Common tasks
Left mouse click | Single tap |
Left mouse double click | Double tap |
Right mouse click | Touch, hold for at least 1 second without moving, or tap with two fingers. When tapping with two fingers, the click is registered at the location of the last finger touching. |
Performing a drag operation | Touch, release, touch, drag, release. It is similar to a double click, only on the second click don’t release your finger but drag instead and release only then done with dragging. For right button dragging touch with two fingers. |
Scrolling | Stroke with two fingers in a vertical/horizontal direction. |
Hide/show action bar at the top of the screen | Three finger swipe up or down. |
Bring up software keyboard | Keyboard icon on the action bar or single tap with three fingers. |
Shift, Ctl, Alt, Win , Esc, Ins, Arrow Up/Down/Left/Right, Del, Home, End, PgUp, PgDn, PrtScn, Pause keys, functional keys |
Bring up software keyboard. Select a keyboard type in the top row. Please note that the keys Shift, Ctl, Alt, Win are “sticky” and will be released after any other key is touched. |
Edit server parameters | Press the Edit icon on the right side of the server entry in the list. |
Delete server | Long press on the server entry in the list, press additional server entries if necessary and press the Delete icon on contextual action bar. |
Set master password | Press Settings icon, select Master Password in Privacy Settings category. When Master Password is enabled the saved passwords are encrypted. |
Use a non-default IP port | Specify server address as [address]:[port number]. |
Touch interface
Touch interface can work in two different modes: touchpad mode (default) and touchscreen mode. The mode can be changed in the application settings by editing the Touchpad mode check-box.
Touchpad mode
This is a default mode and it behaves similar to a touchpad on a laptop computer. It allows precise positioning of a cursor without losing its track.
To position a cursor, move it by stroking the touch screen in the desired direction. If the device screen is smaller than the remote desktop, the device screen is behaving like a viewport. The viewport is being moved relatively to the remote desktop screen so that the cursor is staying approximately in the middle area of the device screen until the viewport reaches an edge of the remote desktop, then the cursor is moved relatively to the device screen.
Touchscreen mode
It behaves like a regular touchscreen. The mouse pointer is positioned at the location touched by the user.
If the device screen is smaller than the remote desktop, the device screen works like a viewport and can be moved by stroking the touch screen in the desired direction.
Trackball
The trackball on the device behaves similar to a desktop trackball, it just moves a cursor on a remote desktop. Click on the trackball results in left mouse click.
Keyboard layout setting
Keyboard layout can be changed by editing Keyboard Layout field. It is generally should be selected to match the keyboard layout used on the remote computer. There is a special keyboard layout named Unicode, which can be used with any keyboard layout on the remote computer, because it sends all input as Unicode characters. Unicode input is supported by Windows Remote Desktop servers starting with Windows 2000. The important difference between Unicode layout and the language specific layouts is that the language specific layouts allow sending key combinations which include a character, e.g. Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V. When a language specific keyboard layout is set, all characters which can be typed on a physical keyboard without using Shift and also capital letters are not sent as Unicode characters, but instead are mapped to a key on a keyboard according to the selected keyboard layout and their scan-code is sent.
Windows specific keys
Windows specific keys, not available on the device, are implemented in a soft keyboard, which can be brought up by pressing Keyboard icon on the action bar.
Please note that the modifier keys Shift, Ctl, Alt, Win are “sticky”, that is touching one of these keys will result in the corresponding key been pressed and staying down on the remote desktop, which is indicated by a green light coming up on the key in the soft keyboard. The subsequent touching of the key will release the corresponding key on the remote desktop.
It also will be released when any other non-modifier key is pressed. A key combination can be sent to a remote desktop by touching a modifier key or keys and touching regular key on a device hardware keyboard or soft keyboard.
Scrolling
Scrolling can be initiated by stroking two fingers in a vertical or horizontal direction. Vertical scrolling in a remote session is implemented by sending mouse wheel rotation events. Horizontal scrolling is implemented by sending left/right arrow key presses.
Master password
The Xtralogic RDP client provides secure storage for server passwords, when master password is set. While the master password is being set, all previously stored passwords, if any, are also encrypted. When the master password is set, it can be deleted with an option to delete all existing passwords, or to keep the existing passwords by storing them as clear text (not recommended).
Software keyboard auto-activation
The Xtralogic RDC supports automatic activation of a software keyboard. The software keyboard is activated when user clicks on a text field. This feature requires free Xtralogic RDC Companion application to be installed and running on a remote computer. The software keyboard auto-activation is enabled by default and can be disabled in application settings.
Remote Desktop Gateway
The Remote Desktop Gateway or RD Gateway (formerly Terminal Services Gateway or TS gateway) can tunnel Remote Desktop Protocol sessions
using an HTTPS channel through a network firewall. It is a configurable feature of Windows Server 2008 and later.
One RD Gateway can be used to allow secure access to multiple Remote Desktop servers. It is usually used on corporate networks and configured
by the network administrator. To access a Remote Desktop server behind an RD Gateway, first, save an RD Gateway settings creating gateway in Gateways screen. The user name and password are optional, and do not need to be specified if you use
the Remote Desktop server credentials to connect to the RD Gateway, which is the usual scenario.
Once an RD Gateway settings are saved, it can be selected on the Advanced tab of a Remote Desktop server settings in the Gateway field.
Leave the “Use server credentials for gateway” checkbox checked to use the server credentials to connect to the RD Gateway.
If the credentials are not saved you will be prompted for them each time you connect.
Microphone redirection
Microphone redirection from the client to a remote computer can be enabled in the Advanced tab of server settings on a server by server basis by editing the Enable microphone redirection mode check-box.
On some Windows 7 editions the audio recording in a remote desktop session is disabled by default and can be enabled only by editing the registry. The HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server\WinStations\RDP-Tcp\fDisableAudioCapture registry value(type REG_DWORD) has to be set to 0.
For more information see Microsoft Support article Configure Audio Recording Redirection in Windows 7.
Flash memory card redirection
The flash memory card can be made available as disk in the remote session, that is will be visible for reading and writing in the Windows Explorer running on the remote computer.
It is disabled by default and can be enabled in the Advanced tab of server settings on a server by server basis.
Clipboard redirection
Text can be copied/pasted between a phone and a remote session. To copy text from phone to a remote computer, copy text in another app on the phone and switch to the Xtralogic RDC app while connected to the remote computer.
The text in the phone keyboard will be sent to the remote computer’s clipboard and available for a paste operation.
To copy text from the remote computer to the phone, in the remote desktop session copy text into the clipboard, switch to an app on the phone and paste the text.
Licensing
If you purchased the application on the Google Android Market, the application is relying on the Google Android Market License Verification service to make sure it is licensed for use on the device.
The licensing status is obtained through the Android Market application and cached for the next 24 hours. There has to be an Internet connection (over WiFi or cellular data network) when the application runs for the first time, so that the licensing status can be initially verified.
After the licensing status is initially verified, the application can be used for one week without Internet connection.
After one week the Internet connection will be required to verify the licensing status.
Importing server settings
The Xtralogic RDC supports importing server settings from a standard Microsoft Windows .rdp file.
To import copy the .rdp file to the device’s external storage and in the app go to Menu > “Import from .rdp”.
The app also allows importing multiple server settings at a time from an XML file.
To import copy the XML file to the device’s external storage and go to Menu > “Import from XML”.
The XML file is using attribute names similar to .rdp file keywords, except if a keyword contains spaces, they are replaced with “-“. Attribute values are the same as in .rdp file.
To make the .rdp or .xml files available to the app place them in ‘xtralogic/rdpclient’ folder or ‘Android/data/com.xtralogic.android.rdpclient.act/files’ folder if using 6.0.0 and later app version).
In addition to the .rdp file keywords, the XML file may contain attributes specific to Xtralogic RDC:
Attribute | Type | Default value | Description |
xtr-description | string | Server description | |
xtr-security-layer | int | 0 | Security layer 0 – negotiate, up to SSL with NLA 1 – RDP Security 2 – SSL |
xtr-use-server-creds-for-gateway | bool | 1 | 0 – false 1 – true |
xtr-input-locale | int | 1033 | Input locale, should match input locale used on the remote server 66561 – Arabic 4105 – Canadian French 69641 – Canadian Multilingual Standard 1029 – Czech 1030 – Danish 1043 – Dutch 1035 – Finish 1036 – French 1031 – German 1037 – Hebrew 1040 – Italian 1041 – Japanese 1042 – Korean 1044 – Norwegian 1046 – Portuguese (Brazilian ABNT) 1049 – Russian 1034 – Spanish 1053 – Swedish 1055 – Turkish Q 2057 – United Kingdom 1033 – US -1 – Unicode |
xtr-switch-mouse-buttons | bool | 0 | Switch left and right mouse buttons. 0 – false 1 – true |
xtr-password | string | Server password. Please note that the server password can’t be imported from password parameter in .rdp file because it is stored there in an encrypted form. |
|
xtr-custom-id | string | Custom server id. Used to specify a connection to be launched using intention from another app or MDM. | |
xtr-client-host-name | string | Client name. | |
xtr-disable-pointer-in-touchscreen | bool | 0 | Disable pointer in touchscreen mode. 0 – false 1 – true |
Specifying desktopwidth=”0″ desktopheight=”0″ is equivalent to selecting “Fit device screen” option for display resolution.
Zero-touch installation with MDM
The Xtralogic RDC can be pre-configured with server connection settings from a configuration file. The configuration file has an XML format. Download an example of the configuration file. The server XML element of the file has the same structure as described in Importing server settings section. Place the XML configuration file named xtralogic-config.xml in xtralogic/rdpclient folder on device’s external storage (or Android/data/com.xtralogic.android.rdpclient.act/files folder if using 6.0.0 and later app version) and restart the app. If the xtralogic/rdpclient folder does not exist, create the folder. The device will be locked down and device’s users will not be able to delete or modify pre-configured servers.
The settings XML element of the configuration file can have the following attributes:
Attribute | Type | Default value | Description |
touchpad-mode | bool | 1 | The device touchscreen behaves as a laptop touch pad. 0 – false 1 – true |
full-screen-mode | bool | 0 | The phone status bar is hidden in full screen mode. 0 – false 1 – true |
keep-screen-on | bool | 0 | Keep screen on while connected to a remote computer. 0 – false 1 – true |
prompt-before-disconnect-on-back-key | bool | 0 | Prompt before disconnect on back key. 0 – false 1 – true |
check-ssl-certificate | bool | 0 | Warn if the remote computer SSL certificate is un-trusted. 0 – false 1 – true |
show-action-bar | bool | 0 | Show the action bar. 0 – false 1 – true |
overlay-action-bar | bool | 0 | Show the action bar as overlay. 0 – false 1 – true |
windows-8-multitouch | bool | 1 | Use multi-touch remoting. 0 – false 1 – true |
disable-pinch-zoom | bool | 1 | Disable pinch zoom. 0 – false 1 – true |
show-only-system-input-method | bool | 1 | Show only a system input method without keyboard control bar. 0 – false 1 – true |
suppress-menu-help-option | bool | 0 | Suppress menu Help option. 0 – false 1 – true |
suppress-menu-touch-mode-option | bool | 0 | Suppress menu Touch mode option. 0 – false 1 – true |
use-null-input-type | bool | 1 | Use null input type. 0 – false 1 – true |
process-composing-text | bool | 0 | Process composing text. 0 – false 1 – true |
disable-auto-reconnect | bool | 0 | Disable auto re-connect. 0 – false 1 – true |
allow-sw-kbd-if-hw-kbd-present | bool | 1 | Use software and hardware keyboards at the same time. 0 – false 1 – true |
auto-activate-sw-kbd | bool | 1 | Auto-activate software keyboard. 0 – false 1 – true |
A connection can be automatically initiated by MDM by sending an Android intent.
In general the intent has to have the following parameters set:
Action Name: “android.intent.action.MAIN”
Package Name: “com.xtralogic.android.rdpclient.act”
Class Name: “com.xtralogic.android.rdpclient.act.MainActivity”
Extra type: String
Extra name: “com.xtralogic.android.rdpclient.extra.main_activity.extra_server_custom_id”
Extra value: [value matching the desired server’s xtr-custom-id parameter specified in the configuration file]
For example, the following URI can be used with SOTI MobiControl MDM in the sendintent script command:
intent:#Intent;action=android.intent.action.MAIN;component=com.xtralogic.android.rdpclient.act/.MainActivity;S.com.xtralogic.android.rdpclient.extra.main_activity.extra_server_custom_id=server1;end
The app can be activated using a file containing an activation code. Download an example of the activation file. Place the activation file named xtralogic-activation.xml in the in xtralogic/rdpclient folder on device’s external storage (or Android/data/com.xtralogic.android.rdpclient.act/files folder if using 6.0.0 and later app version) and restart the app. The activation code will be used to activate the app. Once the app is activated the activation file can be removed.
Distributing configuration files with MDM on Android 11 and later
In version 11, Android introduced a scoped storage model. Under the scoped storage model, the old Xtralogic RDP client’s configuration file location in the external storage (SD card or emulated) /xtralogic/rdpclient folder is accessible only if the app explicitly declares that it requires android.permission.MANAGE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE permission and in most cases the system will interactively ask user to allow this permission for the app. Moreover, the apps declaring that permission are not allowed in Google Play Sore unless their main function is a something like a file manager. At the same time, under the scoped storage model, each app gets a its own folder on the external storage which it can access without any additional permission.
In order to support the new Android versions, Xtralogic RDP client is switching to the scoped storage model in version 6. It is now expecting the configuration files to be placed in the external storage /Android/data/com.xtralogic.android.rdpclient.act/files folder. This location is accessible through USB file transfer as before.
But due to the scoped storage model, since Android version 11, MDM agents can’t access app specific locations anymore. To allow MDM agents configure the updated app, we’ve developed a utility app, Android File Sync Assistant, which, on Android 11 and later, once installed on a device, is automatically run by Xtralogic RDP client version 6 or later and copies all files from the /xtralogic/rdpclient folder to the /Android/data/com.xtralogic.android.rdpclient.act/files folder.
The Android File Sync Assistant app has to be installed if all of the following conditions are present:
- MDM is used to copy configuration files into the Xtralogic RDP client app specific folder.
- Android device is running Android 11 or later.
- Xtralogic RDP client version is 6 or later.
RemoteApp programs
The easiest way to configure access to a RemoteApp program is to import an .rdp file created by the RemoteApp server administrator for a particular RemoteApp program. See the Importing server settings section on how to import an .rdp file.
The RemoteApp configuration can also be entered manually. On the Advanced tab of server settings, tick off the “Connect to RemoteApp program” checkbox. After that free additional fields will become available. The first one, “RemoteApp program name” is required. In that field, enter the RemoteApp program alias, prefixed by two ‘|’ characters, e.g. if the program alias is calc, enter ||calc. The remote program alias can be found in a RemoteApp program properties in the RemoteApp Manager.
Please note that RD Web Access is not currently supported.
Simple Connect
Simple Connect makes it easier to establish a connection when a remote computer is behind some kind of a network address translating (NAT) gateway, such as a home network router or corporate firewall. Without Simple Connect, before such connection can be established, port forwarding needs to be configured on the NAT gateway. This requires some degree of network knowledge or might not even be possible on corporate network. Simple Connect eliminates the need for configuring port forwarding.
Simple Connect relies on Google Talk infrastructure to establish network connections between the Xtralogic RDP client and the remote RDP server. In most cases the connection is established directly between the client and the remote server and the Google Talk infrastructure is used only for the connection negotiation, meaning that the data traffic flows directly without going through the Google Talk servers. In rare cases of complex network configurations the direct connection can’t be negotiated and the data traffic is relayed through the Google Talk servers. Please note that the RDP traffic is encrypted using SSL or standard RDP encryption protocol and is not visible to the Google relay server.
In order to make a server available to Simple Connect, the Xtralogic RDC Companion application has to be installed on the server, configured with Google account email address and password, and logged in. The same Google account has to be used in the Simple Connect settings in the Xtralogic RDP client. Any Google account can be used with Simple Connect.
A prerequisite for using Simple Connect is outgoing network connectivity on the TCP port 5222, which can be verified by using a Google Talk client (e.g. Gtalk app) on both client and server. Another prerequisite is outgoing network connectivity on TCP port 443 (SSL port), which can be verified by connecting to a https://www.google.com URL using a Web browser. Both of this ports are normally allowed even on corporate networks. Since Simple Connect requires the same network connectivity as Google Talk.
Once the Xtralogic RDC Companion is connected to the Google infrastructure, the corresponding entry will appear in the server list in the Xtralogic RDP client connected with the same Google account. This entry will automatically disappear from the list once the Xtralogic RDC Companion is disconnected on the remote computer, unless it is edited and saved, for example to add RDP login name and password. Once saved, it will remain in the list even if Xtralogic RDC Companion is disconnected on the remote computer.
If 2-step verification is configured for a Google account being used with Simple Connect, an application specific password will need to be generated and used with Simple Connect. This is the same as what would need to be done for a standalone Google Talk client.
For more information on signing in using application-specific passwords with 2-step verification see Google support article Signing in using application-specific passwords.
Xtralogic Simple Connect is not affiliated with or endorsed by Google, Inc.