Aero Glass Remoting

Roman Miklautz
2010-05-07 14:46

Windows Aero is the enhanced graphical user interface in most editions of Windows Vista and Windows 7.
It is intended to be a clean and aesthetically pleasing user interface.
Aero offers new translucency effects, live thumbnails and new icons and animations.

Aero Glass remoting provides the same user experience in a remote desktop session.

SERVER REQUIREMENTS:

Microsoft offers this feature on the following server-side operating systems:
. Windows Vista Ultimate
. Windows Vista Enterprise
. Windows 7 Ultimate
. Windows 7 Enterprise
. Windows Server 2008 R2 (only with Remote Desktop Session Host)
  The Desktop Experience feature and Themes service must be enabled

Note:
The remote computer does not require Aero-capable hardware.
Aero support is also provided when connection to a “headless” server or a virtual machine

With Thinstuff XP/VS Server installed the following additional server-side operating systems are
enabled for Aero Glass remoting:
. Windows 7 Home Premium
. Windows 7 Professional
. Windows Server 2008 R2 (without Remote Desktop Session Host)

CLIENT REQUIREMENTS:

The client computer must be "Aero-capable". That means it must be running Windows Vista or Windows 7 and have "Aero-capable" hardware and drivers installed.
In other words: Windows Aero must be active on the Remote Desktop Connection client computer.

After Aero Glass remoting is enabled on the server, new users connecting remotely will automatically get Aero Glass in the remote session.
Existing users on the server must manually activate the Aero theme inside the remote session's desktop personalization.

The following settings must be set in the Remote Desktop Client:
- Color depth must be set to 32-bit
- Desktop composition must be enabled (Under the tab "Experience")

RESTRICTIONS:

Unfortunately Aero Glass remoting is not supported between Vista and Window 7/2008 R2.
Aero Glass remoting only works from ...
. Vista to Vista
. Windows 7 to Windows 7
. Windows 7 to Windows Server 2008 R2

Aero Glass remoting is currently not supported together with the multi monitor option enabled.

Aero remoting does not work for TS RemoteApps because Desktop composition is required which RemoteApps do not have.

Tags: Aero-capable, aero glass, aero-glass, Desktop Experience, hardware, remote desktop, Session Host, user experience