By
using the Terminal Services snap-in within Server Manager, you can
create applications that can be accessed using RemoteApp Manager. You
can add additional policies, configuration, and settings with TS
Gateway Manager. Terminal Services configuration allows greater
configuration of client settings.
Configure the TS RemoteApp Manager
The
purpose of Terminal Services is to allow users to access applications
and resources on a remote machine and operate on these applications and
resources as if they existed locally. To make these applications
accessible, you need to consider a few options. Let’s take a look at
the different methods of delivering applications and some additional
configurations available using the RemoteApp Manager.
Begin
by going to Server Manager and Terminal Services. When you expand
Terminal Services, you see the RemoteApp Manager. Click the RemoteApp
Manager, and you are immediately presented with a lot of information
(see Figure 1).
The
Overview section provides summary information and the ability to
configure or adjust settings for the RemoteApp deployment settings:
Terminal Server Settings: These are the settings used by clients connecting to this terminal server. You can configure the following:
Connection settings:
Enter or change the server name. If the terminal server were part of a
farm, you would enter the DNS name of the farm in this box. You can
also set the RDP listening port (3389 by default) and choose to require
server authentication (in which case you need to provide the FQDN of
the server).
Remote desktop access: Check this box to show a Remote Desktop connection to this terminal server within TS Web Access.
Access to unlisted programs: Choose
Do Not Allow Users to Start Unlisted Programs on Initial Connection
(recommended) or Allow Users to Start Listed and Unlisted Programs on
Initial Connection.
TS Gateway Settings:
Use this tab to configure clients to connect through a specific TS
Gateway server when they use RemoteApp programs on this server. You can
choose to do the following:
Automatically detect TS Gateway server settings.
You
can choose the TS Gateway server name, logon method (ask a user to
select at connection, ask for password [NTLM], or smart card). You can
also choose whether a user will use the same credentials for TS Gateway
and terminal server and/or bypass TS Gateway for local addresses.
Not use TS Gateway server.
Digital Signature Settings: You can sign .rdp
files used for RemoteApps with a digital certificate. This allows
clients to trust the remote resources coming from your internal network.
RDP Settings:
These are common settings clients use when connecting to this terminal
server. This section is broken down into two subsections—Devices and
Resources and User Experience.
Devices
and Resources lets you select the devices and resources on the remote
computer that the user can access in a remote session. They include the
following:
User
Experience allows you to configure the display settings for the remote
session. You can choose from 256 colors up to 32-bit color. In
addition, you can allow font smoothing for a better display of text in
remote sessions.
Methods of Distributing RemoteApp Programs
Within
the Overview section of TS RemoteApp Manager, in the right pane are
options for distributing RemoteApp programs to clients:
Distribution with TS Web Access:
When this is selected, users click on a link using TS Web Access to
access the program. TS Remote App Manager automatically detects whether
the TS Web Access group is populated within Active Directory. TS Remote
App Manager also detects whether a Remote Desktop connection is visible
in TS Web Access for this server.
Other Distribution Options: In this section, you select the RemoteApp and click one of the following delivery options:
Create .rdp File: Using this option, you can create an .rdp
file to distribute to users. This file can then be distributed using
software distribution software such as System Center Configuration
Manager or through a file share. Users double-click the .rdp file to launch the RemoteApp program.
Create a Windows Installer Package: Using this option, you can create an .msi
package. This can be delivered using software distribution software
such as System Center Configuration Manager, via a file share, or
through Group Policy. Users double-click a program icon on their
desktop or in their Start menu to launch the RemoteApp program.
Note
These
methods of distributing RemoteApp programs are available only to
clients that are running the Remote Desktop Connection client version
6.0 or later.
Installed
RemoteApp programs are listed below the Overview section. This list
shows the name and path of the remote application, the status of TS Web
Access, and the status of command-line arguments.
The
last section in the RemoteApp snap-in is the Actions pane. We have
already looked at configuring Terminal Server Settings, TS Gateway
Settings, and Digital Signatures Settings. Using the Actions pane is
another way to access these settings. We will look at how to add
RemoteApp programs and how to import and export their settings when we
consider managing Terminal Services, later in this chapter.
