Last modified:	Thursday, Mar 8, 2007	Article ID:	528
Related products:	Firmware v6.5.x (CE 4.2)

---

Objectives

The following table provides an overview of the features available with each of the ICA & RDP protocols.

Procedure

The Difference between Microsoft RDP and Citrix ICA
Windows 2000/2003 Terminal Services supports the native Microsoft Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) as well as the Citrix Independent Computing Architecture (ICA) protocol (via the Citrix MetaFrame add-on). The following table provides an overview of the features available with each of these protocols:

Table: Windows 2000/2003 Terminal Services supported protocols and features:

Feature	Description	RDP	ICA
Clients	Windows CE-based thin client	+	+
	Windows XP Embedded-based thin client	+	+
	ActiveX® Control	+	+
Transport	TCP/IP	+	+
	SPX, IPX, NetBEUI		+
	WAN connection	+	+
	Dial-up, VPN, xDSL	+	+
	Direct dial-up (non-RAS)		+
Audio	System beeps	+	+
	Stereo Windows audio		+
Local printing	Printing to a local printer attached to a thin client	+	+
Local drive mapping	Local drives accessible from server-based applications	+	+
Local port redirection	Redirection of server ports (LPT/COM) to local client ports	+	+
Cut and paste	Cut and paste of text and graphics between client and server	+	+
User-centric Session Access	Client remembers previous user's logon name for each connection	+
	Connect to an active or disconnected session using a different screen resolution	+
	Connect directly to an application rather than to an entire desktop	+	+
	Server-based applications resize and minimize similar to local applications		+
Application publishing	Advertise server-based applications directly to client desktops		+
Resolution	16-bit color depth	+	+
Load balancing	Pooling of servers behind a single server address and for increased availability	+ 1	+
Remote control	Viewing and interacting with other client sessions (also called "shadowing")	+	+
Bitmap caching	Optionally cache display bitmaps in memory for improved performance	+	+
	Optionally cache display bitmaps to disk for improved performance	+	+
Encryption	Multiple-level encryption for security of client communications	+	+
	Multiple-level encryption on Windows CE thin clients	+
Automatic client update	Administrative means for updating client connection software from the server	+ 2	+
Pre-configured client	Predefined client with published applications, IP addresses, server names, and connection options	+	+

1 Requires Windows 2000 Advanced Server or Datacenter Server.
2 Not available on Windows CE .NET thin clients.