Remote Desktop graphics settings
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Configure and deploy a remote desktop (RDP) application.
I'm RDP'ing into a Win2K3 machine from a WinXP machine, and I cannot stand the low screen resolution I get on the Win2K3 box. Text is too large and the graphics/colors aren't very smooth. How do I improve this? If I right-click on the desktop of the remote machine and go to Properties -> Settings, I see that the screen resolution is set to 1280x1024 (should be okay, I would think), and the color quality is Medium (16 bit) (not optimal) and I don't have the option to change either setting (because they're set in the .rdp file for the session, right?). If I move over to the Appearance tab, I see that font size is set to Normal, with no option to make it smaller. The thing is, these settings are close to what I have on the XP machine I'm RDP'ing in from. The only difference (in those settings) is the color quality, which is 32 bit. Any ideas on how I can improve the situation? Other tidbits:
Modified on: Mon, 7 Dec, 2020 at 2:25 AM For GPU-intensive applications, such as AutoCAD, users may be able to get better performance by launching the app using the Windows Native player instead of the HTML5 player. Please see this article on how to access apps using the Native player: https://kb.cameyo.com/connecting-devices. The below article is outdated, and is being stored for historical purposes. The Windows Native player automatically contains all of these optimizations (and more), so is now the preferred method for running GPU-intensive applications until the HTML5 player is updated with these optimizations. 1.Open 'Group Policy MMC Snap in', using Start->Run->gpedit.msc 2. Navigate to 'Computer Configuration->Administrative Templates->Windows Components->Remote Desktop Services->Remote Desktop Session Host->Remote Session Environment' (see the below figure) Now enable the settings, rectangle in red in the below figure. Configure the settings as below. Limit maximum color depth = 15bitEnforce Removal of Remote Desktop wallpaper = trueOptimize Visual Experience when using RemoteFx = (Screen Capture Rate: Lowest + Image Quality: Lowest)Set Compression Algorithm for RDP data = optimized to use less network bandwidthOptimize Visual Experience for Remote Desktop Service Sessions = (Visual Experience = Text) Configure Image Quality For RemoteFx Adaptive Graphics = Medium The above settings known to dramatically improve the RDP performance as it reduces the use of network bandwidth and both server/client load on processing the RDP data. General Settings System Performance Setting For overall system performance make the following changes in both client and server machine 1.Open system Properties (right click ‘My Computer’ Properties) 2. Navigate "Advanced system settings"->"Advanced Tab"->"Settings Button"->"Visual Effect Tab". 3. Select the radio button name 'Adjust for best performance'. Again if you're a fan of 'Anti-Aliased Font' (Clear Type Text), you can choose 'Custom' radio button with only 'smooth edges of screen fonts', checked. Did you find it helpful? Yes No Send feedback
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This topic discusses how to select Remote Desktop Session Host (RD Session Host) hardware, tune the host, and tune applications. In this topic: Selecting the proper hardware for performanceFor an RD Session Host server deployment, the choice of hardware is governed by the application set and how users use them. The key factors that affect the number of users and their experience are CPU, memory, disk, and graphics. This section contains additional guidelines that are specific to RD Session Host servers and is mostly related to the multi-user environment of RD Session Host servers. CPU configurationCPU configuration is conceptually determined by multiplying the required CPU to support a session by the number of sessions that the system is expected to support, while maintaining a buffer zone to handle temporary spikes. Multiple logical processors can help reduce abnormal CPU congestion situations, which are usually caused by a few overactive threads that are contained by a similar number of logical processors. Therefore, the more logical processors on a system, the lower the cushion margin that must be built in to the CPU usage estimate, which results in a larger percentage of active load per CPU. One important factor to remember is that doubling the number of CPUs does not double CPU capacity. Memory configurationMemory configuration is dependent on the applications that users employ; however, the required amount of memory can be estimated by using the following formula: TotalMem = OSMem + SessionMem * NS OSMem is how much memory the operating system requires to run (such as system binary images, data structures, and so on), SessionMem is how much memory processes running in one session require, and NS is the target number of active sessions. The amount of required memory for a session is mostly determined by the private memory reference set for applications and system processes that are running inside the session. Shared code or data pages have little effect because only one copy is present on the system. One interesting observation (assuming the disk system that is backing up the page file does not change) is that the larger the number of concurrent active sessions the system plans to support, the bigger the per-session memory allocation must be. If the amount of memory that is allocated per session is not increased, the number of page faults that active sessions generate increases with the number of sessions. These faults eventually overwhelm the I/O subsystem. By increasing the amount of memory that is allocated per session, the probability of incurring page faults decreases, which helps reduce the overall rate of page faults. Disk configurationStorage is one of the most overlooked aspects when you configure RD Session Host servers, and it can be the most common limitation in systems that are deployed in the field. The disk activity that is generated on a typical RD Session Host server affects the following areas:
Ideally, these areas should be backed up by distinct storage devices. Using striped RAID configurations or other types of high-performance storage further improves performance. We highly recommend that you use storage adapters with battery-backed write caching. Controllers with disk write caching offer improved support for synchronous write operations. Because all users have a separate hive, synchronous write operations are significantly more common on an RD Session Host server. Registry hives are periodically saved to disk by using synchronous write operations. To enable these optimizations, from the Disk Management console, open the Properties dialog box for the destination disk and, on the Policies tab, select the Enable write caching on the disk and Turn off Windows write-cache buffer flushing on the device check boxes. Network configurationNetwork usage for an RD Session Host server includes two main categories:
Tuning applications for Remote Desktop Session HostMost of the CPU usage on an RD Session Host server is driven by apps. Desktop apps are usually optimized toward responsiveness with the goal of minimizing how long it takes an application to respond to a user request. However in a server environment, it is equally important to minimize the total amount of CPU usage that is needed to complete an action to avoid adversely affecting other sessions. Consider the following suggestions when you configure apps that are to be used on an RD Session Host server:
For memory consumption, you should consider the following:
Remote Desktop Session Host tuning parametersPage fileInsufficient page file size can cause memory allocation failures in apps or system components. You can use the memory-to-committed bytes performance counter to monitor how much committed virtual memory is on the system. AntivirusInstalling antivirus software on an RD Session Host server greatly affects overall system performance, especially CPU usage. We highly recommend that you exclude from the active monitoring list all the folders that hold temporary files, especially those that services and other system components generate. Task SchedulerTask Scheduler lets you examine the list of tasks that are scheduled for different events. For an RD Session Host server, it is useful to focus specifically on the tasks that are configured to run on idle, at user sign-in, or on session connect and disconnect. Because of the specifics of the deployment, many of these tasks might be unnecessary. Desktop notification iconsNotification icons on the desktop can have fairly expensive refreshing mechanisms. You should disable any notifications by removing the component that registers them from the startup list or by changing the configuration on apps and system components to disable them. You can use Customize Notifications Icons to examine the list of notifications that are available on the server. Remote Desktop Protocol data compressionRemote Desktop Protocol compression can be configured by using Group Policy under Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Remote Desktop Services > Remote Desktop Session Host > Remote Session Environment > Configure compression for RemoteFX data. Three values are possible:
You can also choose to not use a Remote Desktop Protocol compression algorithm, so we only recommend using it with a hardware device designed to optimize network traffic. Even if you choose not to use a compression algorithm, some graphics data will be compressed. Device redirectionDevice redirection can be configured by using Group Policy under Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Remote Desktop Services > Remote Desktop Session Host > Device and Resource Redirection or by using the Session Collection properties box in Server Manager. Generally, device redirection increases how much network bandwidth RD Session Host server connections use because data is exchanged between devices on the client computers and processes that are running in the server session. The extent of the increase is a function of the frequency of operations that are performed by the applications that are running on the server against the redirected devices. Printer redirection and Plug and Play device redirection also increases CPU usage at sign-in. You can redirect printers in two ways:
We recommend the Easy Print method because it causes less CPU usage for printer installation at connection time. The matching driver method causes increased CPU usage because it requires the spooler service to load different drivers. For bandwidth usage, Easy Print causes slightly increased network bandwidth usage, but not significant enough to offset the other performance, manageability, and reliability benefits. Audio redirection causes a steady stream of network traffic. Audio redirection also enables users to run multimedia apps that typically have high CPU consumption. Client experience settingsBy default, Remote Desktop Connection (RDC) automatically chooses the right experience setting based on the suitability of the network connection between the server and client computers. We recommend that the RDC configuration remain at Detect connection quality automatically. For advanced users, RDC provides control over a range of settings that influence network bandwidth performance for the Remote Desktop Services connection. You can access the following settings by using the Experience tab in Remote Desktop Connection or as settings in the RDP file. The following settings apply when connecting to any computer:
The following settings only apply when connecting to computers running Windows 7 and earlier operating system versions:
By using the Experience tab within Remote Desktop Connection, you can choose your connection speed to influence network bandwidth performance. The following lists the options that are available to configure your connection speed:
Desktop SizeDesktop size for remote sessions can be controlled by using the Display tab in Remote Desktop Connection or by using the RDP configuration file (desktopwidth:i:1152 and desktopheight:i:864). The larger the desktop size, the greater the memory and bandwidth consumption that is associated with that session. The current maximum desktop size is 4096 x 2048. |