How to enable remote desktop connection to a Windows server via a web application?

Question

I'm developing a web application using ASP.NET Framework 4.8.1 and React.js. I want to provide users with the ability to connect to a Windows server through remote desktop directly from the browser. Are there any free third-party libraries or solutions that can help me achieve this? Can someone provide guidance on how to implement remote desktop access within the web application? Are there any security considerations or limitations I should be aware of?

Thank you in advance for your help!

Answer 1

Since you goal is to connect to the windows server, in most cases, that means the users would need BOTH a valid connection to the web site, and also some kind of VPN connection to the remote desktop server.

However, can you push/pump an RDP session though to the browser?

Yes, you can. There are a number of so-called RDP to HTML5 bridges now.

The open source "Guacamole" project is one such RDP to HTML5 bridge.

You can find info about this here:

https://guacamole.apache.org/

Citrix now also has an RDP to HTML5 bridge.

And I not tested it, but apparently Microsoft also now has such a bridge.

https://tech-coffee.net/deploy-a-windows-server-2019-rds-farm-with-html5-client/

So, these RDP to HTML5 bridge systems?

They run 100% from the browser, don't require any client software, don't require ActiveX, or special setups for the browser. They also don't require a separate connection from the client computer. In the past, we had the RDP publishing option. This would present users with a web-based interface, and a list of applications they can run. While this was a web-based interface system, choosing an application would in in fact download an RDP config file to your client computer, and then run, and that then launched the RDP client software. This setup thus required each client workstation had a valid network connection to the terminal server.

These RDP to HTML5 bridge systems do not require the workstation to have a valid network connection to the terminal server. All you require is a HTML5 compliant browser, which of course these days is most browsers.