is just beginning.
My proposals:
* Microsoft -> Company
* Windows -> System
* Azure -> Cloud
* Microsoft 365 -> Circle
* Notepad -> Text
* Word -> Writer
* Excel -> Calc
* Teams -> Chat
* Internet Explorer/Edge -> Browser
* XboX -> Games
* Bing -> Search
* ChatGPT/Copilot -> AI
some renaming counter suggestions, which will ease the life of the common windows user
even more (some with options for repeated renaming):
* Windows -> Defect -> Totally Defect -> Completly Broken
* Azure -> Deep Purple -> Aoi -> Akai -> Kuroi -> Shiroi -> Dude, where’s my data ?
* Microsoft 365 -> 360° -> 2pi -> Tau -> Clock -> Tik Tok
* Notepad -> Editor -> Edit -> Edlin -> Vi
* Word -> Emacs
* Excel -> Computer -> Numbers
* Teams -> Telephone -> Mum
* Dosbox -> Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarglll
* Powershell -> OS-Penetration support service
* Internet Explorer/Edge -> TV -> Porn-Viewer
* XboX -> XXboX -> XXX
* Bing -> Google-wannabe
* ChatGPT/Copilot -> Eliza
* Bill Gates -> God (secret universal password for accessing all hidden backdoors)
* Steve Balmer -> Monkey Boy (secret password, makes the OS behave totally erratic)
* Satya Nadella -> Nutella (secret password, makes the OS behave stickily slow)
I think this would ease the life of the average Windows user a lot.
LOL. Not the worst joke of the week.
Why? What’s the gain ?
Whoever came up with that name should be fired
“Some argue that the name is helpful for users who are not that technical”
Really, is it too hard to understand what ‘Remote Desktop Connection’ means? Or is it not inclusive enough? Maybe its best they don’t use a computer until they get AI working well enough to where people can sit in a mobile recliner and drink slushies all day.
Need Pro Account to remote to local PCs : WTF !!
Or “…, and remote PCs” must be removed or mention should be added that it, even for local connexion it need Pro Account
Microsoft product naming is completely asinine.
How are people supposed to search for fixes to problems specific to that app? If they type “Windows App crashing”, they’re going to get search results for everything under the sun.