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Aero Glass Remoting in Windows Server 2008 R2
Published Sep 07 2018 06:53 PM 5,181 Views
First published on CloudBlogs on Jun, 23 2009

Introduction

Aero Glass remoting provides a user experience in a remote session that is comparable to a local session. This feature is now available for Windows Server 2008 R2 Remote Desktop Session Host (RDSH) as well as Windows 7 as a virtual machine (VM) hosted on a Hyper-V machine, in addition to the Windows 7 client.

Below are some screenshots of a remote session from Server 2008 R2 RC build:

Flip-3D animation:

Alt-Tab:

Taskbar live preview:

Requirements and Benefits

The following are required to enable Aero Glass in a Remote Desktop session:

On the Remote Desktop client:

Windows Aero-capable hardware and driver is required, and the following settings should be selected in the Remote Desktop client:

1) The color depth of the remote session must be set to 32-bit

2) “Desktop composition” must be enabled on the Experience tab

Please note that if Windows Server 2008 R2 is your Remote Desktop client, the default graphics driver installed is not Aero-capable. You will need to update your driver software to enable Aero Glass remoting.

On the remote computer:

If the remote computer is a Windows 7 client machine, the ability to support Aero Glass remoting is enabled by default.

If the remote computer is a Windows Server 2008 R2 machine, the Desktop Session Host (RDSH) role is required. In addition, the Desktop Experience feature, Themes service, 32 bits per pixel (32bpp), and Group Policy are required. The steps to enable Aero Glass remoting on a Windows Server 2008 R2 computer are provided later in this blog.

The operating system on the remote computer and the remote desktop client are required to be Windows 7 client or Windows Server 2008 R2. A support matrix is provided in the “Troubleshooting” section.

Aero Glass remoting support includes the following:

1) Full Aero theme, 3D animation and desktop composition support in remote sessions. This provides a “like-local” user experience.

2) The remote computer is not required to have Aero-capable hardware, so connecting to a virtual machine or “headless” server machine still provides Aero support, assuming the client machine has an Aero Glass-capable graphics card installed.

3) Aero Glass remoting is bandwidth-efficient and works across WAN.

Transitions between Aero Glass on and off, local and remote sessions are transparent to applications.

Server Manager UI to enable Aero Glass remoting on server

The easiest way to enable Aero Glass remoting on Windows 2008 R2 server is to use the “desktop composition” checkbox on the Server Manager UI when installing the Remote Desktop role. Now your server is ready to remote Aero Glass. You may still need to configure the client properly.

Manual steps to enable Aero Glass remoting on Windows Server 2008 R2

Enabling Aero in the remote session on Windows Server 2008 R2 requires the “Remote Desktop Session Host” role. The feature is not available on servers without the RDSH role installed and with /admin sessions even when the RDSH role is installed.

The following steps set up the server to support Aero Glass remoting:

1) Add the Desktop Experience feature from the Server Manager.

2) Set the Themes service to autostart, and start the Themes service.

3) Enable the “Allow desktop composition for remote desktop sessions” policy from gpedit.

The policy path is “ComputerConfigurationAdministrativeTemplatesWindowsComponentsRemote Desktop ServicesRemote Desktop Session HostRemote Session Environment”

4) Enable 32bpp:

In Server Manager, go to “RD Session Host Configuration” under “Remote Desktop Services” role, right-click on the connection to bring up “RDP-Tcp Properties”:

Uncheck “Limit Maximum Color Depth” from “Remote Desktop Session Host Configuration.”

Troubleshooting

Below are some of the most common scenarios when troubleshooting why Aero Glass is not turned on in a remote session.

1) Windows 7 Aero theme not enabled

On Windows 2008 R2 server, after Aero Glass remoting is enabled, any new user connecting remotely with the proper client settings will automatically get Aero Glass in the remote session.

Existing users on the server will need to manually change the theme in the remote session once by selecting the Windows 7 Aero theme in desktop personalization. Subsequent connections will automatically get the Aero theme in the remote session.

Additional themes can be installed at http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/Windows7/Personalize?T1=tab01

2) Aero Glass remoting is not supported between Vista and Window 7/WS 2008 R2. The table below shows the server/client combinations where Aero remoting can be enabled:

Windows Vista(remote server)

Windows Server 2008 (remote server)

Windows 7 /

Windows Server 2008 R2

(remote server)

Windows Vista / Windows Server 2008

(remote client)

Yes

No

No

Windows Vista

+

RDP7 client

(remote client)

Yes

No

No

Windows 7 /

Windows Server 2008 R2

(remote client)

No

No

Yes

3) Aero Glass remoting is currently not supported with the new multimon feature in RDP 7.

4) RemoteApp sessions do not have desktop composition and therefore cannot get the Aero Glass theme.

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Last update:
‎Sep 07 2018 06:53 PM