Replacement Shell For Windows Thin PC & RDS

[FN-GM]

Hi,

I am playing with Thin PC and RDS. Currently i use MSTSC as the shell instead of explorer. I was wondering if anyone knows of any other custom shells i can use please? Has anyone developed one specially for the job please?

Thanks

[FN-GM]

bump

[cyr0n_k0r]

I'm actually impressed you are using MSTSC instead of explorer. Can you explain or link to a guide on how you accomplished this?
What kind of shells are you looking for? What problem are you trying to solve, or what is MSTSC not giving you that you need?

[FN-GM]

There is a similar guide on here but my setup works different. I have changed the shell to a VBS script that calls the RDS session. When the users logs on the host machine it connects to the RDS session full screen and then logs them automatically into that. When the user logs off the session they are automatically logged off the host.

The problem is. That the users sees a box in the screen when connecting to the RDS farm they can cancel the connection. Also when the RDS session launches it shows the connection bar at the top for a few seconds. Its not much but its enough for the students to start messing about.

I shall upload some content for it soon.

Thanks

[Arthur]

Remote Desktop Plus might be worth a try. It's just a wrapper for mstsc.exe, but does allow you to disable the close button and the connection bar (among other things). e.g.

rdp /v:rds-server:port /u:username /pe:encrypted_password /printers /sound /nowallpaper /fullscreen /noclose /wait /t /batch

[Cache]

Remote Desktop Plus might be worth a try. It's just a wrapper for mstsc.exe, but does allow you to disable the close button and the connection bar (among other things). e.g.

rdp /v:rds-server:port /u:username /pe:encrypted_password /printers /sound /nowallpaper /fullscreen /noclose /wait /t /batch

It's possible to remove the close button, minimise and auto hide the connection bar by editting the RDP file you use to connect (assuming you use an RDP file) - will post the options when I'm in tomorrow.

[FN-GM]

It's possible to remove the close button, minimise and auto hide the connection bar by editting the RDP file you use to connect (assuming you use an RDP file) - will post the options when I'm in tomorrow.

I have already done this but it still appears for a few seconds.

[Cache]

I have already done this but it still appears for a few seconds.

Ah ok. I don't mind it appearing there because they can't do anything with it and as soon as the mouse moves of it they can't get it back.

[chackett]

Currently i use MSTSC as the shell instead of explorer

I played around with this but how have you got it to respawn once exited?

[atamakosi]

I'm looking for something similar except I would like students to be able to use their personal usernames so they can save their work to their profile folder from the terminal server. Ideally it would also be nice if they didn't need to login twice, once to the PC and then again to rds. I've still not quite figured out how to replace explorer with mstsc. Can you possibly share your vbs script please?

[plexer]

It's a gpo setting.

For a bit of info:

How To Change The Windows Xp Shell. - Discuss Anything

Ben

[FN-GM]

I'm looking for something similar except I would like students to be able to use their personal usernames so they can save their work to their profile folder from the terminal server. Ideally it would also be nice if they didn't need to login twice, once to the PC and then again to rds. I've still not quite figured out how to replace explorer with mstsc. Can you possible share your vbs script please?

No Problem, the good thing with my VBS script is when you log off the session it will log off the host. RDP is set so you dont need to authenticate twice. I shall post it when i get home.