Category: 2008 R2

How to Allow RemoteApps but Prevent Full Remote Desktop Logons

This is a question that comes up somewhat frequently. If you want to allow users to use RemoteApp in Windows Server 2008  or 2008 R2, they have to be members of the Remote Desktop Users group on the server. But, sometimes we don’t want our users to have the full desktop UI on a shared server resource. There is actually a very simple way to accomplish exactly what we’re looking at.

On each of the servers with the Remote Desktop Session Host role, open the connection properties by navigating as shown.

RDS2.regsquad.no-ip.org - VMware Workstation_2012-09-28_14-44-22

Open the properties of the connection that you are using. Click on the environment tab, bubble in the Start the following program, and fill it out as shown below. Basically, we’re configuring the server to automatically log out as soon as anyone tries to log in with the full UI. However, this doesn’t prevent users from connecting with RemoteApp. Pretty cool trick I thought!

RDS2.regsquad.no-ip.org - VMware Workstation_2012-09-28_14-44-34

How to create a bootable flash drive to install Windows 7 or 8

Did you know that Microsoft has a tool to automatically create a bootable USB drive from which to install Windows? I didn’t until recently. I recently created a bootable USB just to see if it works. If you really don’t want to use this tool you can do it manually with diskpart by following any number of step by step posts, including this one which I like with pictures.

To use the Microsoft tool:

  1. Download the ISO file that contains the version of the operating system you wish to deploy.
  2. Insert your USB drive (at least 4GB in size)
  3. Install the Microsoft tool
  4. Open the tool
  5. Select the ISO, click next
  6. Choose the USB drive and select Begin copying
  7. It will prompt you if it needs to be erased
  8. Teh Ends! Super simple eh?