home » Android » What are Windows Server components and what they are for

What are Windows Server components and what they are for

Continuing the cycle of small tips on using the functionality of group policies, this week we will talk about the settings for the appearance of your users' desktops. In most cases, you shouldn't shield your users from the personalization settings of your user account, but in some cases you need to set hard limits to prevent the ability to change the desktop background, screen saver, and other account personalization options. For example, such restrictions are best set on computers located in conference rooms. At a meeting of your directors or holding an important presentation with partners, your bosses will not be very happy with new photos of Eva Mendes or an entire photo session from the premiere of the new Twilight 15 with dinosaur cursors on your desktop. Since the above settings apply directly to the user account, it is advisable to carry them out using the functionality of group policies. You can find policy settings to customize desktop personalization under the User Configuration node. In order to set strict settings for the appearance of the desktop using group policies, follow these steps:

In the event that you are configuring Group Policy on a local computer that is not a member of the domain, open the snap-in. If you need to configure a specific group of computers that belong to the domain Active Directory, on a domain controller, open the snap-in "Group Policy Management", in the console tree expand the node "Forest:% forest name%", node Domains, then a node with your domain name, followed by a node "Group Policy Objects"... In the node "Group Policy Objects" create a GPO, select it, click on it right click mouse in and out context menu select team "Change"... Also, if you configure these policy settings in a domain environment, computers located in conference rooms can be accessed by users who are located in different departments and in this case it is advisable to apply policy loopback processing;
This example configures Group Policy settings on the local computer, so in the snap-in Local Group Policy Editor, in the console tree go to the node User Configuration \\ Administrative Templates \\ Control Panel \\ Personalizationas shown below:

Figure: 1. Node "Personalization"

First of all, prevent your users from changing the background image using the window "Personalization"... To do this, you should open the policy setting Prevent changing the desktop backgroundwhich allows you to hide the page "Desktop background" in the personalization window. It should be noted that this policy setting does not apply to softwaredeveloped by third parties, with which you can set an image as your desktop background. In the properties dialog box of this parameter, set the radio button to the option "Enable", this can be seen in the following illustration:

Figure: 2. Prevent users from changing the background image of the desktop regular means systems

The next step is to prevent your users from changing the screen saver, since some joke of your employees may appear at the most inopportune moment at an important meeting. To do this, open the parameter "Prevent changing screensaver" and in the corresponding dialog set the radio button to the option "Enable";
Now we will prohibit your users from setting dinosaur-shaped cursors or performing other "extremely useful" pranks. To do this, open the policy setting Prevent changing mouse pointers "Enable";
I also recommend on such workstations to disable the ability to change sounds and colors of windows using the window "Personalization"... Open policy options "Prevent changing sounds" and "Prevent changing the color and decoration of windows" and set the switch in each of these policies to the option "Enable"and then click on "OK"as shown below:

Assuming you have Windows 7 operating system on the computer in your conference room, the next step is to customize the theme. The subject specified by the following policy setting will be applied to the user account each time the user logs on. To do this, open the policy setting "Download Specified Topic" "Enable" and in the text box "Path to theme file" enter the full path to the skin file, for example: "% Userprofile% \\ AppData \\ Roaming \\ Microsoft \\ Windows \\ Themes \\ NASAHiddenUniverse.themepack"as shown below:

Figure: 4. Forcefully specify the theme file

After you specify a theme, prevent users from manually changing themes using the policy setting "Prevent changing theme".

The last policy settings we will look at today are settings for specifying which screen saver to use on a given computer and for setting the idle time after which the screen saver will be displayed. To specify the amount of time after which the screen saver will be invoked when the system is idle, open the policy setting Screensaver timeout and set the radio button to option "Enable" and in the control "Waiting time in seconds before starting the screensaver" specify after how many seconds the screen saver should start. To specify the splash screen to run, open the policy setting, set the radio button to the option "Enable" and in the text box "Apply specified splash screen" Specify the name of the splash file stored in the% SystemRoot% \\ System32 folder, for example Bubbles.scr, as shown in the following illustration:

Figure: 5. Applying a specific splash screen

After the user logs in, the theme you specified will be applied to their account immediately, and the personalization window will be prohibited from changing the theme, desktop background image, screen saver, window color scheme, and sound scheme. The user personalization window is shown in the following illustration:

Figure: 6. User personalization window after making changes to the group policy settings

In the process of evolution, the task moved from the terminal server old version to the terminal WindowsServer 2012 R2... Among other problems, there was an annoying nuisance with the color scheme. WindowsServer 2012 interface, as well as windows interface 8 are made not for computers and servers, but for phones. Instead of multicolor, translucency and overflow gradient fillsIntroduced into our lives by Vista and continued in Windows 7, now primitivism and asceticism. Moreover, in the terminal session even these meager options for configuring the interface are simply disabled. You can only choose one of the pre-installed schemes, four of which (contrasting) are generally useless (but you can customize them a little, quite a bit), and the main one, which is called "Windows Simplified Style", is not configurable by standard tools at all. Instead of the settings in a white window, the message: “This page is not available in this windows versions. " In fact, the basic scheme generally suits me, but the problem was that some interface elements in the program, to source code which has no access, almost merge and become indistinguishable. It is not visible which of the items is selected in the list and is the current one. That is, you just need to slightly adjust this "Simplified Windows style".

Themes in Windows Server 2012 R2 are located in the "C: \\ Windows \\ Resources \\ Ease of Access Themes" directory.

Even an elevated administrator by default cannot edit these files and cannot change the permissions to access them either. First, we assign ourselves the owner of the file (basic.theme), then we give ourselves write rights. The base theme does not have parameters for controlling colors, we take these parameters from any neighboring .theme file.

To do this, open the topic using notepad or another text editor.

Copy the title of the section and place it in basic.theme in the same place above the section. You don't need to copy all the parameters, we take only those that need to be changed. You may have to tinker with the choice of the names of the variable parameters, as well as with the selection of the color itself.

To select the color and select the name of the parameter, I used a test machine with Windows 7. In the registry key

HKCU \\ ControlPanel \\ Colors

color settings are specified in the same format: RGB (in decimal format, separated by a space). Change the parameter, re-login, see the result. To select the color I used an eyedropper from the FastStoneCapture set ..

As you probably remember, Windows 8 completely lacks the Start Menu, which has been replaced with a new tiled interface called start screen (Modern UI Start Screen)... This fact also applies to the server platform - Windows Server 2012. This means that when a terminal user logs on to windows server 2012 with Terminal Server Role (RD Session Host) since established function « Desktop experience”, The user is shown not the usual server desktop, but the Start Screen.

Accordingly, administrators of terminal services have questions about setting up and managing this very start menu. In Windows Server 2008 R2, the content of the Start menu was controlled (the method recommended in best practice) by redirecting the Start menu using Group Policy to a certain shared folder with application shortcuts, in which the display of a shortcut was determined by assigning NTFS rights to it and active. What happens if you apply this policy ( User Configuration -\u003e Windows Settings -\u003e Folder Redirection -\u003e Start Menu) to a Windows 2012 RDS server?

In Windows 2012 Remote Desktop, when the user first logs on to the "desktop" of the terminal server, he sees a completely empty Start Screen:

This is because the Start Screen simply does not accept the Start Menu folder redirection policy that was used in Windows Server 2008 R2. Indeed, according to Microsoft's new concept, they are not the same thing. Instead, this policy redirects the All Apps menu to the directory specified in the policy.

To access the list installed programs, right-click on the start screen (or press the key combination CTRL-TAB.

The All Apps menu will display a list of application shortcuts to which the user has access (if ABE is active on the shortcut share and NTFS rights are assigned).

From this menu, the user can bring the shortcuts he needs to the home screen by right-clicking on the shortcut and selecting Pin to start.

Thus, the terminal user can customize their own Metro UI start screen (aka the desktop). Naturally, if every user of the terminal server has to perform this operation, this will cause certain problems and inconveniences. Let's try to figure out if the settings can be exported start screen for the user and group policy to assign them to all other users of the terminal server.

In Windows Server 2012, the startup screen settings are stored in the file appsfolder.itemdata-mslocated in the directory % userprofile% \\ Default \\ appdata \\ local \\ microsoft \\ windows \\ appsfolder.itemdata-ms... This file must be copied from the profile of the current user and copied to the directory C: \\ Users \\ Default \\ appdata \\ local \\ microsoft \\ windows \\ appsfolder.itemdata-ms... In this case, all users at the first entrance to the terminal would receive new profile with customized StartScreen shortcuts.

Note.There is a small nuance, the appsfolder.itemdata-ms file is read-only, and in order for users to edit their start screen, you need to change its attributes. The easiest way to do this is through the Group Policy Preferences.

Agree, the configuration is not very flexible. Fortunately in release Windows Server 2012 R2 (and Windows 8.1) will appear new opportunity export configuration Start Screen.

The user's current Start Screen settings can be exported to an XML file using the Powershell command export-startlayout

Export-startlayout -as xml -path \\\\ mskfs01 \\ startscreen

Further this file can be copied to a shared directory and distributed via Group Policy Start Screen Layoutlocated in the section User Configuration -\u003e Policies -\u003e Administrative Templates -\u003e Start Menu and Taskbar... In this policy, you need to set the path to the saved xml file that sets the Start screen settings.

Read more about the possibilities and features of export / import of the start screen layout in the article:

Installation and basic windows setup Server 2012 R2, now we will continue the configuration of this OS, and more specifically, we will install terminal server... For this we need an active (valid) client licenseterminal server. For example, we will use the Enterprise Agriment agreement number (6565792, 5296992, 3325596, 4965437, 4526017.) You will also need access to internet networks to activate the license server and install licenses (telephone activation is also available).

To install the terminal server, run Server manager... It is accessible from the shortcut on the taskbar (by default), or by running the command servermanager.exe (Win + R, in the window that appears in the "Open" field, write the name of the command and click "OK").

The steps for configuring a terminal server are shown in the images below:

Now let's move on to licensing the terminal server, for this we go to " "(RD Licensing Diagnoser). This can be done from the Server Manager by selecting in the right top menu « Facilities» ( Tools) - « Terminal Services» - « Remote Desktop Licensing Diagnostic Tool» ( RD Licensing Diagnoser) .
The licensing server is now specified through local group policies. To launch the editor, run the command gpedit.msc... In the tree on the left, open the tabs:
- « Computer configuration» ( Computer Configuration)
  - « Administrative Templates» ( Administrative Templates)
    - « Windows components» ( Windows Components)
      - « Remote Desktop Services» ( Remote Desktop Services)
        « Remote Desktop Session Host» ( Remote Desktop Session Host)
        « Licensing» ( Licensing)
Options " Use Specified Remote Desktop Licensing Servers» ( Use the specified Remote Desktop license servers). After that, in the policy settings edit window, enable the policy and define the licensing server for the Remote Desktop Services. IN this example the licensing server is located on the same physical server. Specify the network name or IP address of the license server and click " OK» .

After that, the "Server Activation Wizard" window will open, you must select auto mode connection, enter information about the organization, contact information. Next, the "License Installation Wizard" will start, where you enter the license itself (agreement number), indicate the product version, license type and number of licenses in accordance with your licensing program.

The article is devoted to detailed consideration installing and removing components operating system Windows Server 2012 R2... As an example, we will install components such as: Windows Search and Desktop Experience, and then we will remove one of these components.

In previous articles on the topic of Windows Server 2012 R2, we installed roles such as DHCP server and DNS server, so you are already familiar with installing server roles, now let's take a look at the components of this operating system, namely, what it is, what are the components of Windows for how to install and uninstall them.

What are Windows Server components and what are they for?

Windows Server Components (Windows Server Features) Are the capabilities (services, programs) of the Windows Server operating system that are not server roles, but at the same time are widely used for effective administration, configuration and management of servers and network infrastructure. In Russian, Windows components are often called features, they extend the functionality of the operating system. Windows components are not included in server roles because Microsoft deemed them less important and not worthy of being called a "Server role" because the server role is the primary function on the server on which it is deployed.

As mentioned, Windows components are needed in order to extend functionality server configuration and server management, as managing almost any server role requires special tool management, i.e. a kind of program, in our case a program is a component.

Components in the operating room windows system There are a lot of Server 2012 R2, for example, let's list the most important and frequently used ones:

Network Load Balancing (NLB) - the component is required to balance traffic between servers using the TCP / IP protocol;
Failover Clustering - Used to maximize the availability of server applications and server roles under high loads. In other words, combining servers into a failover cluster;
Control group policies - snap-in for administration and management of group policies;
Remote Server Administration Tools - Snap-ins and Programs command line to manage Windows Server roles and features.

Note! Client operating systems have their own Windows components, for example, we touched on the Windows 7 components in the article - How to enable or disable system components in Windows 7.

Installing Windows Server 2012 R2 Components

Before moving on to the procedure for installing the Windows Server components, let's decide which components we will install. For example, I propose to install two components, namely:

Windows Search (search service) - serves to ensure the search for the necessary information, both on the hard disk and on connected network resources. For faster searches, this service creates an index of the contents of the computer;
Desktop features - expands both graphical and other capabilities of the operating system (for example, a player is installed Windows Media, desktop themes appear, and much more).

Step 1

We open " Server manager"And choose" Add roles and components»

Step 2

The window “ Before starting work", If you want this window not to appear next time, then check the box" Skip this page by default", Click" Further»

Step 3

Then we choose “ Installing Roles and Features", Click" Further»

Step 4

We select the server on which we want to install the component, I have only one server (that is, this one), respectively, I select it, or rather, everything is selected by default, I press “ Further»

Step 5

Step 6

So we have come to the point when we need to select the necessary components for installation, we respectively search and put, checkboxes for the corresponding components, the "Next" button will be inactive until you select at least one component.

When you check the box next to "Desktop capabilities", a window will appear in which you will be prompted to install additional components that are necessary for the operation of this component, we add accordingly, click " Add components»

Step 7

Further, a brief summary, as well as on this window, you can check the box "Automatically restart the server", this is so that if suddenly the server needs to be restarted to complete the installation of the component, it will reboot itself, I will not tick the box (I prefer to restart the server myself), but I press immediately "Install"

Component installation starts

Step 8

And if you did not check the automatic restart box, a window will appear at the end, in which it will be said that to complete (in this case) you need to reboot, we respectively press " Close"And reboot

During the reboot, you will see the following picture

After rebooting, the components that we have selected will be installed, for example, we will have the item “ Personalization"If we right-click on the desktop, this indicates that the component" Desktop features»Installed (previously this item was not available).

Removing Windows Server 2012 R2 Components

Now let's look at the process of uninstalling Windows Server components, let's say that we thought we didn't need the Windows Search component, and we decided to uninstall it. To do this, open “ Server manager"And now we choose" Remove roles and features»

Further, there will be all the same windows " Before starting work», « Server selection", Then the choice of roles for deletion, we skip it, do not remove any checkmarks, but already on the window" Removing components»Uncheck the checkboxes from those components that we want to remove. As you understood the meaning is the same, and the windows are the same as during installation, only we do not check the boxes, but remove them from the already installed components. And we press " Further»

Now you have an idea of \u200b\u200bhow you can install and remove Windows Server 2012 R2 components, I think there will be no problems with both installation and removal, so I suggest finishing. Good luck!

Type