Enabling desktop wallpaper on remote desktop terminal services
I always have to work hard to remember which server is live, which is for production, which is for development, etc. It’s also difficult to tell at a glance which remote server I’m connected to over remote desktop. Typically I change the wallpaper color to red for production servers, green for development servers and yellow for staging servers. But that doesn’t solve the second problem of immediately knowing which server I’m connected to.
I googled around for quite some time to find out how to enable desktop wallpaper for RDP sessions on Windows Server 2003 (2k3), but I couldn’t discover how to do it. My friend Damon Gentry helped me out, and here’s how you do it.
First off, your RDP client (Remote Desktop Connection client in the case of Windows XP) has to have remote wallpaper enabled. On XP, open the saved Remote Desktop Connection file to the server you are connecting and click the Experience tab. Place a check in the option “Desktop background”. This allows the client to see enabled desktop wallpapers.
Second, connect to the remote Win2k3 server and from a Run box, type “mmc” to open the Microsoft Management Console. Click File -> Add/Remove Snap-in. Click the “Add…” button, choose “Group Policy Object Editor” from the list and click “Add” (you may have to push “Finish”) then “Close” then “OK”.
Now browse to Local Computer Policy -> Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Terminal Services. From the list, modify “Always show desktop on connection” to “Enabled” and “Enforce Removal of Remote Desktop Wallpaper” to “Disabled”. Now close the MMC clicking “No” about saving the settings.
Log out of your remote desktop connection and login again, making sure your RDP client has desktop wallpaper enabled. Now you should be able to rt-click the desktop and apply wallpaper normally. I still recommend doing the colored background with the wallpaper since not all connecting clients will have desktop wallpaper enabled.
Weird. Following the instructions given here, I manage to right-click the desktop. However, when I click OK, the wallpaper doesn’t appear.
BTW, I customized the desktop by typing computer name on top right corner. Unfortunately, I can’t see it remotely.
Comment by khengsiong — November 22, 2007 @ 12:00 am
You need to make sure your connecting client allows desktop wallpaper on the remote server, and you may have to disconnect and reconnect to the remote server after setting up everything. I’ve tried this on three Win2k3 server and it’s been smooth sailing, so make sure you follow these instructions exactly. Let me know how it goes.
Comment by Nat Papovich — November 26, 2007 @ 12:00 am
Nat,
I have enabled the ‘Desktop background’ option under the Experience Tab. But my Win XP Pro does not have ‘Font smoothing’ and ‘Desktop composition’ options. Neither does it have ‘Advanced’ Tab. Perhaps different versions work in different ways…
Comment by khengsiong — November 26, 2007 @ 12:00 am
Hm, perhaps. I’m using the "upgraded" version of the RDP client that was pushed out via Windows Update a couple months back. Maybe you could try that one?
Comment by Nat Papovich — November 26, 2007 @ 12:00 am
Thank You! This post saved me hours of struggling.
Note: I messed around with various file formats and sizes. Tried .png and jpg. Eventually settled on ~100kb .jpg file, which has left me with zero delay as the background is repainted. (The 1MB .png I tested looked no better but produced a visible band of refresh each time a window was closed).
Comment by Howard Ryb — January 5, 2008 @ 12:00 am
OK, I know why the wallpaper didn’t appear in my case (comment on 11/22/07). I didn’t login to console, and there was another user logging in. The other user could see the wallpaper but I couldn’t.
To make sure that I login to console, I will go to start > run, and enter ‘mstsc /console’ (no quote).
Comment by khengsiong — March 12, 2008 @ 12:00 am
Hm, I’m never heard of the /console switch, but I’m glad you figured it out and left a note here.
Comment by Nat Papovich — March 13, 2008 @ 12:00 am
Worked like a champ for me! This was driving me crazy. Wasn’t sure if it was my RDP config, my virtual desktop manager… turned out it was neither
Thanks a million for the post!
Comment by tstevens — July 24, 2008 @ 12:00 am
Great info – works perfectly, thanks.
Comment by Brenawn — August 5, 2008 @ 12:00 am
Ok.. congratulations… its works perfetly…
Comment by Marco — September 24, 2008 @ 12:00 am
Hello,
thanks for the info, it works for me on a RDP connection to the domain controller, i wonder if its possible this also works for my clients who need to log on to the terminal server 2003 through RDP, i’ve tried but i do not see the desktop image i created. I need to have them see a desktop with a servicedesk telephonenumber on. Clients do not get any errors, but the background image just won’t show…
Comment by Pbaron — October 3, 2008 @ 12:00 am
Hi,
For remote Access, I created a .jpg as background with the name of a system in order to know on what system I am.
I cannot get it done, when using RDC I do not see the systems name.
Yet I followed these steps above.
Please assist!
Comment by just_Mario — October 15, 2008 @ 12:00 am
pbaron, mario, there’s not much more that I can suggest. Unfortunately, I’m not much of a windows sysadmin, but I just followed these instructions myself last week for a new server and they work fine – even when connecting to the terminal server via the Mac RDP client. Good luck in your search.
Comment by Nat Papovich — October 15, 2008 @ 12:00 am
Fantastic, I’ve been looking for an hour on how to do this, thank you for posting it!!
Comment by Jon — October 16, 2008 @ 12:00 am
If your like to use RDP over internet using microsoft windows teredo service(peer to peer connectivity) you can check this soft http://www.lanoninternet.com
Now RDP can work behind NAT/firewall
Comment by peter.fernados — October 18, 2008 @ 12:00 am
Hi =(.
After an extensive google search, i found your post. I followed the directions exactly.
I arrived at the mmc console and started the snapin called "Group Policy Object Editor", added that in and browsed to the location you speicifed.
When i got there, i saw nothing like what you have in the screenshot, infact just 3 items
Windows Media Player
Search
Windows Update.
And that’s it! I tried this over the remote desktop connection, and only got the 3 items, so i went to the server and physically tried the same thing and still got only the 3 entrys!
The windows version is "Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition" – "Build 3790 (Service Pack2)
Halp!?
Comment by Richard (produKtNZ) — December 21, 2008 @ 12:00 am
Fantastic, works perfectly.. thank you
Comment by Dan — January 4, 2009 @ 12:00 am
Instead of adding that component to MMC you could just put “gpedit.msc” into the run box and bring it up.
Comment by subassy — April 9, 2009 @ 10:50 pm
Richard (produKtNZ), there are a few differences between what is said here and what needs to be done.
to get to the local group policy on a domain controller (which im working on), from run type gpedit.msc
then goto computer configuration/administrative templates/terminal services.
set enforce removal of remote desktop wallpaper to disabled,
BUT you do not need to set always show desktop on connection.
the rest of the group policy for me is stock except for some changes in the encryption area.
on my client desktop side (soldats, winxp sp3, mstsc 6.0), when i first start it up, i goto
options/experience. mine was set to 56k (cuz i remote to home as well), which disables everything but bitmap caching and themes. enable desktop background (suddenly changed from 56k to custom).
now hit connect. works for me
Comment by blackYumura — April 16, 2009 @ 10:46 am