Microsoft Remote Desktop vs TeamViewer
March 19, 2025 | Author: Michael Stromann
13★
With the Microsoft Remote Desktop app, you can connect to a remote PC and your work resources from almost anywhere. Experience the power of Windows with RemoteFX in a Remote Desktop client designed to help you get your work done wherever you are.
27★
TeamViewer connects to any PC or server around the world within a few seconds. You can remote control your partner's PC as if you were sitting right in front of it.
See also:
Top 10 Remote Support software
Top 10 Remote Support software
Microsoft Remote Desktop and TeamViewer, at first glance, appear to be two incredibly similar products, much like two intergalactic hitchhikers who both happen to own towels of nearly the same shade of blue. They both allow users to poke around on remote computers as if they were physically there, transfer files across the digital ether, encrypt their sessions to keep nosy aliens (or hackers) at bay and even stretch their influence across multiple monitors, because why stop at one? Fundamentally, they exist to make the modern worker’s life easier—or at least more confusing in entirely new and exciting ways.
Microsoft Remote Desktop, hailing from the grand halls of Redmond, USA, has been around since 2001 and was clearly designed by engineers who assumed everyone already lived in a world where all computers ran Windows and everyone knew what a VPN was. It’s built for the serious business of serious business, best suited to those who enjoy configuring network settings while sipping their morning coffee. It comes free with Windows but stubbornly refuses to play nicely with anything that isn’t deeply devoted to the Microsoft ecosystem, much like a cat that only responds to one very specific human and hisses at everyone else.
TeamViewer, meanwhile, emerged from Germany in 2005 and promptly decided that remote access should be as simple as punching in a code and pretending you're sitting in front of a computer that could be halfway across the galaxy. Designed for tech support, remote work and general digital meddling, it allows anyone to connect from anywhere, no mystical network incantations required. Unlike its more corporate counterpart, it welcomes macOS, Linux and even mobile devices with open arms, provided you're willing to cough up some cash for business use. It also throws in a few extra tricks like remote printing, session recording and wake-on-LAN, because why just control a computer when you can also make it do party tricks?
See also: Top 10 Remote Support software
Microsoft Remote Desktop, hailing from the grand halls of Redmond, USA, has been around since 2001 and was clearly designed by engineers who assumed everyone already lived in a world where all computers ran Windows and everyone knew what a VPN was. It’s built for the serious business of serious business, best suited to those who enjoy configuring network settings while sipping their morning coffee. It comes free with Windows but stubbornly refuses to play nicely with anything that isn’t deeply devoted to the Microsoft ecosystem, much like a cat that only responds to one very specific human and hisses at everyone else.
TeamViewer, meanwhile, emerged from Germany in 2005 and promptly decided that remote access should be as simple as punching in a code and pretending you're sitting in front of a computer that could be halfway across the galaxy. Designed for tech support, remote work and general digital meddling, it allows anyone to connect from anywhere, no mystical network incantations required. Unlike its more corporate counterpart, it welcomes macOS, Linux and even mobile devices with open arms, provided you're willing to cough up some cash for business use. It also throws in a few extra tricks like remote printing, session recording and wake-on-LAN, because why just control a computer when you can also make it do party tricks?
See also: Top 10 Remote Support software