Can you launch Remote Desktop via URL?

Is it possible to have a URL that launches a remote desktop session? I realize it may be considered a security vulnerability for some, but the convenience would really save me a lot of time.

I would like to have a hyperlink like: remotedesktop://example.org where clicking on it launches mstsc.exe with the target computer filled in (in this case with example.org).

How best to set this up?

You could use a custom URL protocol handler, but this would mean the URLs only worked on computers where you had set this up. I think you'd also need a program to handle taking the URL as remotedesktop://example.org and converting to /v:example.org - although a batch file could probably do this.

See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa767914(v=vs.85).aspx for more information.

For Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2012 R2 there is now the Remote Desktop Client URI Scheme Support

Example: rdp://full%20address=s:mypc:3389&audiomode=i:2&disable%20themes=i:1

See here for the details, including the full list of query string parameters.

I originally said no, but if you have XP, there is something called the Remote Desktop Web Connection. I initially forgot there was a version for XP.

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?DisplayLang=en&id=18145

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/284931

There is currently no official way

Well, Microsoft SAYS they have two URI schemes for this in Server 2012 R2: ms-rd:// and rdp://

But as of now, 2020-10-16, these do NOT work on my Win10 machine. (Exact version: ver.exe outputs: Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.19041.572])

So if I run inside cmd.exe either of these:

C:\>start ms-rd://example.com

or

C:\>start rdp://example.com

then nothing good happens. I just get the generic "Pick an app" dialog. (C:\Windows\System32\OpenWith.exe)

And I double checked with URLProtocolView (https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/url_protocol_view.html) and: No. Neither scheme is registered with a handler on my system.

Also these schemes are NOT in the official IANA URI Scheme list (https://www.iana.org/assignments/uri-schemes/uri-schemes.xhtml)

So the answer seems to be: Nope. There is no URI scheme for RDP that you can expect to "just work" on a modern PC. You can MANUALLY make it work, by just manually adding a scheme and a handler. (See other answers.) But that's not the same.

Sources: Microsoft talking about their URI schemes here:

• https://docs.microsoft.com/de-de/windows-server/remote/remote-desktop-services/clients/remote-desktop-uri
• https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/windows/it-pro/windows-server-2012-R2-and-2012/dn690096(v=ws.11)