Remote Desktop Services
components of Microsoft Windows
Remote Desktop Services (RDS), known as Terminal Services in Windows Server 2008 and earlier, is one of the components of Microsoft Windows that allow a user to initiate and control an interactive session on a remote computer or virtual machine over a network connection.
RDS is Microsoft's implementation of thin client architecture, where Windows software, and the entire desktop of the computer running RDS, are made accessible to any remote client machine that supports Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP). User interfaces are displayed from the server onto the client system and input from the client system is transmitted to the server – where software execution takes place. This is in contrast to application streaming systems, like Microsoft App-V, in which computer programs are streamed to the client on-demand and executed on the client machine.
RDS was first released in 1998 as Terminal Server in Windows NT 4.0 Terminal Server Edition, a stand-alone edition of Windows NT 4.0 Server that allowed users to log in remotely. Starting with Windows 2000, it was integrated under the name of Terminal Services as an optional component in the server editions of the Windows NT family of operating systems, receiving updates and improvements with each version of Windows. Terminal Services were then renamed to Remote Desktop Services with Windows Server 2008 R2 in 2009.
RemoteFX was added to RDS as part of Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1.
Overview
Windows includes four client components that use RDS:
Quick Assist (Windows 10 and later) and Windows Remote Assistance (Windows XP through Windows 8.1)
Remote Desktop Connection (RDC)
Fast user switching
Windows Subsystem for Linux (via MSRDC)
The first two are individual utilities that allow a user to operate an interactive session on a remote computer over the network. In case of Remote Assistance, the remote user needs to receive an invitation and the control is cooperative.
The public source identifies “Remote Desktop Services” as components of Microsoft Windows. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Remote, Desktop and Services.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Dec 17, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q2745718. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2008, 1998, 2000 and 2009.
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This entry incorporates text from “Remote Desktop Services” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.