I have a beginner's question that I am stumped by. I am running Server 2008 R2 and have 5 RDS CAL licenses. Under the Administrator account, I installed a few programs like malwarebytes, speccy, ccleaner, etc. When I log on to another user account without administrator priveledges using RDS, what shows up on the desktop are my programs that are installed on the Administrator account. How can this be? I need to have each one of my remote desktop user accounts have their own fresh empty desktop that reflect only the software intended for that account only. Please help! thanks

Hello, lot's of programs install under the all users profile and this way they are shown for everybody logging to the machine. So check the shortcut's under the different built-in profiles and remove the shortcut's you do not won't to have for other accounts. Copy them only to the account that should have them. Keep in mind that this will not restrict people from starting programs if they are able to find the .exe to run it. During installation on some programs you are also able to choose the installation for all users or for the current user, but this belongs to the software vendor.Best regards Meinolf Weber Disclaimer: This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties or guarantees , and confers no rights.

Thank you kindly for answering. What do you recommend I do with the pre-existing software that already exists? How do I stop the other users from starting up the .exe? Off topic, do you happen to know any good third-party monitoring software to check on what my employees do with their time? thank you!

Addendum: It seems when I deleted the shortcuts off the user remote desktop, they deleted off the Administrator desktop too. I am stumped by this.. any idea ?

Hello, you have to see the default folders and where the application has added the shortcuts. In that folder remove them and copy them to the administrator folder. To restrict .exe files you can use GPOs as centralized solution or you change the permissions on the .exe and remove the local users, just make sure the system/administrators/administrator are still available, so you are able to access the applications. If possible built a lab machine and test it before doing it on the production system. No, i don't know about such tools.Best regards Meinolf Weber Disclaimer: This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties or guarantees , and confers no rights.