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More Terminal Services 2008 Resources

Tuesday, 19 February 2008 by Michel Roth

The Enterprise Platforms Windows Server Performance Team has continued on their Windows Server 2008 blogging rampage. This time around they released another three articles on Terminal Services 2008 that are worth reading.

TS Easy Print

what is Terminal Services Easy Print? Basically, this feature enables users to print from a Terminal Services session to the local or network printers that are configured on the client computer without the need to install drivers on the Terminal Server. The Easy Print feature uses the drivers installed locally on the client system which results in a more consistent printing experience between local and remote sessions. When a user prints from their Terminal Server session to a local printer, they will see the full printer properties dialog box from the local client and they will have access to all printer functionality. The Easy Print universal driver acts as a proxy and redirects all UI calls to the driver on the client. Administrators can also use Group Policy to limit the number of printers redirected to just the default printer which reduces the overhead and the number of printers that must be managed. To use the Terminal Services Easy Print feature on Windows 2008 Terminal Servers, the clients must be running the Remote Desktop Connection (RDC) 6.1 client and have the .NET Framework 3.0 Service Pack 1 installed. Both of these components are included with Windows Server 2008, and will be available for download for Windows Vista and down-level client operating systems.

Remote Desktop Connection (RDC) Client

You'll need the 6.1 RDP Client for all new features. There will also be a new RDP Client for the Mac but this client will support almost none of the new features of Windows Server 2008 Terminal Services. Additionally, remember that the new RDP Client (as of version 6.0) does not allow you to save passwords to RDP files.

Network Level Authentication and Encryption

Terminal Server security may be enhanced by providing user authentication earlier in the connection process when a client connects to a Terminal Server. This early user authentication method is referred to as Network Level Authentication. This is a new authentication method that completes user authentication before you establish a Remote Desktop connection and the logon screen appears. This is a more secure authentication method that can help protect the remote computer from malicious users and malicious software.