Microsoft KB Archive/294745

= The Performance of the Remote Desktop Connection or the Terminal Services Client Is Affected by Animation =

Article ID: 294745

Article Last Modified on 10/11/2006

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
 * Microsoft Windows XP Professional

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This article was previously published under Q294745





SUMMARY
This article discusses how the use of animation on a computer can affect the performance of either the Remote Desktop Connection or the former Terminal Services Client.



MORE INFORMATION
When you run animation and use either the Remote Desktop Connection or the Terminal Services Client to connect to any computer that runs Terminal Services, the performance on the session can be severely decreased because it requires greatly increased bandwidth to relay such animation sequences.

Items that can cause this behavior include, but are not limited to:
 * Animated mouse cursors
 * Screensavers
 * Animated icons in the notification area
 * Animated images in programs and on the Web
 * Video files
 * Animated wallpaper on the active desktop

After the Terminal Services session has started, the server sends only display changes to the client computer. The animation process requires constant updates to be sent to the client which can cause performance degradation. This degradation is more severe on slower connections.

NOTE: If you use images as wallpaper, you may also affect Terminal Server client performance. As items are moved on the desktop, parts of the wallpaper image must be sent again.

You can use the Group Policy objects for Terminal Services to disable the screensavers.

With the Experience Tab in the Remote Desktop Connection Client, you can enable or disable certain shell enhancements that contribute to overall session performance.

You can disable Shell enhancements such as Desktop Background, Menu and Window Animation, Bitmap caching, Show contents of window while dragging, and Themes to provide higher client performance, or you can enable them when you have sufficient bandwidth.

Keywords: kbinfo KB294745

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