Improving the Performance of SMS Remote Tools

Article
12/08/2008

There are a number of steps that you can take to enhance the performance of Remote Tools applications on your SMS site. These steps can reduce network bandwidth usage and increase the speed and efficiency of Remote Tools, particularly Remote Control sessions. The following sections describe several ways to enhance the performance of Remote Tools.

Remove Unnecessary Administrator Group Entries After Upgrading from SMS 2.0

SMS 2.0 and Windows NT 4.0 or later include multiple language-specific versions of the Administrator group. Because SMS 2.0 cannot determine which language-specific versions are required for a given SMS site, all localized versions of the Administrators group are added to the Permitted Viewers list. When you upgrade from SMS 2.0 to SMS 2003, these entries remain in the Permitted Viewers list.

To reduce network bandwidth usage and enhance the performance of Remote Tools, remove all unnecessary language-specific versions of the Administrator group from the Permitted Viewers list on the Security tab in the Remote Tools Client Agent Properties dialog box. Doing so enhances the performance of SMS Remote Tools by reducing the number of permitted viewers that are authenticated by the domain controller each time that you initiate a Remote Tools function.

Enable Video Acceleration

Enable video acceleration and, for clients running Windows NT 4.0, use the default set of tested and supported video drivers. Video acceleration works by sending an image of only the smallest rectangular area that includes all changes to the client's screen each time that it changes, instead of sending an image of the entire screen. Video acceleration works for clients running Windows NT 4.0 or later. For more information, see the "Video Acceleration" section earlier in this chapter.

Enable 16-Color Viewing

Enabling 16-color viewing significantly increases the speed of Remote Control sessions by reducing the color depth for clients that are using 256 colors or more. This feature is available on the Control menu of the Remote Control Client Viewer window.

To enable 16-color viewing, click the upper-left corner of the Remote Control Client Viewer window or press ALT+SPACEBAR to open the Control menu. Click Configure, and then select the 16 Color Viewing check box in the Control Parameters dialog box.

This option remains enabled for all Remote Control sessions until you disable it. While this feature is active, the client is visually unaffected, but the client desktop displayed within the Remote Control Client Viewer window uses only 16 colors.

Enable Wallpaper Suppression

You can also use the Control menu in the Remote Control Client Viewer window to select the Suppress client wallpaper check box. This feature causes clients to temporarily suspend their desktop wallpaper. When you complete the Remote Control session, the wallpaper is restored on the client. This feature is useful when you are conducting a Remote Control session with a client with high-color or elaborate background wallpaper. The Suppress client wallpaper option remains enabled for all Remote Control sessions until you disable it.

For More Information

Did you find this information useful? Please send your suggestions and comments about the documentation to smsdocs@microsoft.com.