Connecting iPhone/iPad/iPod to iTunes on Remote Server

I have a remote server (Windows running on VM Ware ESX) running iTunes and have been looking for a way to connect my i-devices to it for initial syncing (prior to using WiFi) for quite a while without success.

I have tried many different methods (such as passing the devices through the host to the VM or using windows' built in USB RDP features) without much success, but have finally found a solution which works, and wanted to share it.

I recently downloaded USB For Remote Desktop with the aim of using Remote Desktop to pass through my i-devices from a windows laptop.

It works by installing a "Workstation" version on the computer you wish to plug the devices into, and a "Server" version on the computer you wish to connect them to. You then use Windows' RDP (mstsc) to connect from the workstation to the server. You can then click on the system tray icon for the software and connect the i-device to the PC.

This works a lot better than using Windows' RDP settings alone for USB passthrough because the software passes through the installed usb device meaning the server computer doesn't need to recognise the item and find the correct drivers (previously I have been able to pass through my devices using Windows alone, but the server couldn't install the drivers as it didn't recognise it as an apple device.)

The software is available for Windows and Linux at the moment (it's not available for Mac yet) and works reliably to connect any USB device to remote VMs.

They also do a network version which enables you to access USB devices over LAN, but I haven't tried this yet.

Hope this helps anyone else who has been trying to connect their i-devices to remote iTunes servers.