View RDP very slow using OSX client to Windows 8

[blabarbera]

I am having a strange performance issue using the View client for OSX and connecting to a Windows 8 remote desktop. I am at the latest versions server and client side, and the connections to the same remote workstations using a windows client over RDP work great. No performance issues. I'm somewhat at a loss as to what the issue could be.

Context menus in the remote desktop work quickly, but running programs, opening and closing windows, etc is very slow. No resource contention or hogging on the remote system, nor the client. All PCOIP connections and/or RDP sessions to other workstations (which are all Windows 7) work great with no issues. Any help in troubleshooting is appreciated.

[blabarbera]

Also - we've tried these connections over two separate WAN connections to try and rule out connection speed as a potential source. But, like I said, connecting from a Windows client make the problem disappear.

[kdenike]

Hello. Are you using RDP or PCoIP from the Mac?

[yuleyl · Accepted solution]

Hello,

When connecting to remote desktop with RDP protocol from Mac View Client, it'll use the high image quality as default for RDC connection. The MS RDC app is a very old app, there isn't new version for so long time and there isn't any updates to improve the performance that specific to new Windows OS (Win8/8.1/2012). This may be the reason for the performance issue on Windows 8 with RDC.

If you're using RDP protocol from Mac View client, please changing the Display settings for Remote Desktop Connection app (RDC) first. And then reconnect to the remote desktop directly via IP (without View client) to check if the performance has some improvement.

Top menu of RDC app: RDC -> Preferences -> Display

Try to change some settings as the attached screenshot shown.

If it works, you can replace the RDP template file for the Mac View Client app with below steps:

1. Download the attached template file "vmware-view.rdp"

2. Copy it and replace the file in /Applications/VMware Horizon View Client/Contents/Resources/vmware-view.rdp

3. Quit Mac View Client app

4. Re-launch Mac View Client and connect to Windows 8 desktop via RDP protocol

Thanks.

[blabarbera]

We are using RDP from the Mac.

Thanks for the suggestions, yuleyl. I will give that a try.

[blabarbera]

Finally got around to trying this suggestion and it cleared up the issues we were experiencing. I will say that the Mac RDP client leaves a lot to be desired. Thanks you for your help!