Windows 2003 Post-Setup Steps for Remote Desktop Services

Set And Reserve Listening Port

If required, set a non-standard listening port.

Reserve the listening port.

Also see Remote Desktop/Terminal Services Unavailable After Reboot.

Disable Default Wallpaper and Screen Saver

When you connect to a system running Terminal Services or Remote Desktop, the initial presentation of the login prompt may be very slow due to the display of a wallpaper logo in the background.

This occurs because a wallpaper has been specified for the “default” user, and it is the default user's settings which are displayed before a user logs in.

Some manufacturers ship their systems with a wallpaper logo.

To clear the wallpaper of the default user, open a command prompt and type:

reg add "HKU\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop" /v Wallpaper /d "" /f

To disable any OEM wallpapers:

reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Authentication\LogonUI\Background" /v OEMBackground /d 0 /t REG_DWORD /f

To disable the default screen-saver:

reg add "HKU\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop" /v SCRNSAVE.EXE /d "" /f

Disable Wallpaper and Screen Saver for Users

New user profiles will have the default screen saver, which locks the screen after 10 minutes, and may have a default wallpaper. These can both be configured for each user by placing a file such as login.bat into the common startup folder (C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Startup) containing the following commands:

reg add "HKCU\Control Panel\Desktop" /v Wallpaper /d "" /f

reg add "HKCU\Control Panel\Desktop" /v SCRNSAVE.EXE /d "" /f

Printer Redirections on Client Systems

By default Windows will not perform printer redirection for all printers depending on how they are connected to the client. You can also configure the client to only map the default printer. This can be achieved with registry changes via a login script on the client:

reg add "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Terminal Server Client\Default\AddIns\RDPDR" /v FilterQueueType /t REG_DWORD /D 0xFFFFFFFF /f

reg add "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Terminal Server Client\Default\AddIns\RDPDR" /v RedirectDefaultPrinterOnly /t REG_DWORD /D 1 /f

Fix Registry Permissions for Redirected Printers

See “Error 2202 When Printing or Previewing Reports” in Cadzow 2000 Printing Issues.