If you would like to publish applications with Windows Server 2008 and you would like to have the Windows Vista look and feel, take a look below.
You can get access to a published application from an .rdp file or from an .msi but in this case, I made the application available using TS Web Access:
When the user goes to the TS Web Access page and clicks the icon, a few dialogs will pop up because you have to authenticate. After that, Paint should appear in a seamless window like below:
This is fine but I would like the Vista look and feel because my client runs Vista. This is very simple to accomplish:
- On the Terminal Server, set the Themes service to automatic and start it.
- Force the Aero theme with a Group Policy: the setting is in User Configuration / Administrative Templates / Control Panel / Display / Desktop Themes and the setting is called: Load a specific visual style file or force Windows Classic. Then set the path to the theme file. It is %windir%\resources\Themes\aero\aero.msstyles.
When a user starts the Paint application from TS Web Access he/she will now get:
At first, I thought I had to install the Desktop Experience feature of Windows Server 2008 but that feature just adds client programs such as Windows Calendar, Mail, Photo Gallery etc...
As an additional tip: if you are trying this yourself and you use Windows Server 2008 RC0 or higher, make sure that you use Vista SP1 beta or Windows Server 2008 as the client for TS Web Access. For more info see this.
