SOU offers remote access to several Microsoft Windows desktop environments using Microsoft's Remote Desktop Services.  These remote desktop environments are available on any device that supports an RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) client, including Windows, Macintosh, Linux, iOS, and Android, and they can be accessed from anywhere in the world over the Internet.

If you access our remote desktop environments from off-campus, please be prepared for some noticeable network delay (i.e. latency) while you interact with Windows and applications in the remote environment. For example, you may need to wait a second or two after clicking on something for the screen to react. This is an unfortunate and unavoidable consequence of the fact that the signals have to travel back and forth over the Internet, which introduces significant delay.

Our remote desktop environments host multiple connections at any given time, so they sometimes slow down during periods of intense usage as resources become scarce. Please do everyone a favor and LOG OUT OF YOUR SESSION when you are finished so that those computing resources free up for everyone else. Closing the remote desktop connection program does not log you out of your session. You must remember to log out of the remote Windows environment in order to truly close your session.

From the  the Mac App Store, download the Microsoft Remote Desktop 10 app. You will need an Apple ID to download the software. 

After the download completes, open the program. 

Click on Add Desktop,  then enter the computer name of the remote server you intend to connect to. In the screenshot below, I have entered virtuallab.sou.edu, but you can enter the name of any of our remote environments. The steps for connecting are otherwise identical. 

Remember, your options for the computer name are:

• remotedesktop.sou.edu - Used by employees for remote work.
• virtuallab.sou.edu - Used by faculty and students needing special academic software.
• cslab.sou.edu - Used by Computer Science faculty and students for special CS software.

To connect to the Windows desktop, double click on your virtuallab.sou.edu Saved Desktop.

You need to enter your SOU username with a "SOU\" preceding it (without the quotes) when you type it into the Username field.  Alternatively, you can use your SOU email address as your user name in this step. This is crucial if you are connecting from a personal Windows device or if you are connecting from off-campus so that the server knows that you are with SOU. Failure to remember this step will result in the server refusing your connection!

If you are connecting to remotedesktop.sou.edu, you will be prompted to authenticate with Duo before the connection completes.

You should now be connected to the remote Windows environment. If you encounter a connection error, please call our IT Helpdesk at 541-552-6900 or email helpdesk@sou.edu with a screenshot of the error you received.

To disconnect from the Windows computer, follow these instructions.

Please consult this knowledgebase article to learn more about the advanced options that you can configure in the Remote Desktop Connection utility.