Group Policies

The Group Policies determine global settings and set behaviour either for single servers or for Server groups.

The management console is accessible from Mercury. The below list contains their names and description, listed as they appear in the console:

EasyPrint order - Terminal Servers

Sets EasyPrint precedence over the Native printer driver (one which has to mirror the connected user's machine printer driver)

Freelancer lockdown - Terminal servers

Creates a 'bare' Desktop and no access to shared drives - used for people who only need to login to TS and use a single application with access to internet.

Idle session logoff

Makes sure all disconnected sessions (the user only clicks the cross at the top of the screen) are gracefully logged of after 6 hours.

Local Admin password expiry

There are cases where we need to use the server's local admin login for maintenance (even if the server is a member of domain). This group policy makes sure the server's local Administrator account's password never expires.

No pinned Server Manager and PowerShell

This is to fix a known Microsoft issue where any newly added Remote Desktop user has Server Manager and PowerShell shortcuts pinned to his quick launch. Not, if using this GP.

Prohibited TS users

Restricts network and resource access to Kiosk RDP users and 3rd party contractors.

VNC Ctrl-Alt-Del

Disables UAC (user account control) above the VNC service. This allows a user to send the Ctrl-Alt-Del from his remote session without getting blocked by UAC.

WSUS

Sets the apply time, frequency and address of the central Windows Update server (currently hosted on Abydos). All servers report and pull data from this machine.