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Enabling 24-bit colour RDP in Windows 2003

By admin | March 7, 2009

By default, Windows 2003 RDP connections were designed to be limited to 16-bit colour. This makes some of the Windows icons look bad because they were designed to be viewed in 24-bit colour or higher.

Windows 2003 RDP on 24-bit colour

  1. Go to Start -> Run.
  2. Type in gpedit.msc and click on OK to run the program.
  3. In the window that opens’ left panel, go to Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Terminal Services.
  4. On the right-hand panel, find the setting that says Limit maximum color depth and double-click it.
  5. In the dialog box that pops up, select Enabled from the radio buttons at the top of the dialog.
  6. In the combo box, select “24 bit” or “Client compactable“.
  7. Click OK.
  8. Restart the computer for settings to take effect.

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Topics: Windows | 1 Comment »

One Response to “Enabling 24-bit colour RDP in Windows 2003”

  1. How do I improve my screen resolution in Windows Remote Desktop? Drija Says:
    August 14th, 2011 at 8:12 am

    [...] http://www.compdigitec.com/labs/2009/03/07/enabling-24-bit-colour-rdp-in-windows-2003/ October 23, 2009 8:28 am rob As CodeByMoonlight has mentioned, Windows Server disables true color (24-bit and higher) by default. This is done to conserve resources and network bandwidth on a Terminal Server, which may typically have many users using Remote Desktop/Terminal Server Client simultaneously. October 23, 2009 9:40 am Jeff Well, this has not fixed everything — the fonts are still large and not very smooth, and it’s not as nice looking as the Win2K3 VM’s that I RDP into — but it’s certainly an improvement that I wouldn’t have figured out on my own. October 23, 2009 11:03 am [...]

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