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

1. What's up?

Hello there!

I assume nobody missed the Vista and Office 2007 launch on the 29th of December. With Vista there are loads of new features to use, and I've included a Vista special this month, focusing on the TS/remote desktop functionality you gain with it. I am running it on my laptop as a test for now, and other than my poor video performance (I have an el-cheapo video card in it), it runs like a charm.

My biggest disappointment though: no official support for multiple sessions (ie; 2) in Vista. There was a rumor this was going to be enabled in the beginning of the beta period but has been dropped in the final product. Of course, as in Windows XP, people have found a way of doing it, but I would have appreciated that in the final version it would have been possible. Ah well, better luck next time.

That's all for now!

Catch you later!

2. KB Articles of the Month

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

• Every other time that you open a document in Word 2002 or Word 2003 that is running on a terminal server, the document opens in recovery mode, or you receive an error message

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/885380/en-us

• A Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1-based terminal server cannot accept new incoming Terminal Service connections

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922044/en-us

• Error message when you use RDP to connect to a Windows Server 2003-based computer that is running Terminal Server and Citrix MetaFrame Presentation Server 3.0: "The desktop you are trying to open is currently available only to administrators"

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/931353/en-us

• User cannot create a Terminal Server roaming profile path if a user with the same name has logged on from another domain

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/821929/en-us

• You cannot log on to a domain controller from a Windows 2000 Terminal server in a WINS environment

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/840689/en-us

• Some Windows Server 2003-based terminal servers cannot acquire a license when there is more than one License Server security group

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/918658/en-us

• Hot fix of the Month
  
  You cannot connect a terminal server client to a Windows Server 2003-based terminal server

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922499/en-us

3. Ask our MVPs a question

QUESTION: Hello Stefan,

My Company wants to swap computers for Thin Clients as soon as possible. Which do I get as there are so many out there?

Regards, Theo Thin

ANSWER: Dear Theo,

It all starts with an investigation of the applications you're currently running and are planning on running in the future. Be aware of what hardware has been hooked onto those machines over the years, and whether they can do without this equipment if it fails. (Keep in mind that it's usually vendors forcing you into using specific hardware for specific tasks).

Your next step is to get a few people to take a test-drive. Have them run it for a few days and then even swap a real user's pc for it and see what the feedback is. That will let you know if applications perform as expected, as in video card, mouse movements, keyboard strokes etc.

Once your testing period is over, transfer your LAN from client PCs to TCs in small blocks. That way you swap the hardware back fast in case of an emergency, and if hardware problems turn up with the TCs it will not be on your entire network.

As to what type to get, that is an impossible task to give a clear answer to. Read the functionality at the vendor's website and keep a clear view on the fact that a TC can be as expensive to purchase as a true computer, and some are even more expensive. Try out the types you want, and give them a fair test time. When swapping a large environment, give plenty of time to evaluate the management software that comes with the devices.

Good luck with the swap!

Cheers

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:

• Presentation Server 4.5 Preview

Date - Jan 31, 2007; Author - Rich Brumpton; section Articles and Tutorials: General

In this article Rich gives us an insight of the last week released version 4.5 of the Citrix presentation server. An in depth overview of what's new.

• Managing Printer Drivers

Date Feb 07, 2007; Author Wilco van Bragt; section Articles and Tutorials: Printing.

In this article Wilco explains how to beat the printer driver nightmare, and provides you with a scripted way to automate your driver replication to make sure the system remains as clean as possible, without bad printer drivers slipping in.

5. The Vista Special

January 29th 2007 Vista was released to the public. This successor to Windows XP has not been the boom as was expected, but over time I think it will be pretty standard on our PCs.

With the built-in features regarding remote desktop getting a serious makeover, it's a very attractive OS for Terminal Server administrators. For those of you with multiple monitors on your desk, worry no more. The new RDP 6.0 client from Vista (also available as a separate download) can handle a resolution of up to 4096 x 2048 pixels over multiple screens. To start it, just type Mstsc /span. Only bummer here is that the resolution of both monitors MUST match, otherwise it will not work.

A few weeks after the RDP 6.0 client release, the international versions were released. Pick out your favorite client brand from the RDP client international download site.

In order to handle all questions about the new RDP client, Microsoft has created an FAQ website where all features are explained. It goes very deep into all the connection issues you can have and gives an in-depth explanation as to what can go wrong. If you don't need it right now, make sure to bookmark it for later occasions.

In case you missed the original release of the client, that link is here. On that same website you will also find the new features and a short overview.

What they don't mention is that you can now use Aero and Clear Type over your RDP connection. Because these features are not a client side feature only, for now you can just use those against another Vista client or the Longhorn beta product. I would also advise you to try these feature on the LAN only, as I assume they will consume quite some bandwidth.

If you're into all the details on Vista, make sure to visit the Vista tech centre. That website should be your No. 1 step into making sure you (and your computer) are ready for Vista. Make sure to check out the application and hardware compatibility before popping in that final CD. You would not be the first person to downgrade to XP after a 1 hour test-drive with Vista.

One of the things you will notice when installing Vista is that you are asked to activate the product in 30 days or it will start running in a crippled mode as from day 31. You can however stretch the non activation time limit up to 120 days and it's fully legal. You can run a VBS script every 30 days (slmgr.vbs -rearm), or for simplicity, just set the following key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\SL\UserOperations (REG_DWORD) to 1.

Want to read the full story on this. Check out this page.

So much for this month's Vista special. Once Longhorn is released, I am sure I will come back to this topic to see what more goodies are on the horizon when it comes to Terminal Server.

6. Rumors on the SBC Space

It looks as if the company takeovers are starting again. Last year it was Microsoft with Softricity, and now Citrix has taken over Aurema. Aurema's CPU tuning technology was already licensed by Citrix and present in their Presentation Server 4.0 and in 4.5. It's going to be interesting in that landscape as Citrix has a partnership with RTO for memory optimization (Aurema also does memory optimization). RTO also does CPU management. Which one will survive in 2007?

The former Softricity has blended into Microsoft and has even started blogging. With the pricing model being conformed to MS format (ie; dropped by 80%) it could be interesting to see if this type of application delivery matches your organization's requirements for applications. I am even sure that in the Longhorn successor this type of application delivery will be standard. You better get there early.

Microsoft recently published the white paper "Application Virtualization: The Next Frontier", detailing their Softricity acquisition product - discussing how Microsoft SoftGrid Application Virtualization technology can help organizations curb IT costs, boost user productivity, improve service levels, and increase business agility. Check out this whitepaper here.

2 more tips to close this months newsletter:
- The top 10 tips for taking care of your Terminal Server
- Resources for diagnosing TS Licensing Problems