After what seemed like an absurd amount of time, Microsoft has released the first official Remote Desktop client for iOS and Android. Until now, people had to make do with a patchwork of third-party programs — some good, some bad, and some abysmal. (I know — I’ve tried.)

According to Microsoft, the new application offers access to a Windows PC with RemoteFX. Features of the software include:

• Access to remote resources through the Remote Desktop Gateway
• Rich multi-touch experience with remote desktop protocol (RDP) and RemoteFX supporting Windows gestures
• Secure connection to your data and applications with breakthrough Network Layer Authentication (NLA) technology
• Simple management of all remote connections from the connection center
• High quality video and sound streaming with improved compression and bandwidth usage
• Easy connection to external monitors or projectors for presentations

Download links:

How to:

Presuming you already have access to a cloud service, below is a how to for accessing RDweb on iPhone/Android devices:

From “Remote Resources” tab, click on add or + on Android, and enter URL, username and password.

for example: https://cloud.domain.com/RDWeb/Feed/webfeed.aspx

Username: you email address and Password: your usual password and click on Save