Software from Microsoft that provides a centralized, terminal-based, multiuser environment for Windows servers. Using Microsoft's RDP protocol, which governs keyboard, mouse and screen transfer, a client PC is turned into an input/output (I/O) terminal to the Windows server, which runs any and all applications that might normally be run on a desktop PC. Low-cost, dedicated RDP terminals from various companies can also be used.
Introduced in Windows NT 4.0, the client part of Terminal Services is known as the Remote Desktop Connection (RDC), and the server side is Terminal Server. The software that provides the shared terminal services for multiple users is based on Citrix's MultiWin technology (see MultiWin). See thin client, Citrix XenApp and centralized processing.
The Terminal Services native protocol is Microsoft's Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP). Citrix XenApp (formerly Citrix Presentation Server) adds the ICA protocol and numerous enhancements (see
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