SCS Computing Facilities Remote Desktop Service

Windows Remote Desktop Services Usage Policy and Administration

SCS Computing Facilities is offering SCS users casual access to a Microsoft Windows based computing platform using Windows 2008 Remote Desktop Services on the server side.

SCS Remote Desktop Services can be accessed by connecting with your Remote Desktop client to windesk.cs.cmu.edu.

SCS Remote Desktop Services can be used for the following:

Running most applications that are part of the SCS Baseline Software Configuration
Additional applications that do not require administrative access to be installed (single user exe, for example)
Additional applications can be requested for addition to the Remote Desktop Services environment. These will be evaluated on an as needed basis.

User Setup

In order to gain access to SCS Remote Desktop Services, users must request access via the SCS Help Desk and show proof of license for any application which requires it. Access to the baseline published applications is covered by our Campus License.

The Help Desk will also modify the user Remote Desktop Services profile settings to point the user profile path.

Using Rdesktop on Linux systems

The Rdesktop client is distributed along with the other standard Linux applications. In addition to the core client, a shell script (/usr/local/bin/ts) is provided.

The syntax for this script is:

/usr/local/bin/ts (EXE name) (path of file to open)

Or:

/usr/local/bin/ts

for the full interactive environment.

.TSRC Configuration File

By placing a .tsrc configuration file in the user home directory, it is possible to specify default programs to shell, color depth, terminal server to connect to and screen resolution.

The format of the file is:

TSREMOTEHOST= [Terminal Server to connect to]
SESSIONMGR=[Alternate shell program to run at startup]
TSCOLORS=[color depth. Values can be 8, 16, or 32]
TSGEOMETRY=[screen resolution, 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768, 1280x1024]
TSPRINTER=[Override Default Printer]

Printing

The default printer from the workstation will be present within the client session. A different printer can be specified within the .tsrc file.

Questions

Please contact the SCS Help Desk at x8-4231 or send mail to help+@cs.cmu.edu with any questions or concerns.