[General Topics] Menneisyys:
Where to navigate to to log in?: in here, I've elaborated on where the client must be pointed to or, if it's a Web-based remote controlling solution, where the Pocket Internet Explorer browser on the client must be pointed to.

Overall rendering speed: here, I've elaborated on the overall rendering speed. Note that the results assume you don't use any kind of smooth scrolling or other techniques; otherwise, for example, the RDP4-based Mocha client wouldn't have received a "Good".

Double monitors (extended desktops)?: many desktop Windows users extend their desktops to multiple monitors in Display / Settings / Extend my desktop onto this monitor. In here, I've elaborated on how the remote controllers support extended desktops like this.

Full screen support?: as you probably have noticed, the taskbar (the bar at the top) and the command bar (the one at the bottom) take up a lot of precious screen estate on the Pocket PC, particularly in Landscape mode. In here, I've elaborated on whether the applications support hiding these bars. In a nutshell, weaker applications don't do this; better do. Even better ones (for example, z2, the four Web-based applications, .NET Viewer and PT PO) let for (almost) completely hiding all GUI components. Please consult the mini-tutorials in this row to find out how you can do this.

Copy-paste between client and remote desktop (clipboard synchronization): Clipboard synchronization is a really important feature all remote desktop controllers should support. Unfortunately, few do.

Shutdown?: RDP-based remote controllers all have a very annoying problem: they don’t allow for shutting down / restarting the desktop, as is also shown in the TSC screenshot. All the other remote applications, fortunately, do. This also means if you need to remotely shut down / restart your desktop, don't use RDP-based solutions but anything else.

In-program disconnect (except for manual disconnect from inside Start menu – that is, the session)?: some remote controller apps are very dumb and don't even let for in-application disconnecting / exiting. In cases (when, to reduce bandwidth consumption, it's essential to disconnect as quickly as possible and shutting down the application with, for example, an external task manager application takes a lot of precious time), this may be problem. This is why I've also included this test in the chart.

Server-side configuration capabilities: as a final test in the Misc group, I've elaborated on what you can configure on the server, showing example screenshots of everything. If you do browse them, you'll get a picture of the server's capabilities I haven't otherwise elaborated on in this roundup.

Accessing other resources on the remote desktop group: in here, I've elaborated on accessing files (for file transfer between the remote desktop and the local Pocket PC), e-mails and Personal Information Management (PIM) stuff like calendar / contacts and, finally, monitoring the remote desktop without logging in and starting, for example, the task manager in there. These functionalities are all very important.

Accessing other resources on the remote desktop: File transfer between client and remote desktop: File transfer is of extreme importance between the client and the remote desktop. Unfortunately, few applications support it and those that do and are Web-based (I'm InTouch and LogMeIn; unfortunately, GoToMyPC doesn't support file transfer on the Pocket PC) currently only support downloading from the desktop to the client. The I'm InTouch folks announced they will also implement uploading, though.

Of the non-Web-based applications, only PT PO and z2 support file transfer. With all the other solutions, you'll need to choose third-party solutions:

Installing an FTP server on your desktop computer and accessing it via an FTP client (including most Web browsers, if you only plan to fetch files from your desktop but not upload anything in there) on your Pocket PC. Please read this article for more information on the currently available FTP clients and this article on the downloading capabilities and speed of current Pocket PC Web browsers.

If the above way isn't the one to go on (because you either don't want to struggle with another server application on your desktop PC, find it unsafe or it's so badly firewalled / NAT'ed that you couldn’t directly connect to it), mail the file from your remote desktop (after logging in there) to yourself if you also have direct (for example POP3 / IMAP / Exchange) mail access on your Pocket PC. Then, just fetch the file from your mailbox. This is, of course, much more complicated a task than using a built-in file transfer utility in a remote controller application - or, for that matter, a local FTP client on the Pocket PC. Also, it'll result in a really increased bandwidth usage, not only because of the need to manually log in to the server and mail the file to yourself, but also because of the ASCII conversion, effectively adding some 30-40% to the original size of the attached file. This means in these cases look for a solution with built-in file transfer right from the beginning.

Client-side remote / monitoring tools?: ever wanted to avoid having to, say, use the Task Manager in a full remote session? Ever wanted to avoid remote registry editing in a remote session because of the amount of, say, registry tree navigation involved, which results in greatly slowed down operation when done remotely? With RemotelyAnywhere, it's possible. The local HTML interface offered this application, which is compatible with even the dumbest Pocket Internet Explorer, offers you the chance of doing all this stuff locally, without having to log in to a real remote session and accessing these monitoring / registry editing tools in there.

Access to other PIM resources?: should you want to access and, what is more, search your mail or other personal calendar / contacts / tasks data stored in your Outlook or Outlook Express, you'll want to take a look at I'm InTouch. It has really excellent PIM accessing capabilities.

Note that you can do the same with actually logging in to your remote desktop and doing the same PIM stuff in there via Outlook (Express), but it's, of course, a much more awkward solution with orders of magnitude more bandwidth usage - remotely accessing / using for example Outlook will always be much harder than through a Pocket PC-optimized, locally running interface.

User interaction group: in here, I've elaborated on how more than one user can elaborate on the same remote desktop. In the first case, I've listed whether the user sitting in front of the desktop computer can interact with the remotely connecting one and, in the second case, I've elaborated on whether more than one remote user can use the same desktop using the same remote control application. (With different servers, it's possible to do this, even if the given server wouldn't allow multiple logins. Then, however, you're faced with the need of setting up more than one server, which isn't necessarily what you want to do.)