Terminal Services in Windows Server 2008

Terminal Services continues to evolve in Windows Server 2008 with an improved client and the capability to make applications running remotely via Terminal Services appear more like those running locally. Accessing Terminal Services with Internet protocols will be easier and more secure, printing will be easier, and organizations can assign a higher priority to applications than to file transfers or printing. Although Terminal Services still requires a licensing server, the licensing model has been expanded to support tracking of per-user licenses.

Terminal Services Overview

Terminal Services allows users to interact with applications that are executing on a remote Windows Server running the Terminal Server role, rather than executing on the user’s local computer. Terminal Services uses the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) to send the user’s input to the remote application and display the application’s output on the user’s computer. Terminal Services is a good solution for access over low-bandwidth connections to typical business applications, including e-mail, enterprise resource planning, or customer relationship management applications, but it does not support users who need to work offline, and previous versions did not work with graphics-intensive applications.