Remote Desktop Connection Manager 2.7

Remote Desktop Connection Manager (RDCMan) 2.7, finally is publicly available. For those who never used RDCMan, it's probably the best tool for managing multiple remote desktop connections, and it's free.
You can download the installation package from Microsoft Download Center http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=44989 .

 

Here are the supported operating systems: Windows 10 Tech Preview , Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server Tech Preview.



For users with OS versions prior to Win7/Vista will need to get version 6 of the Terminal Services Client. You can obtain this from the Microsoft Download Center: Windows Server 2003, XP.

Here are the new features:

• Virtual machine connect-to-console support
• Client size options come from the application config file (RDCMan.exe.config) rather than being hard-coded.
• View.Client size.Custom menu item shows the current size
• View.Client size => From remote desktop size
• Option to hide the main menu until Alt is pressed. Hover over the window title also shows the menu.
• Added Smart groups
• Support for credential encryption with certificates
• Better handling of read-only files
• Added recently used servers virtual group
• New implementation of thumbnail view for more predictable navigation
• Thumbnail view remembers scroll position when changing groups, etc.
• Performance improvements when loading large files
• Allow scale-to-fit for docked servers (Display Settings.Scale docked remote desktop to fit window)
• Allow scale-to-fit for undocked servers (Display Settings.Scale undocked remote desktop to fit window)
• "Source" for inheritance in properties dialog is now a button to open the properties for the source node.
• Focus release pop up => changed to buttons, added minimize option.
• Added command-line "/noconnect" option to disable startup “reconnect servers” dialog
• Session menu items to send keys to the remote session, e.g. Ctrl+Alt+Del
• Session menu items to send actions to the remote session, e.g. display charms
• Domain="[display]" means use the display name for the domain name.

And Bugs fixed:

• Application is now DPI aware
• Undocking a server not visible in the client panel resulted in the client not being shown in undocked form.
• Ctrl+S shortcut didn’t work at all. It now works and always saves, even if there are no detected changes to the file.
• Shortcut keys didn’t work when focus was on a thumbnail.
• Add/delete profile in management tab. In same dialog instance, profiles are not updated. Similarly adding a new profile from combo doesn’t update the tab.
• Window title was not updated when selected node is removed and no new node selected (open a file, close the file.)
• Connect via keyboard didn’t always give focus when it should.
• Connected Group would always show itself upon connecting to a machine, regardless of setting.
• Selecting a built-in group then hiding via menu option didn’t work properly.
• Editing server/group properties did not always mark a file as changed.
• Non-changes could result in save prompts at exit. This should no longer happen.
• Activating the context menu via the keyboard button was not always operating on the correct node.
• Changing a server/group name doesn’t change window title if the server/group is currently selected.
• ALT+PAGEUP and ALT+PAGEDOWN hotkeys were switched. This is fixed for new installs—for existing files you’ll want to change on the [Tools.Options.Hot Keys] tab.
• /reset command line option wasn’t resetting all preferences
• “Server Tree” option from “Select server” focus release dialog didn’t show the server tree if it was hidden.
• New file directory now defaults to “Documents”.
• ListSessions dialog sometimes popped up in a weird location. Now placed within the main window.

For more info please check the help.htm file located into the installation folder of RDCMan 2.7.

How to find matching mount points and volume guids ?

In this case I was experiencing VSS error events in application event log on one of the file servers. The related logged events were containing error information with associated Volume GUID instead of mount point (drive letter). Here is the example of the error event:

Volume Shadow Copy Service error: The shadow copy could not be committed - operation timed out. Error context: DeviceIoControl(\\?\Volume{GUID}

Since this error event was generated on file server with bunch of disk drives, I was wondering which mount point (drive letter) was associated with this Volume Guid.
One way to achieve this task was to run mountvol.exe without any switches. The output from this command looks like this:

Also, from Run dialog:

I could browse the contents of the drive, and figure out the drive letter.
Browsing the contents using Volume Guids from command prompt using dir requires additional backslash "\" at the end:

Another way is by comparing values in Registry in HKLM\System\MountedDevices for DosDevices and Volume Guids (picture contents are cropped):



At last, and I guess the best option is to use PowerShell and wmi. Win32_Volume class (not applicable for XP) will provide the necessary data by using DriveLetter an DeviceID properties. All filtering capabilities for filtering data using powershell are available, including querying the remote machines. For example, the following singleliner will return VolumeGuids and DriveLetters associated:

I guess all these methods will help you to find the matching pair :) If you have another way for matching volume guids and mount points, feel free to comment.
 

TechEd 2014 Europe, TechEd 2015 Europe ?

TechEd 2014 Europe (Barcelona) has finished yesterday, and if you were at the last session on Friday on Case of the Unexplained: Troubleshooting with Mark Russinovich, you could listen that it was the last his session on TechEd ... Ever ...
Is TechEd dead ? No, according from Microsoft. TechEd lives on, but as part of new unified Microsoft commercial technology event. This event for 2015 calendar for US is scheduled in May in Chicago and is known as Microsoft Ignite .
Until now, there are no announcements for such Microsoft's premier IT Pro conference for Europe, but let's hope that there will be one, because TechEd was a great place to explore Microsoft's solutions for delivering innovation and productivity for enterprises.