Microsoft Follows Google, Files For Desktop Remoting Patent

News
By Wolfgang Gruener
published

Desktop remoting is emerging as one of the killer features of Google's Chrome OS, as it allows even small low power devices to connect to a regular and powerful desktop PC and run traditional x86 or Mac OS X apps.

Microsoft is following suit with a "Web-Browser Based Desktop And Application Remoting Solution", which shows a similar approach and could have some interesting implications for multiscreening environments.

The patent application submitted in June 2011 states that the technology would use a proxy server to establish "a HTTP session with the client and a remote presentation session with the client. The server generates graphics encoded with a remote presentation protocol and sends them to the proxy, which re-encodes them as video and sends them to the client for display in the web browser. The client captures user input at the web browser and sends it to the proxy, which encodes it with the remote presentation protocol and sends it to the server to be processed."

What makes Microsoft's solution different is that it does not require a specific application to support remoting on the client, a so called remote presentation session application. the patent, however, outlines "a client [with] a web browser application that is configured to both display video and receive user input that is directed to the web browser application. The client uses the web browser to establish an Ajax (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML--Extensible Markup Language) connection with the server to open a connection. The client and server then exchange information to authenticate the client to the server."

Desktop remoting can serve a variety of purposes, but it's most critical application today is the transfer of application to platforms that do not support them. We already know that Microsoft has a very capable web browser as far as graphics display is concerned, which would give the company a good reason to use desktop remoting between x86 Windows, Windows RT and Windows Phone. As long as a x86 Windows machine is available via an Internet connection, a full screen browser could almost eliminate all software concerns that are currently plaguing Windows RT.

For platform synergy, desktop remoting could end up being an important bridge technology for Microsoft.

Contact Us for News Tips, Corrections and Feedback

Wolfgang Gruener
11 Comments Comment from the forums
  • InvalidError
    Great, a patent on doing little more than VNC/RDP/X-client over HTML.

    Almost certain I have already seen and used something like that for a short while several years ago.
    Reply
  • memadmax
    Patents are a joke.
    Reply
  • JOSHSKORN
    memadmaxPatents are a joke.And this is new? Nope.
    Reply
  • thecolorblue
    software patents ARE ILLEGAL as ruled by the supreme court in Gottschalk v Benson.

    the court that does handle patent cases has effectively overruled the supreme court and that court is itself responsible for the disaster that is the US patent system with regards to software patents in the US.

    The supreme court is not required to "care" about any issue and has in fact actively avoided the issue altogether... letting the patents court run wild and letting the existing software patents sh!tstorm run wild
    Reply
  • abbadon_34
    I'm guessing something is missing here. This has been around for more than a decade.

    Histroyically the USPTO has always issued patents on anything and everything to anyone. It didn't matter if it worked, existed, was theoretical or was plain made up. It was only recently (Apple) that they became important and started to scrutinize (and hence reject old, previously approved) patents. It's no wonder why there have been so many mistakes and strange decisions.
    Reply
  • d_kuhn
    Everyone knows that the current patent system badly needs updating to catch up with the changing nature of IP... I don't think they're "a joke" but the ability to patent things that basically require no expertise to come up with seems a bit silly. The idea of a patent was to reward someone who works hard and discovers something new and valuable.

    Having said that... I think this particular idea is pretty cool... I use the CRAP out of Remote Desktop (Dameware usually) for system managment (and I'm not even in IT). It would be very cool to have a true open standard for any backend system that would allow a single client for all host OS's. That of course is assuming that MS doesn't cripple it to only work with Windows.
    Reply
  • kellybean
    Yet again, MS copies and does not innovate.
    Reply
  • bllue
    kellybeanYet again, MS copies and does not innovate.Must've gotten it confused with Apple
    Reply
  • gmarsack
    How is this any different than iLO on HP or Dell DRAC ports on those servers... remote desktop over a standard browser. This has been around for a LONG time...
    Reply
  • wemakeourfuture
    BLLUEMust've gotten it confused with Apple
    Microsoft has 3 decades of unparalleled copying. Apple doesn't even come close to the lack of innovation and copying Microsoft has done.
    Reply