What's New in Remote Desktop Manager 2024.1

Greetings! We’re delighted to announce that Remote Desktop Manager 2024.1 is now available. This is the first major update for 2024, and many of the additions and improvements are the result of feedback from members of our global user community.

If you want to see the full and very long list of changes, please see the release notes.

New Features

Script Dashboard for executing scripts, quickly and easily!

We are adding a script management dashboard, a bit like the Script Runner product, to centralize and execute scripts. This is a great addition for IT teams, who often have to use scripts with variables, specifically scripts which do not have a direct link with an entry (for example: a script creating users in Active Directory). The new dashboard is accessible via the Tools tab, or by adding it as an entry!

It’s a powerful new addition in RDM, bringing several benefits:

We’ve got great ideas for future improvements. Please share your feedback with us, so that we know which projects to focus on!

Terminal Command Palette

We have a feature in the toolbar to list macros (typing macro + Terminal Command) in SSH Terminal entries. This feature is not activated by default. With this release, we are adding a new interface to make it easier for users to run and select scripts/snippets directly inside your terminal connections. The default keybind on Windows to open the palette is Ctrl+Shift+P.

This will enable several benefits.

In the end, it’s a big win for productivity! Here’s a preview below.

CyberArk Data Source (Preview)

For our CyberArk users, we are introducing a new type of data source dedicated specifically for handling CyberArk secrets and streamlining the process to connect to endpoints. This new addition will make it much easier and faster to use CyberArk to connect to endpoints and retrieve secrets. Just select your endpoint, hit connect, choose your component and then your secret, and voilà, you’re in!

Improvements

Modernizing the foundations with .NET 8

For many years, RDM was built using the now legacy .NET Framework version 4 (4.8 with 2023.3).

Starting with 2024.1, we are switching over to the new cross-platform .NET 8 framework, enabling new possibilities and providing some performance improvement from startup to in-app actions like editing and adding entries.

Improvements to the Active Directory Synchronizer with an “ID Match” mode

Currently, RDM matches certain fields (name+folder+host) to know if an entry from synchronization already exists. If one of these fields is different, it synchronizes the entry. This therefore means that if, for example, we have a machine “MachineA” in AD which is synchronized, and then it is renamed to “MachineB”, RDM will consider it as an entirely new machine, and therefore create a new entry rather than modifying the already synchronized entry.

To address this problem, we are improving the Active Directory synchronizer to match by “unique ID” and at the same time allow the synchronized fields to be updated rather than recreating the entry. We plan to add the same functionality to our other synchronizers in future releases.

Improvements to the workflow of SSH Keys

We are adding support for several new types of SSH keys in RDM. The existing private key credential entry in RDM has been renamed to SSH Key for clarity and consistency. 2 key improvements have been made.

We’ve also made some important improvements to the Local SSH Key Manager like putting a warning on unsecure ssh keys with no passphrase and the vulnerable ssh key format (DSA and RSA with a key < 1024).

We are planning to further improve the behavior with SSH keys within RDM. Here’s a preview of the new workflow!

RDM Mobile gets better!

We’re also happy to share that we’ve made some important application UI improvements as well as stability improvements for sessions like RDP, VNC and ARD for both Android and iOS platforms. More to come in upcoming releases!

Coming Soon: Passkey Credential Entry

We are adding Passkey storage support in RDM Devolutions Server and Hub data sources to facilitate the use and adoption of this new passwordless method of authenticating users on their favorite websites. They are created through the Devolutions Workspace Browser Extension (Coming Soon) when adding one to a website, and they can only be used in the browser extension to login automatically to websites. Passkey credential entries are not editable, meaning once they are stored in RDM DVLS and Hub data sources, they cannot be recreated nor modified manually.

And a few notable additions!