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Under User Configuration in the Group Policy Object Editor, you can set several Group Policy settings
that are particularly useful for Terminal Server. Use these settings to control the user experience
and prevent access to areas of the terminal server. For more information about each of the settings
listed here, see the Group Policy Explain text associated with each setting. For a job aid to assist
you in recording your Terminal Server Group Policy configuration decisions, see "Group Policy
Configuration Worksheet" (SDCTS_2.xls) on the Windows Server 2003 Deployment Kit companion
CD (or see "Group Policy Configuration Worksheet
http://www.microsoft.com/reskit).
See the following resources for more specific information about using Group Policy:
For general information about Group Policy, see the Management Services link on the Web Resources page
at
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/reskits/webresources.
For more information about designing a Group Policy infrastructure, see "Designing a Group Policy Infrastructure
" in
at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/reskits/webresources.
Because these settings apply to the user, and not the computer, they affect the user environment regardless of which
computer the user accesses. When applying settings that you want to apply only when users have a session on the terminal
server (as opposed to their own desktop computer), use computer settings that apply to the terminal server. For more
information, see "Designing Terminal Server Installation and Configuration
A graphic-intensive display can affect performance for users of Terminal Server. To ensure the best
possible performance, you can control what users can put on their desktops by configuring the
Group Policy settings located under User Configuration/Administrative Templates/Control
Panel/Display.
You can use several Group Policy settings to affect the users screen saver. You can
disable screen savers altogether by disabling the Screen Saver policy. You can also specify the
screen saver by enabling this policy and also by enabling and specifying the screen saver executable
name in the Screen Saver executable name policy. For more information about these Group
Policy settings, see the Explain tab located on the property sheet for each policy.
Wallpaper
By enabling the Prevent changing wallpaper setting you can disable all the options
in the Desktop tab of Display in Control Panel. This includes changing the wallpaper and changing
the appearance of the desktop icons. By not allowing these changes, you can ensure that users do
not choose desktop display items that might affect the performance of the server.
If you are hosting the full desktop with Terminal Server, by default the desktop environment
resembles a Windows Classic desktop. By default Windows Server 2003 does not have themes
enabled. You can enable themes by starting the Themes service and configuring it to start
automatically. For more information about starting the Themes service, see "Configure how a
service is started
After you have configured the Themes service to start automatically, you can enforce a specific
desktop theme or the Windows XP theme for your Terminal Server users by using the following
procedure. For more information about choosing to use desktop themes with Terminal Server, see
"Hosting Full Desktops with Terminal Server
2.
3.
Panel/Display/Desktop Themes.
Open the Load a specific visual style file or force Windows Classic setting.
Take one of the following actions, depending on what you are trying to achieve:
To force Windows Classic, enable this setting.
To load the Windows XP theme, enable the setting and type %windir%\resources\Themes\Luna\Luna.msstyles
in the Path to Visual Style dialog box. For information about using the Windows XP theme with Terminal Server,
see "Choosing Applications to Host
" earlier in this chapter.
To load another theme or a custom theme, type the path to that theme in the dialog box.
You can use Group Policy settings to remove and to restrict access to items from the Start menu for
Terminal Server users. The following settings are located in User Configuration/Administrative
Templates/Start Menu and Taskbar:
Enabling the Remove Run menu from Start Menu setting removes this menu from the Start menu. It also removes the
New Task command from Task Manager and blocks the user from accessing Universal Naming Convention (UNC) paths,
local drives, and local folders from the Internet Explorer address bar. While these are not the only methods for running
applications, enabling this setting makes it difficult for users to access resources on the server or network.
Enabling the Remove Logoff on the Start Menu setting prevents users from logging off the server from the Start menu.
Enabling this setting does not prevent users from logging off using CTRL+ALT+DEL.
Enabling the Remove and Prevent access to the Shut Down command prevents administrators from accidently shutting
down the terminal server.
Enabling the Remove links and access to Windows Update setting prevents users from attempting to download updates
to Windows on to the server.
Enabling the Remove Favorites menu from Start Menu setting reduces confusion for users who do not have access to the
Internet.