When an office genuinely needs five or ten people working on one machine at the same time, Microsoft's answer is Windows Server with Remote Desktop Services and CALs. Here is what you are actually buying, in plain words, before you spend anything.
In the video, the CAL route is presented as the genuine option and the wrapper as the shortcut. This page is the CAL route in full: what an RDS CAL is, how per-user and per-device CALs differ, which server roles make it run, and what the 120-day grace period really means. No prices are quoted — they change by region and edition — but the structure below is what every quotation you receive is built from.
Example layout of an RDS licensing stack. The RDS CAL is a separate licence on top of the server licence and the base CALs.
Three layers, often confused:
An RDS CAL is a legal right, not a file. You receive licence documentation and a key pack to install on the licensing server. Keep the purchase documents with your other office licences — in an audit, the paperwork is the product.
RDS CALs come in two flavours, and choosing correctly is where offices save real money:
Count your people and your devices and license whichever number is smaller. The licensing server tracks per-device CALs strictly; per-user compliance is reported rather than hard-blocked, but the obligation is identical — buying five per-user CALs for nine staff is under-licensing, blocked or not.
Remote Desktop Services is a set of server roles. A small office can run them all on one machine:
Separately, administrators get two built-in remote sessions for managing the server without any RDS CALs — but those are for administration only, not a loophole for daily user work.
When you install the Session Host role, a 120-day licensing grace period starts. During it, sessions work while you buy and install CALs: activate the licence server, then install your CAL pack on it, then point the Session Host at it. When the grace period ends without licences in place, user connections are refused — offices discover this at the worst possible moment, which is why the video's advice to treat CALs as part of the setup, not an afterthought, is right.
Treat the grace period as a project deadline. Buy from Microsoft or an authorised reseller, and store the licence agreement details somewhere the next IT person can find them.
RDS licensing is a real bill: a server licence plus a CAL for every user or device, on top of suitable hardware. Set against it:
For two people who occasionally collide, a second PC is cheaper — this series says so plainly in the alternatives guide. For a growing office where the shared applications are the business, RDS on Server is not the expensive option; it is the first option that actually ends the monthly firefighting.
The video explains the CAL concept on screen while setting up users on one PC — watch it before you request a quotation.
▶️ Watch Full VideoOnly two administrative sessions, intended for managing the server itself. The moment staff do their regular work in remote sessions, each user or device needs an RDS CAL, installed after the 120-day grace period at the latest.
Yes. They are different licences: the Windows Server CAL covers basic access to the server, and the RDS CAL is required in addition because the user is running a remote desktop session.
No. A per user CAL belongs to one person. Shift sharing is exactly what per device CALs are designed for — one CAL on the shared counter PC covers everyone who uses that device.