Hi,

I installed the Remote Desktop Client App from the Appstore on my OS X 10.8 Lion. There was a very nice Feature "Use All Monitors". Since I have installed the Update of the Application under OS X 10.9 Mavericks, the Feature was removed. Is there Hope, that this Feature will come back soon ?

Many Thanks,

Stefan

I have ran into the same issue. Has anyone been able to use Microsoft's OSX Remote Desktop App on Mavericks utilizing multiple displays? It was a great feature in iTap Mobile (Microsoft purchased the company and rebranded the app as their own). 

Hi,

Thanks for the feedback, I will submit it in our internal portal.

Meanwhile, if there is the option Full Screen, you may have a try instead.

Thanks.

So how long is this going to take? It appears that Microsoft has known about this for at least half a month and frankly this should have been taken care of before the release of Mavericks. I am sure there are a lot of impatient Mac users out there (including myself) who feel like this is taking far too long for a feature that was present in the previous OS release.

Hi shannin_f90,

Today a new update of our Remote Desktop Client is available. Please install it and test it again.

I am still unable to use both monitors. when i full screen on my macbook's display, the other monitor is just a white screen. When i fullscreen on the external display, the macbook display just shows the OS X desktop. So i don't think the update fixed this issue. If i am doing something wrong, please tell me!

The reason is that OSX Maveriks renders both screens in separate screenbuffers, while previous versions of OSX had one big screenbuffer for both screens. Earlier versions of the RDP Client (oa. iTAP) was coded to use the big screenbuffer method.

So does that mean that we aren't going to get a fix for this issue? Or it's going to take a while?

I re-installed Mavericks on Friday after seeing Stephan's post. Multi-monitor does work for me now but it took a little bit of playing with settings to get there. I preferred to have each individual "space" span all of my monitors and had unchecked the setting for "Displays have separate Spaces" under Mission Control Settings. I could not get multi-monitors to work with this configuration. So I decided to try it with this setting enabled (which is the default setting after the Mavericks upgrade and I can see Microsoft missing this in testing). My RDP session now spans all three of my monitors and I think I'm starting to like the "separate spaces" feature.

jason, can you go into more detail on how you got this to work? I've had "displays have separate spaces" checked and have not been able to get the RDP app to use multiple monitors

jason, can you go into more detail on how you got this to work? I've had "displays have separate spaces" checked and have not been able to get the RDP app to use multiple monitors

Sure Shannon. First off, if you just checked the "displays have separate spaces" setting, make sure you've restarted your Mac. After that, the only other settings that I've specified are in the settings for my RDP connection. I have "Full Screen" set to true, "Scale Content" set to false, and "Use All Monitors" set to true. Keep in mind that "use all monitors" was hidden in Mavericks until I updated to the latest version of the app.

thank you for the quick reply jason. I tried what you suggested and am still unable to use my second monitor with microsoft RDP. The RDP client simply acts as if it can only be contained in one monitor (i.e. i can't drag a window from my Macbook screen to the second, HDMI-connected monitor). I have the most up to date version of RDP, I have all the settings as you described. Any idea what's wrong?

thank you for the quick reply jason. I tried what you suggested and am still unable to use my second monitor with microsoft RDP. The RDP client simply acts as if it can only be contained in one monitor (i.e. i can't drag a window from my Macbook screen to the second, HDMI-connected monitor). I have the most up to date version of RDP, I have all the settings as you described. Any idea what's wrong?

Shannon,

When you go to "Full screen" mode with your RDP window, does your second monitor display your OS X background or does it change to the blank/gray background? Do you see anything change on your second monitor when you toggle "full screen" mode?

I'm also using an HDMI connection through a mini display port adapter (which is not an apple certified adapter, by the way).

full screen results in the second monitor turning blank/gray. when i click on the gray screen, it acts like it is clicking in the RDP window on the primary monitor. switching between full screen and windowed mode on the primary monitor causes the menu bar to toggle on the secondary monitor but still has the blank/gray screen. I'm using the hdmi port built into the macbook i have.

full screen results in the second monitor turning blank/gray. when i click on the gray screen, it acts like it is clicking in the RDP window on the primary monitor. switching between full screen and windowed mode on the primary monitor causes the menu bar to toggle on the secondary monitor but still has the blank/gray screen. I'm using the hdmi port built into the macbook i have.

I think that's the behavior I was getting when I had "displays have separate spaces" unchecked. I guess if I have any other ideas for you I'll post them here. I'm surprised it isn't working for you. Maybe it's related to the built-in hdmi port?

On a side note, my third display connects through USB to a DisplayLink adapter. That display also works fine.

Good luck!

What version of Windows are you connecting to?  I am using USB DisplayLink adapter for the second monitor which works with OSX, and works with Windows 2012 Server, but when connecting to Win 7 PRO I just have that blank/grey screen on the second monitor.

full screen results in the second monitor turning blank/gray. when i click on the gray screen, it acts like it is clicking in the RDP window on the primary monitor. switching between full screen and windowed mode on the primary monitor causes the menu bar to toggle on the secondary monitor but still has the blank/gray screen. I'm using the hdmi port built into the macbook i have.

I have the same issues as Shannon_f90. I am using OS 10.9.1 and the MRD client 8.0.24308. When I disable displays have own spaces I get the remote window on one screen and a gray window on the other. I can not drag items between the windows. If I disable the displays have own spaces I can independently access the MaxOS on one screen and run the RDP window in the other. I DO have the spaces settings matched up between the MaxOS settings and the MRD client. If they are missmatched (OS off, MRD on) the client window stretches across both monitors with the primary connected and the secondary displaying a black background and the text "Connecting RDP ...". 

BTW: Even with one monitor this is way better than the previous MS RDC client (2.1.1).

I also am having problems with my MRD multiple monitor function.  Is it possibly a problem with the type of wired connection between the two monitors?  I am using a macbook pro which is using an imac as a secondary display using a thunderbolt cable.  I have displays have separate spaces checked in both mission control and MRD.  Within MRD my settings are as follows:

I am using Native resolution and OS X Native Full Screen Mode.  

Start session in full screen mode is checked

Scale content is unchecked

Use all monitors is checked.

When I start the connection I have the monitor on my macbook pro go into full screen mode and the monitor on the imac go into a white background.  Same as Shnnon_f90 and cokohler I cannot drag any windows to the imac monitor.  

Does anyone have any suggestions?

I also am having problems with my MRD multiple monitor function.  Is it possibly a problem with the type of wired connection between the two monitors?  ...

I am using a Macbook Pro with an Apple VGA adapter to a Samsung SyncMaster monitor. My MacBook Pro and external monitor are each running their native resolutions which are not the same. It seems like since three people are reporting the same issue across three different connection types the problem is likely with the software not the hardware. My settings are the same as Jake Pepper.

I believe it is a problem with remoting into Windows 7 Pro.  I have no problems remoting with multiple displays into Windows Server 2012 (with 2 externals and a internal MBP display), but when I remote into a Windows 7 Pro box, I get one full screen external, one black screen with the words "Connecting RDP..." and the internal screen is just white/gray.

It is very frustrating.  I have tried this http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/a8114254-8260-4fd3-8e2d-76ea0574e3a9/windows-7-remote-desktop-problem-with-multimonitor?forum=w7itproui, but had no luck. (sorry for the long non-hyperlink, but I can't post hyperlinks because I have an unverified account, yet I received no verification instructions).

I hope an update can fix this.

• Edited by Bkaps82 Saturday, January 11, 2014 5:00 PM

I was having the same multi-monitor troubles with Remote Desktop Connection on Mavericks. I found 2x Client RDP in the App Store. It spans full screen across both my monitors. I do have SplitView installed on my remote machine, not sure if that is necessary or not. I'm curious to see if the issues with Mavericks/Remote Desktop Client get resolved, but for now 2x Client is working great.

FWIW...my "Displays have separate Spaces" is unmarked.

I have the same issue and I think you are right. This has got to do with Mavericks 10.9.2-->RemoteDesktop

Version 8.0.5 (Build 24428)--->Windows 7 Professional SP1. I ultimately got my external monitor running my remote windows 7 desktop, while my iMac (primary display) shows "Connecting RDP..." Does not make sense...

Not sure why MS has gotten into creating half baked products..really frustrating...

Windows 7 Pro doesn't support dual monitor RDP sessions from what I am reading.  Needs to be Ultimate or Enterprise. 

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-networking/multi-monitor-support-in-windows-7-remote-desktop/c629d317-88c2-48ba-973a-da04a8c9d579

Hello,

This is an old post, but I see it still is getting new threads.  I have just resolved for staff member that had just updated her Max OS x Lion to v 10.9.4 - she then lost dual screen on her remote client 8.0.7.  This was resolved by opening remote client, edit preferences, and changing resolution to NATIVE.  Hope this helps.

I just spent the best part of 2 hours trying to figure this out as well. I now have two external monitors; one HDMI and one display-port-to-vga and I can finally drag windows between all three. I'm using Windows 8.1 so I get a start taskbar on each screen and if you open display properties windows has correctly recognised 3 x RDP video drivers. I suspect I could get this going with a pair of USB displaylink ports as well but I've run out of monitors.

I'm using a Retina MBP running Mavericks with RDC 8.0.9 and here's what I've discovered;

1.  "Displays use separate spaces" needs to be [x] checked on both mission control AND the MS RDC preferences. It says these are supposed to match.
2. On the RDC connection properties the resolution MUST be set to "Native" as describe by Ryn03. ANY other setting and this just won't work.
3. When I first did this is reset my mac resolution setup so defaulted to 1440x900 in windows as reported by default on the MBPr - I have mine cranked up to 1920x1200 which is the most mavericks will let you have. When I reconnected to the W8.1 machine I had that as my primary display whereas the other two monitors reported the native physical resolution.

Furthermore, it doesn't seem to matter whether you start the connection in full-screen mode, use scaled or even multiple monitors bizarrely enough, but it makes for a better experience of you check all those ON if you want to RDP with the best resolution available.

When I switch spaces on the main display my other two can remain on windows if I want, or I can switch to another mac desktop (which kind of implies that I may be able to get this to work without separate spaces as long as both settings match between OS and RDC but I didn't achieve that and I much prefer the separate spaces in any case.

oh one more observation - it's glitchy. On my main laptop screen the top 10 pixels overflows the screen and cuts about halfway through the window title bar. That's busted, but its not half as annoying as the mac toolbar that keeps popping down whenever you go anywhere near the top of the window. It's really frustrating and it needs to be fixed. I'd prefer a hot-corner or a dedicated key sequence to break out instead.

Does everyone find it fascinating how MS is totally useless in trying to resolve this issue? With most threads I come across, it's user-user interaction that solves most issues. The two identical posts from MS in this thread are downright embarrassing. Unless they are robots, in which case it's also embarrassing.

Does installing the RDP v8.x updates for Windows 7 enable multi-monitor RDP support on Windows 7 Professional?

KB article on the RDP v8 updates: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2592687

Does installing the RDP v8.x updates for Windows 7 enable multi-monitor RDP support on Windows 7 Professional?

KB article on the RDP v8 updates: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2592687

Did not work for me. Like others here, I have checked "start session in full screen" and "Use all monitors", but the second space is just white. I confirmed that this update was already installed as was the prerequisite hotfix. 

Windows 7 Pro doesn't support dual monitor RDP sessions from what I am reading.  Needs to be Ultimate or Enterprise. 

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-networking/multi-monitor-support-in-windows-7-remote-desktop/c629d317-88c2-48ba-973a-da04a8c9d579

Yes, that appears to be what is stopping me. I'm able to use both screens when connecting to other servers, but not when connecting to a Windows 7 Pro PC.

I'm getting the exact same behavior/problem. Anyone have a solution?

I have the same issue as people describe, but here is what I noticed:

- Connecting to a windows server 2012, multi monitor works OK.

- Connecting to windows 8.1 Enterprise, Only one monitor works. If connect to same PC from a windows machine, dual monitors do work - so I know it is supported by windows 8.1 enterprise.