Terminal Services in Windows 2000

[Scarpozzi]

I'm doing another project at work and this time I'm playing around with Terminal Server in Win2k to take control of client computers and push down software and scripts or do any kind of remote administration possible... We're investigating just about every solution provided with Windows2000 Server for remote administration until we decide whether or not to rely on Zenworks...

All of the Clients are going to be running 2000 Professional and can be setup however we want since our Help Desk will be able to tweak them... Any suggestions on if we're wasting our time with Terminal Services? We'll only be using it on a couple of systems at a time with user permission only- Thanks...

 

[Tallgeese]

A bit confused on exactly what you are asking...

By testing TS, are you talking about your users running ONLY Terminal Services (that is, as their only desktop environment)?
Otherwise, TS really won't do anything, since it does NOTHING from the perspective of managing a local desktop.

We're in a similar situation. Novell as primary user NOS, ZenWORKS 2 managing user environment and desktops.
Here's what I've seen in my testing:

* GPOs go a LONG way toward locking down the local environment.
* App management leaves MUCH to be desired (force installs tend to screw up the world)
* Loss of Application Launcher can be a significant one
* Logon scripting is still possible, but buried, and a bit cumbersome.

For the most part, many things you wish to do are still better handled by 3rd party utilities.
SMS as far as I know is a non-starter at this point.

Has anyone else heard anything about a new version of SMS (or whatever--if anything--is replacing it?)

just MHO

 

[Scarpozzi]

Sorry I wasn't clear the first time...I had been shooting pool earlier and you know how it goes, it was time to get some rest when I typed the question.

What I was asking. We're trying to implement Terminal Services for remote administration and I should have asked if anyone else has attempted it and if they found and shortfalls. From what I can tell, it appears to be pretty reliable, but we want to give our Help Desk something to work with so I'm doing research and testing. We have many Windows 2000 computers that are supposed to be coming in a couple of weeks so we'll need a solution as quick and as cheap as possible. I appreciate any suggestions or feedback. Thanks.

 

[Scarpozzi]

Nevermind...I think I figured out what I needed to by completing a couple more tests.

 

[Tallgeese]

<< Nevermind...I think I figured out what I needed to by completing a couple more tests. >>

Don't keep us in suspense...what did you determine?