I'm trying to find out what existing options there are out there to boot a machine into a remote desktop (RDP). Ideally the user would have a USB key and just plug it into the machine and boot via it establishing an RDP connection to their virtualised enviroment (stored on a server).
Essentially the anticipated flow will be Power On -> Boot sequence -> Remote Desktop Login screen.
Best Answer
well - you can use modified knoppix or other live distro and run rdesktop which is linux client for RDP protocol. remastering live distro was time consuming for me, but it's definitively doable.
info about remastering knoppix: here. and yes, it can boot from an usb pendrive.
your another option is boot over network - with pxe and then nfs - even less costs, and more centralized management.
PS: this looks even beter.