Category Archives: Microsoft

Everything that MS has branded as their’s.

Deploy RDS on a stand-alone Windows 2012 Server

Looking to deploy RDS on a stand-alone Windows 2012 Server I found a wealth of information where the authors make the assumption that you will use an Active Directory / Domain connected server.

A Microsoft team blog reference makes what I consider to be a fatal assumption in this reference RD Quick Start on a Domain Connected Server in stating that the instructions are suited to a small office deployment or as a proof of concept deployment. My take on a proof of concept is that a domain configuration is a lot of extra work for little value.

So I searched some more and arrived at Ryan Mangans’ blog and his post on the simple Setup Windows stand-alone RDS server.

Deploy RDS on a stand-alone Windows 2012 Server

Assumption: Using a single server for a small office and limited user environment.  A larger office, more users, more management option would require more than 1 server and separation of server roles.

Two methods depending on the server status of domain connected or stand-alone.

Deploy RDS on a stand-alone Windows 2012 Server using Role Based installation

This installation method assumes that the server is not connected to a domain.

Ref: http://ryanmangansitblog.com/2013/10/30/deploying-a-rdsh-server-in-a-workgroup-rds-2012-r2/

1. Using the Add Roles & Features Wizard

2. Deploy the RDS 2012 Session Host Role and the RDS licencing role

3. This will provide the role of Remote Desktop Services and 2 role services of Session Host and Desktop Licensing.

This method will not provide some features for management that are commonly referenced for ‘best practice’ as the vast majority of documentation assumes a domain based server has been used.

Deploy RDS on Domain connected Windows 2012 Server

As per the heading this installation assumes that the server is domain connected with an Active Directory. These steps are taken from the Microsoft reference and are included here for comparison to the above stand-lone server deployment method.

Ref: http://blogs.technet.com/b/askperf/archive/2015/04/09/remote-desktop-services-rds-2012-session-deployment-scenarios-quick-start.aspx

1. On the server that will become the Connection Broker, logon with a domain account that is an administrator and start Server Manager. From Manage menu item, select Add Roles and Features.

2. Select Remote Desktop Services installation.

3. Select Quick Start.

4. Select Session-based desktop deployment.

5. Add your local server to the Selected list for Specify RD Connection Broker server.

6. On the Confirm Selections dialog, check Restart the destination server automatically if required.

7. The RDS session deployment will now begin the install to all the servers and components selected. A progress dialog will be shown and the server will reboot.

8. After reboot, log in and the progress dialog will be shown again and installation will continue.

9. After installation is complete, in the Server Manager Dashboard, there will be a Remote Desktop Services role listed in the left navigation pane.

10. Selecting Remote Desktop Services will display the Overview of the new deployment. From this page, the next steps would be to add / specify both the license server and RD Gateway if needed.

Mac Windows Remote Desktop connection error licensing problem

Take a Mac PC or notebook and try to connect to a Windows server using the Version 2.1.1 of Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection Client for Mac.

It may (should) connect ok with a server that only has the administrative access remote desktop enabled.

But, it fails to work with a Remote Desktop Server (aka Terminal Services server).

2015-03-24_13-09-22_RDC_Error1

When you exit the application with Cancel rather than Reconnect, you may get a Microsoft Error Reporting prompt:

2015-03-24_13-09-22_RDC_Error2

and checking for More Information shows:

2015-03-24_13-09-22_RDC_Error3

which shows error details as follows:

*****

Microsoft Error Reporting log version: 2.0

Error Signature:
Exception: EXC_BAD_ACCESS
Date/Time: 2015-03-24 02:32:36 +0000
Application Name: Remote Desktop Connection
Application Bundle ID: com.microsoft.rdc
Application Signature: MSRD
Application Version: 2.1.1.110309
Crashed Module Name: libobjc.A.dylib
Crashed Module Version: unknown
Crashed Module Offset: 0x000010a7
Blame Module Name: TSClient
Blame Module Version: 1.0
Blame Module Offset: 0x000dcd5a
Application LCID: 1033
Extra app info: Reg=en Loc=0x0409
Crashed thread: 13

****

A simple resolution that worked for me was to use the Microsoft Remote Desktop v 8.0.14 app from the App store rather than this Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection Client for Mac

Windows 2012 server and Public vs Private network change Location

First up I have to thank http://www.jenovarain.com/2012/09/server-2012-network-location/ for the starting point on this.

A Windows server without a domain was installed but it had both ethernet interfaces listed as Public networks which meant that specific firewall issues existed, including being unable to connect as a remote desktop user. Turning off the Windows software firewall was one option that did allow the RDP connection to be completed, but this was sub-optimal and not persistent after a reboot.

The above-mentioned URL held out the section of the Windows Server Tools that was needed to setup more open access to allow the user to change the network location from Public to Private.

  • In “Server Manager” open the “Tools” menu and select “Local Security policy”.
  • Select “Network List manager policies” in the console tree.
  • Open “All Networks” properties.
  • Change “Network location” to “User can change location”
  • Now reboot to apply the changes, or at a command prompt use gpupdate /force

But it did not work for me. What I found was that the existing network connection settings were not over-written with the global settings after the reboot.

In the same “Network List manager policies” section, I had to select the specific Network Location and apply the changes there as well. Once that was done, the location could be changed from Public to Private, and my server was accessible with the firewall turned on.

Internet Explorer and Google Search Provider: Australia

Switching from Bing to Google as a default Search Provider. This is one of those issues that has had me frustrated for a number of years, since IE9 in fact. The Google Search Provider was simply not available. Even the Google page tells me that all I need to do is go to the IE Tools -> Manage Add-ons -> Find More Search providers and I’ll be able to select Google. Nup, that just does not work.

Have a look at this screenshot from IE11 this morning (the same occurred with IE9 and IE10)

2014-03-23 11_29_17-Internet Explorer Gallery - Internet Explorer

See that there are two links for Bing and then eBay and Grays On-line Auctions.

If you search in the little search box for Google the only option is a Search Accelerator which is just not the Provider we are looking for.

But if you search the web for ‘Change Bing to Google’ you only ever find the same instructions. I wrote about this a while back and manually tracked down a Google Search Provider add-on link in this post.

With setting up a new install of Windows on a PC this morning I tried again and finally the ‘penny dropped’. If you look closely at the URL it is targeting EN-AU or English Australia and if we change that part of the URL to EN-US  and magic happens. We get a host of Search Providers that are not available by default on the EN-AU page.

EN-US url provides more Search Options than EN-AU

So if you are in Australia and want to change to Google or anything other than Bing then you need to modify the URL. All the links on the internet are correct but only if you live in or have your PC settings for EN-US.