# Windows RDP

15 Hacker News commenters recommended Windows RDP and 3 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 6 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** A mature Windows remote desktop protocol that people find responsive and usable, often preferred over VNC; some find its experience mediocre.

## Why people recommend it

- Beats VNC on performance (4 comments): "just outright using RDP directly, both of which are much better at the job" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46060275)) "I have used RDP over dial-up that was more responsive that VNC over LAN." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46102512)) "The terribleness of VNC (vs RDP) is what gets you." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48436979))
- Mature, reliable, long-established protocol (3 comments): "The people who put together TS/RDP are geniuses IMO, it's insane as to how usable it has been for at least 15-ish years" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48533183)) "Microsoft rdp is a great solution for this in windows land." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48532797)) "Windows implementation of RDP is actually very good" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46087562))
- Responsive over slow connections (2 comments): "I have used RDP over dial-up that was more responsive that VNC over LAN." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46102512)) "RDP works perfectly, certainly much better that X11 over WAN" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47482679))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [VNC](https://hackerapproved.com/p/vnc.md): 10 recommend
- [Xpra](https://hackerapproved.com/p/xpra.md): 9 recommend
- [X2Go](https://hackerapproved.com/p/x2go.md): 6 recommend
- [Apache Guacamole](https://hackerapproved.com/p/apache-guacamole.md): 6 recommend
- [WayVNC](https://hackerapproved.com/p/wayvnc.md): 5 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Windows RDP", https://hackerapproved.com/p/rdp/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).