• What's up?
• KB Articles of the Month
• Ask our MVPs!
• Learning Zone
• On the Spot
• Rumors on the SBC Space

1. What's up?

Hi there!

This promises to be an exciting month for our website. As of February, 1st, 2006, I am now the official editor for MSTerminalServices.org and many things will be added/changed here; all to benefit the TS nuts out there like me.

I will be writing monthly articles on everything TS related we see out there and new sections will be added to the website. The main idea is to cover everything that is on the horizon, from events to rumors.

In this particular section I will try to write about what is coming up in terms of technologies, trade shows, add-ons and so on.

Speaking of upcoming events we have Cebit (Germany, first week of March) and the BriForum (Washington, DC, second week of April). For Cebit I do not expect to see any major products/technologies related to SBC announced but it is always a good way to see pretty much all major vendors in one single shot.

For BriForum, now with an extra day, I do expect a great conference with lots of good stuff. But at the same time I was surprised to see that some sessions are really on the very low end (come on, a whole session on how to hide terminal server drives???). But I guess it is simply up to us to go for the good stuff and ignore the rest. I guess Brian is just trying to cover a bigger audience. Let's see how it will turn out.

If you guys have any suggestions/comments please do not hesitate to contact me at CRodrigues@MSTerminalServices.org at anytime.

Cheers!

2. KB Articles of the Month

Here are some interesting and useful Terminal Services related articles posted by Microsoft in the last month:

• Terminal Services event messages 1100 or 1114 in Windows 2000 Server or Windows Server 2003

(268065) - An event ID 1100 message is logged in the Event Viewer on a Microsoft Windows 2000 Server-based computer, or an event ID 1114 message is logged in the Event Viewer on a Microsoft Windows Server 2003-based computer. The event ID messages may be?

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/268065/en-us

• SQL Server 2000 cluster does not install on Windows Server 2003-based computers where Terminal Services is installed

(301520) - You cannot install SQL Server 2000 on a computer that runs Microsoft Windows Server 2003 and that has Terminal Server installed on a server cluster. After you provide all the correct information to SQL Server 2000 Setup (and provide the?

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/301520/en-us

• Terminal Services: You Receive No Warning When Shadowed Session Ends

(281909) - In Microsoft Windows XP Terminal Services, when you shadow another session, you receive no warning if the original session ends regardless of the reason. When this behavior occurs, you automatically return back to the first session that you?

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/281909/en-us

• Cannot Remotely Control a Disconnected Session

(281156) - When you try to remotely control a session through Terminal Services Manager, you may receive the following error message: Terminal Services Manager Can't remote control Session (ID #) because it is disconnected with user's required permission?

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/281156/en-us

• You cannot create a new connection to a Citrix ICA client in Windows Server 2003

(871172) - Explains that only the TCP protocol transport type is available when you try to set up a new connection to a Citrix ICA client in Windows Server 2003.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/871172/en-us

• How to redirect the default printer of a Terminal Services client to a Windows Server 2003 Terminal Server session

(911913) - Provides a hotfix and a registry entry that you can use to redirect only the default printer of a Terminal Services client to a Windows Server 2003 Terminal Server session. This feature may reduce the load on the server when many users are connected.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/911913/en-us

• Services that are turned off by default in Windows Server 2003

(812519) - When you install Microsoft Windows Server 2003, some services may not start automatically. You may expect these services to start automatically because they start automatically in other versions of Windows. This problem occurs because in Windows?

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/812519/en-us

• You may not be able to paste an item in an Office 2003 program after you connect to a Windows Server 2003-based server that is running Terminal Server

(840872) - Fixes a problem where you cannot paste an item in the clipboard to an Office 2003 program when you connect to a Windows Server 2003-based server that is running Terminal Server or Remote Desktop for Administration.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/840872/en-us

• The Mshta.exe process does not close when you exit an HTML application that is published on a Terminal Server that is running Windows Server 2003

(909096) - Describes a problem that occurs when you try to exit a Microsoft HTML application program from a remote desktop session.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/909096/en-us

• The Generic Programs Are Not Viewable from the Terminal Server Client on a Clustered Server

(278849) - You have created a generic application resource type in a group and you have selected the Allow application to interact with the desktop option, which enables the program to run as a foreground program that is viewable. This program, however, may?

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/278849/en-us

3. Ask our MVPs a question

This is simple and straight forward: shoot us your TS/Citrix question and we will get some of the top Terminal Services MVPs together and get you an answer, from everyone?s point of view! The best question of the month will be published here with all the answers from these guys. Just email us at CRodrigues@MSTerminalServices.org.

QUESTION: (As we just started this section this month I chose one of the top questions we see pretty much everyday on the newsgroups): OK, the more I read about terminal services licensing, the more confusing the whole thing becomes. I cannot figure out what I need, how to license my applications, etc!! Am I alone??? Please help me! Anonymous, Arkham Asylum

ANSWER: Dear Anonymous, we hear you. I am now in Ireland and even after a couple of pitchers of Guinness I am not sure if I can answer that. Seriously, Terminal Services Licensing has improved a lot and if you think it is confusing today, you cannot imagine how it was when Windows 2000 was released. Back to your question, the answer is simple.

First of all you must have what we call a Licensing Server. Assuming you are using Windows 2003 (who is not? For crying out loud it is 2006!), the licensing server can be installed on any Windows 2003 Server machine and it does not need to be a terminal server at all. All your terminal servers will then contact this server when needed to see if a machine has a license for using the terminal servers. In some cases you may need to enforce on the TSs which licensing server must be contacted. Simply follow this article: "How to override the license server discovery process in Windows Server 2003 Terminal Services"

Of course at one point you will need to add licenses to the licensing server (it has a grace period of 120 days for Windows 2003 which means you do NOT need the licensing server installed for 120 days). After installing the licensing server you still have 90 days to add licenses, for a total of 210 days of 'free evaluation' mode!

Now that you know you will need a licensing server at some point, which licenses do you need? Well every user or every machine (depends if you choose per user or per device licensing) that will access your TSs will need a Windows Client Access License (Windows CAL) AND a Terminal Services Client Access License (TS CAL). If you have an environment where multiple users share the same machines (which means more users than machines) it makes more sense to use per device license. If you have users accessing the TSs from multiple computers (multiple offices, home, mobile access, etc) it makes more sense to use per user license. If you deployed Windows XP Professional in your company before April, 24th, 2003 (when Windows 2003 was released) you qualify for a free TS CAL for every computer you deployed running Windows XP Professional. Check http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/howtobuy/licensing/tsletter.mspx for more information.

For applications, this really depends on the application itself. Keep in mind that Terminal Services is NOT a licensing saver in ANY WAY. You must make sure you have enough licenses for all applications running on your TSs. We are aware of some companies that even make running their software on terminal services illegal, violating their application EULA. Make sure you read the application EULA before you load it on your TSs (I know, I know, who reads EULAs???).

That is all folks!

4. Learning Zone

We have a great group of articles in the Learning Zone that will help you get a handle on your most difficult configuration issues. Here are just a few of the newer and more interesting articles:

• Citrix Presentation Server 4.0 Printing Changes

Date - Feb 14, 2006; Author - Stefan Vermeulen; Section - Articles :: Printing

With Presentation Server 4.0 Citrix released a version with a major overhaul on functionality. The most drastic one - in my eyes - was the new printing engine. In this article I will talk about it, now that it has been around for quite a while.

• Can Third Party Software Solve your Terminal Server Printing Problems?

Date - Feb 02, 2006; Author - Wilco van Bragt; Section - Articles :: Printing

One of the biggest challenges in Terminal Server environments are printer related topics, where the drivers' challenge is the main part of it. A lot of third party manufacturers have developed products to beat these challenges. Are these third party products useful in the printer challenge?

5. On The Spot

The plan here is simple: every month I will interview someone in the SBC industry; some will be well known to all of you but others will be the ones who actually develop the products/technologies we all use and love.

I will try to let everyone know in advance who will be the chosen one for the month so you can send me some of the questions you would like to see an answer to!

6. Rumors on the SBC Space

As you all know Microsoft is working on their own implementation of a TS gateway with SSL support and their own web portal solution to access 'published' applications.

The bad news? Well I am pretty honest on what I like/dislike and I am sure that I'm in no way violating all the NDAs I have signed out there. Unfortunately Microsoft seems to like the approach 'let's make it complicated' and what I have seen so far is not that exciting. Weird interfaces, weird ways of doing things, etc. It was like reading a German car manual.

I will try getting a peek on what is up there these days and if they have improved all the weird things, I will be the first one writing about it here!