Graphic Effects

A Terminal server relies on the network to transmit its output to the client terminals. Applications that make heavy use of graphic effects can degrade performance for all clients by slowing down the network. Slowed transmission might also keep the effects from being displayed as the designer intended.

Applications should disable or minimize the use of the following features when running in a Terminal Services environment as a remote session.

  • Splash screens They require additional bandwidth and force the user to wait before accessing the application.
  • Animations They consume both CPU time and network bandwidth.
  • Direct video-display I/O If you need to read bits from the screen, maintain a separate, off-screen copy of the video buffer. If you need to create elaborate screen output — overlaying multiple images, for example — do that work in an off-screen buffer.

See Also

Terminal Services Programming Guidelines

 Last updated on Saturday, April 10, 2004

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