Windows Server Windows Server

2012 R2

2012 R2 – RemoteApp
and Remote Desktops
Hands-on lab

In this lab, you will configure a secure remote experience for

employees of Contoso, Inc. This lab begins by leveraging both
RemoteApp and VDI to allow those users to work securely on
remote applications from home computers. You will then
examine the new capabilities of Remote Desktop in Windows
Server 2012 R2.

Produced by HynesITe, Inc

Version 2.0
9/29/2013
This document is provided for informational purposes only and Microsoft makes no warranties, either express or implied, in this
document. Information in this document, including URL and other Internet website references, is subject to change without notice.
The entire risk of the use or the results from the use of this document remains with the user. Unless otherwise noted, the companies,
organizations, products, domain names, e-mail addresses, logos, people, places, and events depicted in examples herein are
fictitious. No association with any real company, organization, product, domain name, e-mail address, logo, person, place, or event is
intended or should be inferred. Complying with all applicable copyright laws is the responsibility of the user. Without limiting the
rights under copyright, no part of this document may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted
in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), or for any purpose, without the express
written permission of Microsoft Corporation.

Microsoft may have patents, patent applications, trademarks, copyrights, or other intellectual property rights covering subject matter
in this document. Except as expressly provided in any written license agreement from Microsoft, the furnishing of this document
does not give you any license to these patents, trademarks, copyrights, or other intellectual property.

Copyright 2013 © Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Microsoft, Active Directory, Hyper-V, Internet Explorer, Windows, Windows PowerShell, and Windows Server are trademarks of the
Microsoft group of companies.

All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.

Windows Server 2012 R2 – RDS

Introduction

Estimated time to complete this lab

60 minutes

Overview
In this lab, you will configure a secure remote experience for employees of Contoso, Inc. This lab begins
by leveraging both RemoteApp and VDI to allow those users to work securely on remote applications
from home computers. You will then examine the new capabilities of Remote Desktop in Windows Server
2012 R2.

Virtual machine technology

This lab is completed using virtual machines that run on Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V technology. To
log on to the virtual machines, press CTRL+ALT+END and enter your logon credentials.

Technical Architecture
This lab uses eight servers and one workstation. Two of the servers are physical servers with dual network
interfaces.

Computer Role Configuration

DC Domain controller, iSCSI Contains a virtual iSCSI SAN to provide storage
SAN for cluster nodes on a STORAGE network
Server1 A file server A file server with file classification and RMS
components installed
Admin A client workstation with Windows 8.1 with RSAT
RSAT
All user accounts in this lab use the password Passw0rd!

Note regarding pre-release software

Portions of this lab may include software that is not yet released, and as such may still contain active or
known issues. While every effort has been made to ensure this lab functions as written, unknown or
unanticipated results may be encountered as a result of using pre-release software.

Note regarding user account control

Some steps in this lab may be subject to user account control. User account control is a technology which
provides additional security to computers by requesting that users confirm actions that require
administrative rights. Tasks that generate a user account control confirmation are denoted using a shield
icon. If you encounter a shield icon, confirm your action by selecting the appropriate button in the dialog
box that is presented.

Note on activation
The virtual machines for these labs may have been built by using software that has not been activated.
This is by design in the lab to prevent the redistribution of activated software. The unactivated state of
software has been taken into account in the design of the lab. Consequently, the lab is in no way affected
by this state. For operating systems other than Windows 8.1, click Cancel or Close if prompted by an

Lab created by HynesITe, Inc. For questions or comments, send an e-mail message to support@hynesite.biz Page | 3
Windows Server 2012 R2 – RDS

activation dialog box. If you are prompted by an Activate screen for Windows 8.1, press the Windows key
to display the Start screen.

Lab created by HynesITe, Inc. For questions or comments, send an e-mail message to support@hynesite.biz Page | 4
Windows Server 2012 R2 – RDS

Experience 1: Enabling Remote Application Access

In this exercise, you will enable a user to access a remote application via RemoteApp and Virtual Desktop
Infrastructure (VDI). The VDI implementation will be based on session desktop using Remote Desktop
Services. You will first enable RemoteApp and publish applications. Next, you will configure the user with
access to a full desktop located on the corporate network.

Install and configure Remote Desktop Services

In this task, you will use Server Manager to quickly establish session-based VDI and RemoteApp
publishing.

Begin this task logged on to Admin as Contoso\Administrator using the password Passw0rd!

Open Server Manager.

Click Add roles and features.

On the Before you begin page, click Next.

On the Select installation type page, click Remote Desktop Services installation, and then click

Next.

On the Select deployment type page, click Quick Start, and then click Next.

On the Select deployment scenario page, click Session-based desktop deployment, and then

click Next.
On the Select a server page, click Server1.contoso.com, click Add (the right arrow button), and
then click Next.

On the Confirm selections page, check the Restart the destination server automatically if

required check box, and then click Deploy.

The installation and configuration will take approximately 4 minutes. Please wait for this to complete

before proceeding.

When the installation has completed, click Close.

Configure a publishing certificate

In this task, you will review the results of Quick Setup and configure a publishing certificate. This will
leverage a wildcard certificate which already exists and is stored on \\dc\sslcerts.

Begin this task logged on to Admin as Contoso\Administrator using the password Passw0rd!

In Server Manager, click Remote Desktop Services.

Lab created by HynesITe, Inc. For questions or comments, send an e-mail message to support@hynesite.biz Page | 5
Windows Server 2012 R2 – RDS

Server Manager is optimized for a minimum screen size of 1366x768. If possible, you may wish to adjust

your desktop resolution to this value.

In Server Manager, review the installed roles and services for Remote Desktop Services.

In Overview, in the Deployment Overview, on the Tasks menu, click Edit Deployment Properties.

Click Certificates.
Click RD Connection Broker – Enable Single Sign-On.
Click Select existing certificate.

Click Browse.
In File name, type \\server1\sslcerts, and then press ENTER.
Click _.contoso.com, and then click Open.

In Password, type Passw0rd!

Check the Allow the certificate to be added to the Trusted Root Certification Authorities

certificate store on the destination computers check box, and then click OK.

Click Apply.

Repeat steps 5 through 12 for RD Connection Broker – Publishing, and for RD Web Access.

Click OK.

Test RemoteApp publishing

In this task, you will test RemoteApp publishing to validate that it is functional.

Begin this task logged on to Admin as Contoso\Administrator using the password Passw0rd!

Open Internet Explorer.

Navigate to https://server1.contoso.com/rdweb.
Click Allow to run the RDS web add-on.

Check the This is a private computer check box.

Log on as Contoso\Administrator using the password Passw0rd!

Click WordPad, and then click Connect.
In the Connecting to Server1.Contoso.com window, click OK.

Drag the WordPad window to one side of the screen.

Remote Desktop Services in Windows Server 2012 R2 provides the ability to drag a RemoteApp and see
the content while moving it. This is an improvement over previous versions that only displayed the wire

frame outline of the application.

On the taskbar, hover over the WordPad application.

Lab created by HynesITe, Inc. For questions or comments, send an e-mail message to support@hynesite.biz Page | 6
Windows Server 2012 R2 – RDS

Another new feature of RemoteApp in Remote Desktop Services in Windows Server 2012 R2 is the true

to life thumbnail preview. The thumbnail now displays the preview of the actual application. This makes
the user experience using RemoteApp closer to an installed application.

Close WordPad.
Close Internet Explorer.

On Admin, switch the user account to Contoso\BenSmith using the password Passw0rd!

Open the Remote Desktop modern application.

Click Access RemoteApp and Desktop Connections.

Enter https://Server1.contoso.com/RDWeb/feed/webfeed.aspx and then click Connect.

Log on as Contoso\BenSmith using the password Passw0rd!

Click OK.

Click Paint.

Click Connect.

Click OK.
Paint is now open and functions exactly as if it was a local application.

In the System Tray, click on the RemoteApp and Desktop Connections icon.
The connection and disconnection is much simpler in Windows 2012 R2 and Windows 8.1. Note the
shortcut to the RemoteApp and Desktop Connections settings that means that users don’t have to find

it within the Control Panel any more.

From the Start screen, type WordPad.

Note that the RemoteApp version of WordPad is shown as WordPad (Work Resources).

Right-click WordPad (Work Resources) and click Pin to Start.

See that the WordPad (Work Resources) is now linked to the Start screen and can be run directly,
without needing to access the Remote Desktops modern application.

Log off BenSmith.

Enable session-based VDI

In this task, you will add session-based VDI to your Remote Desktop Services configuration. Since session-
based VDI and RemoteApp programs cannot coexist on the same RDS server, you will first remove the
RemoteApp programs. If you wish to publish both session desktops and RemoteApp programs, you can
simply add a second RDS server to the deployment.

Begin this task logged on to Admin as Contoso\Administrator using the password Passw0rd!

Switch to Server Manager.

Lab created by HynesITe, Inc. For questions or comments, send an e-mail message to support@hynesite.biz Page | 7
Windows Server 2012 R2 – RDS

Click Collections.

In the contents pane, right-click QuickSessionCollection, and then click Remove Collection.

Click Yes.

On the Tasks menu, click Create Session Collection.

In Before You Begin, click Next.

In Collection Name, in Name, type Session Desktops, and then click Next.

Click Server1.contoso.com, click Add, and then click Next.

In User Groups, click Next.

In User Profile Disks, in Location of user profile disks, type c:\UserDisks, and then click Next.
Click Create.

When the process completes, click Close.

Test session-based VDI

In this task, you will test your session-based VDI configuration.

Begin this task logged on to Admin as Contoso\Administrator using the password Passw0rd!

Open Internet Explorer.

Navigate to https://server1.contoso.com/rdweb.

Click Allow to run the RDS web add-on.

Check the This is a private computer check box.

Log on as Contoso\BenSmith using the password Passw0rd!

Click Session Desktops, and then click Connect.

Click OK.
Leave the Remote Desktop window open for the next exercise.

Lab created by HynesITe, Inc. For questions or comments, send an e-mail message to support@hynesite.biz Page | 8
Windows Server 2012 R2 – RDS

Experience 2: Exploring new features in Windows Server 2012

R2 Remote Desktop Services
In this exercise, you will explore the new features in Remote Desktop Services in Windows Server 2012 R2.
You will see the new features such as the way that connections are reconnected in the case of a
disconnection, dynamic display changes, remote session shadowing and the improvements in the Remote
Desktop Modern Client.

Session disconnection and reconnection

In this task, you will disable the connection to the remote desktop and then see the speed that the
reconnection occurs when the connection becomes available once more.

Begin this task logged on to Admin as Contoso\Administrator using the password Passw0rd! with
the Remote Desktop open from the previous experience.

Minimize the Server1 RDS window.

Open the Network and Sharing Center.

Click Ethernet, and then click Disable.

Click Disable.
Switch to the Server1 desktop connection.
Note that the desktop is now disconnected.

Minimize the Server1 RDS window.

Open the Network and Sharing Center.

Click Change adapter settings.

Click Ethernet, and then click Enable this network device.

Switch to the Server1 desktop connection.

Note that the connection has been reconnected with very little delay. Previously this could have taken
up to 60 seconds to complete.

Leave the Remote Desktop window open for the next task.

Dynamic display changes in Remote Desktop Connection

In this task, you will see one of the new features of Remote Desktop Connection in Windows Server 2012
R2. The dynamic display gives users the ability change the display resolution on the host machine and
have the resolution of the remote session change without the requirement to disconnect and reconnect
the session.

Lab created by HynesITe, Inc. For questions or comments, send an e-mail message to support@hynesite.biz Page | 9
Windows Server 2012 R2 – RDS

Begin this task logged on to Admin as Contoso\Administrator using the password Passw0rd! with
the Remote Desktop open from the previous experience.

Minimize the Server1 RDS window.

Right-click the desktop, and then click Screen resolution.

Modify the resolution to 1600 x 1200, click Apply, and then click Keep changes.

Maximize the Server1 RDS window.

Note that the RDS window has automatically resized to full screen. Previously, the screen resolution

would not have changed and there would be scroll bars that the user would need to use to see all of the
screen.

Open Windows PowerShell.

This is for the next task.

Minimize the Server1 RDS window.

Modify the Resolution to 1024 x 768, click Apply, and then click Keep changes.

Shadowing a Remote Desktop session

There are times when being able to shadow a Remote Desktop session can be of great assistance to for
administrators to be able to support users in their environment. In this task, you will shadow the session
that Ben Smith is using.

Begin this task logged on to Admin as Contoso\Administrator using the password Passw0rd! with
BenSmith’s connection to Server1 open.

Switch to Server Manager.

Under Collections, select Session Desktops.

If there are no connections showing under Connections, then use the Refresh task.

Right-click the last CONTOSO\BenSmith connection, and then click Shadow.

Click OK.
Maximize the Server1 RDS window.
Click Yes to allow the shadow connection.
Note you are now seeing Ben’s desktop with the Windows PowerShell screen open.

Close the Shadow window.

Administrators also have the ability to take control by using the Control option when beginning the

shadowing session.

Lab created by HynesITe, Inc. For questions or comments, send an e-mail message to support@hynesite.biz Page | 10