Co-authoring a new book on RDS in Windows Server 2012, soon to be published!

I’m currently co-authoring a new book on Remote Desktop Services in Windows Server 2012 together with fellow RDS-MVP Cláudio Rodrigues! The book is a new release of a book Cláudio wrote earlier on Terminal Services in Windows Server 2003. We are updating the book and will be covering Remote Desktop Services (mostly Session Based Desktop Deployment) on Windows Server 2012.

We are planning to release this very soon, stay tuned for more info on the release date! A quick sneak preview of the beta edition of the book below:

MS RDV Team: “Enabling a Seamless Multimedia Experience with RemoteFX Media Streaming in Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8”

A new blog post from the Microsoft Remote Desktop Virtualization team. Alvin Lau, a Software Development Engineer in Test (SDET) from the RDV Team from wrote a blog post on the Multimedia experience with RemoteFX media steaming on Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8.

“…Previously, Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 introduced Windows Multimedia Redirection, which provided a great experience when playing multimedia content by using Windows Media Player (WMP) in a remote session. Since Multimedia Redirection was based on redirecting the native media stream to the client, the experience was great for supported video formats on LAN networks. However, there were a few key shortcomings…”

“…To address these shortcomings, Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8 introduced RemoteFX Media Streaming, which uses host-side rendering techniques (which provide broad video format support) in combination with the industry standard H.264 codec (which benefits online media streaming) to seamlessly redirect video content…”

The blog post also shows a nice video which shows Windows 7 and Windows 8 remote desktops side by side playing a video over a slow link with latency and packet loss.

Read the complete article here: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/rds/archive/2012/08/16/enabling-a-seamless-multimedia-experience-with-remotefx-media-streaming-in-windows-server-2012-and-windows-8.aspx?wa=wsignin1.0

New Article: Using PowerShell to control RDS in Windows Server 2012 (Part 2)

A few weeks ago I did a first article on using PowerShell to control RDS in Windows Server 2012. Today the part II of this article has been release on virtualizationadmin.com. Read it here:

Using PowerShell to control RDS in Windows Server 2012 (Part 2)

“…Introduction. In a previous article, I discussed how to use PowerShell to set up a basic Remote Desktop Services environment. In that article, amongst other things, we discussed how to do a quick RDS deployment, add a Session Collection and add a RemoteApp. In this article we’ll dive a little bit deeper into PowerShell for RDS to take a look at how we can even further automate the installation, configuration and maintenance of Remote Desktop Services using the new PowerShell commands available with Windows Server 2012.…”

Source: http://www.virtualizationadmin.com/articles-tutorials/vdi-articles/general/using-powershell-control-rds-windows-server-2012-Part2.html

Remote Desktop Services terminate on startup

A new KB article (2728032 ) was released by Microsoft yesterday related to a logged Application Crash event on every server reboot when Remote Desktop Services is installed. The issue seems to occurs if you have configured the Remote Desktop License Servers directly in the Registry. It applies to Windows Server 2008 R2. For more details taken from the KB article below

Symptoms
On a Windows Server 2008 R2, you have Remote Deskop Services (RDS) role installed, and on every server reboot you get the following Application Crash event logged:

Log Name: Application
Source: Application Error
Event ID: 1000
Task Category: (100)
Level: Error
Keywords: Classic
User: N/A
Computer: <ComputerName>
Description:
Faulting application name: svchost.exe_TermService, version: 6.1.7600.16385, time stamp: 0x4a5bc3c1
Faulting module name: mstlsapi.dll, version: 6.1.7601.17514, time stamp: 0x4ce7c829

Cause
This issue occurs if you have configured the Terminal Services License Servers directly in the Registry.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\TermService\Parameters\LicenseServers

Value Type: REG_MULTI_SZ
Value SpecifiedLicenseServers
Note: The above registry value is a Mult Line entry, and if the last line is not an additonal emptyLine, but terminated early, the crash may occur.

Resolution
Add an addional empty Line to the List of SpecifiedLicenseServers, or configure the License Servers with Group Policy

Source: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2728032/en-us?sd=rss&spid=14134