Apple Remote Desktop 3 Released!

This morning Apple announced Apple Remote Desktop 3 to many sysadmins’ delight, including mine. I love ARD 2.2, but it needed improvements and it was high time for an update.

Of course, ARD 2.2 wasn’t Universal and even though it could be made to work it wasn’t endorsed by Apple. ARD 3 is, of course, fully supported on both PowerPC and Intel Macs and has a slew of new features, including:

• Remote Spotlight search – Take advantage of Tiger’s Spotlight search functionality across all the Macs on your network.
• Dashboard widget – Glance at computers with the touch of a button.
• Automator actions – Use Automator with ARD to further improve your workflow.
• AutoInstall – A step up from remote installations, have computers temporarily off the network complete missed installs when they reconnect.
• Curtain Mode – Sometimes a Sysadmin needs a little privacy while making changes on a remote machine.
• Remote Drag & Drop – A basic feature you’ll probably forget is even there. Drag & drop as well as copy & paste between your computer and others on the network.
• Power Copy – A new file copy engine under the hood. Faster, supporting 64-bit files, and with encryption options.
• System status indicators – See the health of other computers on the network.
• Application Usage & User History reports – Check who has what software installed and how often they use them as well as which machines they’ve been using, when, and for how long.
• Smart Computer Lists – First iTunes, then Mail, now ARD. Create rules to automatically group computers into lists.

As I’ve mentioned before, ARD is one of my most used tools and it’s just gotten better. I may have to promote ARD 3 to “Man’s Best Friend,” sorry all you dogs, you’re cute and all, but, “what would you say you do here?”

Apple even went above and beyond the call of duty, check out their video tutorials for ARD 3 to see if it’s right for you. Also check out the Apple Remote Desktop comparison to what features you’d gain if upgrading.

The 10-Client version is available for $299 and the Unlimited Client version for $499. Order your copy today!