New Article: Remote Apps and the Metro RDP client

My new article titled “Remote Apps and the Metro RDP client" on virtualizationadmin.com just got published. The article is about the integration of RemoteApps running on Windows Server 2012 (8 Beta) launched from a Windows 8 client.

“…Introduction

Remote applications that run seamlessly on a client desktop have been around for some time now. With Windows Server 8 Beta, Microsoft has put in a good effort to make the RemoteApps on the Windows 8 desktop interact and integrate better than before. In this article, we will look at the integration of RemoteApps running on Windows Server 8 Beta launched from a Windows 8 client...”

Read the complete article here:
http://www.virtualizationadmin.com/articles-tutorials/vdi-articles/general/remote-apps-and-the-metro-rdp-client.html

Presentation / demo on Session Virtualization in Windows Server 2012

Three weeks ago I did a presentation / demo on Session Virtualization in Windows Server 2012 (Windows Server 8 Beta) at the TechReady event hosted by Wortell.

There was a good turn up and the evaluation forms contained a positive feedback. Most of the session was around demos of RDS and Session Virtualization, but in case you’re interested in the slide deck (partly Dutch) send me an e-mail or tweet.

Here’s an impression of the event with photos and videos.

The 4th edition of Wortell TechReady will be held the 1st of November 2012.

New GPO’s for Windows Server 2012 related to RDS

Windows Server 2012 comes with some new Group Policy Objects (GPOs) related to Remote Desktop Services. I did an earlier blog post a new specific GPO for the Windows 8 client regarding Remote App Connections  (http://microsoftplatform.blogspot.com/2012/04/setting-default-remoteapp-connection.html) but here is a summary of the new GPO’s for the serve side:

The following policies are new for the Remote Desktop Session Host role service and apply to Remote Desktop Session Host connections:

Group Policy	Description
Connections - Turn Off Network Detection On Server	This policy setting specifies whether the Remote Desktop Protocol will try to detect the network quality (bandwidth and latency). If you enable this policy setting, you must select one of the following: Connect Time Network Detect, Continous Network Detect, or Connect Time Detect and Continous Network Detect. If you select Connect Time Network Detect, Remote Desktop Protocol will not try to determine the network quality at the connect time, and it will assume all traffic to this server originates from a low speed connection. If you select Continous Network Detect, Remote Desktop Protocol will not try to adopt to changing network quality. If you select Connect Time Detect and Continous Network Detect, Remote Desktop Protocol will not try to determine the network quality at the connect time, it will assume all traffic to this server originates from a low speed connection; and it will not try to adopt to changing network quality. If you disable or do not configure this policy setting, Remote Desktop Protocol will spend up to a few seconds trying to determine the network quality prior to the connection; and it will continuously try to adopt to the network quality.
Connections - Turn Off UDP On Server	This policy setting specifies whether the UDP protocol will be used for Remote Desktop Protocol access to this server. If you enable this policy setting, Remote Desktop Protocol traffic to this server will only use the TCP protocol. If you disable or do not configure this policy setting, Remote Desktop Protocol traffic to this server will use both the TCP and UDP protocols.
Remote Session Environment - Configure RemoteFX lossless graphics	This policy setting allows the administrator to configure RemoteFX graphics for Remote Desktop Session Host or Remote Desktop Virtualization Host servers to be lossless. If you enable this policy setting, RemoteFX graphics will use lossless encoding. The color integrity of the graphics data will not be impacted. If you disable or do not configure this policy setting, RemoteFX graphics lossless encoding will not be on.
Remote Session Environment - Configure RemoteFX Adaptive Graphics	This policy setting allows the administrator to configure the RemoteFX experience for Remote Desktop Session Host or Remote Desktop Virtualization Host servers. By default, the system will choose the best experience based on available nework bandwidth. If you enable this policy setting, the RemoteFX experience could be set to one of the following options: 1. Let the system choose the experience for the network condition 2. Optimize for experience (balanced) 3. Optimize to use minimum network bandwidth If you disable or do not configure this policy setting, the RemoteFX experience will change dynamically based on the network condition.
Remote Session Environment - Use the hardware default graphics adapter for all Remote Desktop Services sessions	This policy setting enables system administrators to change the graphics rendering for all Remote Desktop Services sessions on a Remote Desktop Session Host (RD Session Host) server. If you enable this policy setting, all Remote Desktop Services sessions on the RD Session Host server use the hardware graphics renderer instead of the Microsoft Basic Render Driver as the default adapter. If you disable or do not configure this policy setting, all Remote Desktop Services sessions on the RD Session Host server use the Microsoft Basic Render Driver as the default adapter. NOTE: The policy setting affects only the default graphics processing unit (GPU) on a computer with more than one GPU installed. All additional GPUs are considered secondary adapters and used as hardware renderers. The GPU configuration of the local session is not affected by this policy setting.

Source: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/rds/archive/2012/03/28/get-started-with-remote-desktop-services-in-windows-server-8-beta.aspx

Added new RDS related TechNet wiki articles

I have converted several of my blog posts related to Windows Server 2012 (previously Windows Server 8 Beta) into Wiki’s and added them to Microsoft's TechNet Wiki. Feel free of course to edit them where needed or add new content!

A quick overview of the new Wiki’s so far

Landing pages:

• Scenario Based Deployment of RDS in Windows Server 2012
• Installing and configuring RD Connection Broker High Availability in Windows Server 2012
• Deploying and configuring RD WebAccess in Windows Server 2012
• Deploying and configuring RD Gateway in Windows Server 2012

Wiki subpages:

• Deploying the RDS Quick Start deployment type in Windows Server 2012 (for Session Virtualization)
• Deploying RD Connection Broker High Availability in Windows Server 2012
• RD Connection Broker HA and the RDP properties on the client
• RD Connection Broker HA – SQL Permissions
• Enabling the RD WebAccess Expired password reset option in Windows Server 2012
• Adding folders in RD WebAccess in Windows Server 2012
• Publishing RemoteApps in Windows Server 2012
• Changing the default port of RD Gateway in Windows Server 2012
• Configuring UDP support on the RD Gateway in Windows Server 2012

You can also easily access the main Portal Page and go straight to the RDS section by browsing to http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/275.aspx#R

Poor performance occurs when you shadow a Remote Desktop session in Windows Server 2008 R2 or in Windows 7

Today a new KB article and hotfix have been released for RDS on Windows Server 2008 R2 related to performance issues when shadowing a session. I actually experienced this myself recently. Good to see there's a fix!

UPDATE: After have been taken offline the 10th of may, the KB has been republished on the 25th of may.

Article ID: 2685909 - Last Review: May 9, 2012 - Revision: 1.0
Poor performance occurs when you shadow a Remote Desktop session in Windows Server 2008 R2 or in Windows 7
"...Consider the following scenario:

• You start a Remote Desktop session to a computer that is running Windows Server 2008 R2 and that has the Remote Desktop Services role installed.
• You remotely control (or "shadow") a different Remote Desktop session by using the Remote Desktop Services Manager Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-in.

In this scenario, the CPU usage for the Remote Desktop Services Manager MMC snap-in increases to 100 percent.

Note This issue can also occur on a computer that is running Windows 7 and that has the Remote Server Administration Tools feature installed. When the issue occurs, the CPU usage for the Server Manager MMC snap-in increases to 100 percent.

This issue occurs because there are messages in the message queue to be processed by the UI thread when the Remotecontrol option is clicked. However, the message queue is shared across threads, and other threads cannot process the messages..."

Source and download: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2685909/en-us?sd=rss&spid=14134

You are disconnected from a RemoteApp application when you minimize the main frame window of a RemoteApp application that is published in Windows Server 2008 R2

Today a new KB article and hotfix have been released for RDS on Windows Server 2008 R2. In a specific scenario a RemoteApp session could be disconnected on a computer that supports the Remote Applications Integrated Locally (RAIL) feature.

Article ID: 2696020 - Last Review: May 9, 2012 - Revision: 1.0
You are disconnected from a RemoteApp application when you minimize the main frame window of a RemoteApp application that is published in Windows Server 2008 R2
"...Consider the following scenario:

• You install the Remote Desktop Session Host role service on a computer that is running Windows Server 2008 R2.
• You publish a RemoteApp application on the computer that supports the Remote Applications Integrated Locally (RAIL) feature.
• You connect to the RemoteApp application from a client computer.
• You minimize the main frame window of the RemoteApp application.
• There are no other visible top-level windows.

In this scenario, you are disconnected from the RemoteApp application..."

Source and download: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2696020/en-us?sd=rss&spid=14134

RemoteApp session is disconnected when the RDP encryption level is set to Low and RDP compression is disabled in Windows Server 2008 R2

Today a new KB article and hotfix have been released for RDS on Windows Server 2008 R2. In a specific scenario a RemoteApp session could disconnected and additionally, the following error message is raised: "Because of a protocol error this session will be disconnected. Please try connecting to the remote computer again"

Article ID: 2699817 - Last Review: May 9, 2012 - Revision: 1.0
RemoteApp session is disconnected when the RDP encryption level is set to Low and RDP compression is disabled in Windows Server 2008 R2

"...Consider the following scenario:

• You install the Remote Desktop Session Host role service on a computer that is running Windows Server 2008 R2.
• You configure the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) encryption level to Low, and then you disable RDP compression.
• You publish a RemoteApp program on the computer.
• You connect to the RemoteApp program from a client computer.

In this scenario, the RemoteApp session is disconnected intermittently. Additionally, you receive the following error message:

Because of a protocol error this session will be disconnected. Please try connecting to the remote computer again.

 

This issue occurs because an incomplete window instruction is sent to the client computer..."

 

Source and download: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2699817/en-us?sd=rss&spid=14134

Windows Server 2012 Remote Desktop Services, by Klaas Langhout, a Director of Program Management in the RDS team

Yesterday a blog post by Klaas Langhout, a Director of Program Management in the Microsoft RDS team was published on blogs.technet.com. A blog post on behalf of the entire Remote Desktop Virtualization Team. A good read!

“…For Windows Server 2012 we listened to our customers and partners and added the most desired features and resolved the top pain points in Remote Desktop Services (RDS). Following a description of RDS, I’ll summarize some of the many dramatic improvements we have made.
For those people that are not familiar with RDS, it is the workload within Windows Server that enables users to connect to virtual desktops, session-based desktops and RemoteApp programs. The key value that RDS provides is the ability to centralize and control the applications and data that employees need to perform their job from the variety of devices that the employee uses. This provides “work anywhere from any device” while ensuring that your control and compliance needs are met.
In the previous release, we received consistent feedback that:

1. RemoteFX was very popular however its underlying protocol (RDP) did not provide a great experience over Wide Area Networks (WANs)
2. Session and virtual machine infrastructures were complicated and costly and
3. The administration experience was not simple.

Windows Server 2012 addresses each of these issues….”

Read the complete blog post here: http://blogs.technet.com/b/windowsserver/archive/2012/05/09/windows-server-2012-remote-desktop-services-rds.aspx

Quest released vWorkspace ThinShell version 2.5

Last week Quest has released vWorkspace ThinShell version 2.5 last week!

“…Shell replacement allows organizations to transform their existing PCs into thin-behaving clients or to simplify a thin client deployment. ThinShell accomplishes this by replacing the windows shell with its own much slimmer shell interface. Users power on their access device, are prompted for a user name and password and are then presented with their virtual workspace…”

Some of the new features in this release:

“…New User Interface- We have added a sleek, new interface to ThinShell making it easier to use and more configurable. In addition to the new look, the new interface allows administrators to control which options the end users can see and use.

Support for Windows 7 and WES -ThinShell has added support for Windows 7 and Windows Embedded Standard 7.

Password Manager support- ThinShell users can now change their domain password using the ThinShell interface.

Command Line Configuration- The location of the ThinShell Settings XML file can now be set at runtime using command line switches.

Legal Notice- ThinShell now can prompt the end user with a notification before a connection is made to the virtual workspace…”

Community announcement: http://communities.quest.com/community/vworkspace/blog/2012/04/24/product-release-quest-vworkspace-thinshell-25

Download:
https://support.quest.com/Search/SoftwareDownloads.aspx?ProductID=268445634&ProductName=vWorkspace