Remote Desktop Monitoring with PRTG

Remote desktop monitoring includes looking at the performance, security, and availability of remote computer environments – for example, for remote work purposes. PRTG monitoring software is at your service (either on-premises or cloud-based) to ensure the security of your sensitive data, facilitate remote access and file transfers, and troubleshoot remote computer setups that require remote support via remote sessions and other remote control methods.

Monitoring remote desktops helps you to ensure optimal performance and security. You can detect and resolve issues, and maintain compliance with organizational policies. By keeping a close watch on remote desktop activities, you can improve end user experience, minimize downtime, optimize workflows, and prevent potential security breaches.

Key aspects include checking performance metrics to spot issues, watching user activity to ensure proper use and policy adherence, detecting security threats to protect data, analyzing resource usage, and implementing optimization processes. It also involves ensuring connectivity and logging actions for accountability and troubleshooting.

PRTG regularly scans remote desktops in your network for unusual activities, and potential vulnerabilities. It provides real-time alerts and detailed security reports. Specific sensor types in PRTG also help you to keep an eye on the update status of your remote systems.

PRTG simplifies troubleshooting by a huge collection of sensor type integrations to identify root causes of issues, whether they are related to connectivity, software conflicts, or hardware malfunctions. This results in better functionality, minimum downtime, and in the end, in a higher employee productivity.

To optimize your patch management by checking the Windows Update status of remote desktops with PRTG, first ensure that Remote PowerShell is enabled on the target system and that PowerShell 3.0 or later is installed on both the probe and target systems.

Next, install .NET Framework 4.7.2 or later on the probe system. Then, configure the necessary credentials for Microsoft Windows systems.

In the PRTG web interface, add the Windows Update Status (PowerShell) sensor to the device you want to monitor. Set the scanning intervals with a recommended interval of 12 hours to minimize server load.

Finally, monitor and analyze the update metrics provided by the sensor, including the last update time and the number of installed and missing updates.

PRTG offers you detailed performance metrics such as CPU usage, memory consumption, and network bandwidth. These metrics help you to identify bottlenecks and give you important insights into how to optimize the allocation of resources.

PRTG provides easy-to-use dashboards and reports that offer an overview of various metrics and stores historical monitoring data. This data allows you to make the right decisions when it comes to system and security updates.

In PRTG, “sensors” are the basic monitoring elements. One sensor usually monitors one measured value in your network, for example the traffic of a switch port, the CPU load of a server, or the free space on a disk drive. On average, you need about 5-10 sensors per device or one sensor per switch port.