Introduction
In the past users were unaware that closing their remote application window left the connection active. For example, if a user closed a RemoteApp Outlook window, the general assumption was the connection would also be disconnected, although the Outlook might still be visible on the taskbar it wasn’t clear to users that their connection was still active.
What’s new in Windows 7Windows 7 and Windows 2008 R2 RemoteApp and Desktop Connection feature introduces an icon in the notification area which gives an indication that the user has successfully connected to RemoteApp and Desktop Connections. The user can return to this icon to see the list of all connections that they are currently connected to. It also provides the ability for the user to disconnect one or all connections that are currently connected. Finally, the user can use this icon to navigate to RemoteApp Desktop Connections in Control Panel to view the state of the connection and update any or all of the connections. This new icon is only displayed in the notification area when the user is connected to at least one connection in RemoteApp and Desktop Connections. Once the user is no longer connected to any connections, the icon goes away.
You can see this in action once you’ve set up RemoteApp and Desktop Connections via the new Control Panel applet on your computer and launched the remote application. Please see Introducing RemoteApp and Desktop Connections for more information on configuring remote applications and remote desktops.
Once you have set up a RemoteApp and Desktop Connection, your Start menu will look like this.
A set of published applications
Once you have launched a remote application, the RemoteApp and Desktop Connections notification icon displays a balloon to indicate that at least one remote application from the published set has started.
The notification icon gives the user the ability to disconnect from all remote applications that are running.
Right-clicking on the notification area icon lists all the connections (in RemoteApp and Desktop Connections) that the user is currently connected to and allows the user to disconnect from them.
This new icon feature also works with connections that are accessed using Remote Desktop Web Access for Windows 7 client and Windows 2008 R2 server.
We hope you find this icon useful. Please use it and share your experience with us.