Just over a year ago, Google introduced, in beta form, an interesting Chrome extension dubbed Chrome Remote Desktop. The extension provided cross-platform Remote Desktop-like functionality, allowing someone with Windows, OS X, Linux, or Chrome OS to control another machine running any of those operating systems.
Google updated the official Chrome blog late yesterday to announce that Chrome Remote Desktop has now been taken out of beta. The extension has also gained a couple of useful new features, as Chrome Product Manager Stephen Konig explains:
New features include the addition of a real time audio feed (on Windows). This can be handy if you want to listen to that MP3 music collection you have stored on a computer at home. Now you can also copy-and-paste between your local and remote computers.
Konig stresses that the extension works on the new Samsung Chromebook, too, which features an ARM processor and a $249 price tag. I guess Intel processors aren’t a requirement.
Chrome users can grab Chrome Remote Desktop right here from the Chrome Web Store. Judging by the 4.5-star average rating, users of the extension are pretty pleased with it. Some enthusiasm is to be expected, of course, since Windows’ built-in Remote Desktop functionality still requires a "Pro" version of the operating system to host sessions, even with Windows 8. A free browser extension certainly beats a paid OS upgrade.