3,381 settings · 22H2 · 1.0 · 15 Jul 2024

3 settingsCSV

Windows Components › Remote Desktop Services › Remote Desktop Session Host › Remote Session Environment › RemoteFX for Windows Server 2008 R2

Optimize visual experience for Remote Desktop Service Sessions

ComputerNative Intune settingTS_SERVER_VISEXP

Supported on Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2 (and their subsequent Service Packs) only

22H2 · 1.0

What it does

This policy setting allows you to specify the visual experience that remote users receive in Remote Desktop Services sessions. Remote sessions on the remote computer are then optimized to support this visual experience. By default, Remote Desktop Services sessions are optimized for rich multimedia, such as applications that use Silverlight or Windows Presentation Foundation. If you enable this policy setting, you must select the visual experience for which you want to optimize Remote Desktop Services sessions. You can select either Rich multimedia or Text. If you disable or do not configure this policy setting, Remote Desktop Services sessions are optimized for rich multimedia.

What it writes

Hive: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Registry key: SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows NT\Terminal Services

In Intune

Native Intune setting: Yes — Policy CSP

./Device/Vendor/MSFT/Policy/Config/ADMX_TerminalServer/TS_SERVER_VISEXPADMX_TerminalServer on Microsoft LearnADMX-backed: Windows ships this template, so it is set with the template's own values, without an import.Windows builds listed: 10.0.22000, 10.0.19043.1202, 10.0.19042.1202, 10.0.19041.1202.

From Microsoft's Policy CSP DDF files (DDF v2 Files, February 2026), read 18 Oct 2026.

Options

Option	Type	Registry value	Allowed values
Visual experienceDefault: Rich multimedia	Drop-down list	`VisualExperiencePolicy`	Rich multimedia`1` Text`2`

Configure and deploy

Choose a state and the option values; the output below is generated from the template for exactly that.

Enabled · Computer · template defaults

Registry file (.reg)

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows NT\Terminal Services]
"VisualExperiencePolicy"=dword:00000001

PowerShell

$ErrorActionPreference = 'Stop'

function Set-RegistryValue {
    param(
        [Parameter(Mandatory = $true)][string] $Path,
        [Parameter(Mandatory = $true)][string] $Name,
        [Parameter(Mandatory = $true)][string] $PropertyType,
        [Parameter(Mandatory = $true)][object] $Value
    )

    if (-not (Test-Path -LiteralPath $Path)) {
        New-Item -Path $Path -Force | Out-Null
    }

    New-ItemProperty -LiteralPath $Path -Name $Name -PropertyType $PropertyType -Value $Value -Force | Out-Null
}

function Remove-RegistryValue {
    param(
        [Parameter(Mandatory = $true)][string] $Path,
        [Parameter(Mandatory = $true)][string] $Name
    )

    if (Test-Path -LiteralPath $Path) {
        Remove-ItemProperty -LiteralPath $Path -Name $Name -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
    }
}

function Clear-RegistryKeyValues {
    param(
        [Parameter(Mandatory = $true)][string] $Path
    )

    if (-not (Test-Path -LiteralPath $Path)) {
        return
    }

    foreach ($propertyName in (Get-Item -LiteralPath $Path).Property) {
        Remove-ItemProperty -LiteralPath $Path -Name $propertyName -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
    }
}

# Policy: Optimize visual experience for Remote Desktop Service Sessions
# Name: TS_SERVER_VISEXP
# Scope: Machine
# State: Enabled
# Source: TerminalServer.admx

Set-RegistryValue -Path 'Registry::HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows NT\Terminal Services' -Name 'VisualExperiencePolicy' -PropertyType 'DWord' -Value 1

These deployment candidates come from the ADMX template; they are separate from the native CSP mapping above.

The OMA-URI is an inferred ADMX-backed Policy CSP candidate derived from the source ADMX file name and policy name.
Some Microsoft policies use built-in Policy CSP pages whose area names don't match the ADMX file name, so verify the candidate against Microsoft Learn before deployment.

ADMX profile candidate (OMA-URI)

./Device/Vendor/MSFT/Policy/Config/ADMX_TerminalServer/TS_SERVER_VISEXP

ADMX SyncML candidate

<SyncML xmlns="SYNCML:SYNCML1.2">
  <SyncBody>
    <Replace>
      <CmdID>1</CmdID>
      <Item>
        <Meta>
          <Format>chr</Format>
          <Type>text/plain</Type>
        </Meta>
        <Target>
          <LocURI>./Device/Vendor/MSFT/Policy/Config/ADMX_TerminalServer/TS_SERVER_VISEXP</LocURI>
        </Target>
        <Data>&lt;enabled/&gt;
&lt;data id="TS_VISEXP_SETTINGS" value="1"/&gt;</Data>
      </Item>
    </Replace>
    <Final/>
  </SyncBody>
</SyncML>

Intune remediation scripts

Detection

$ErrorActionPreference = 'Stop'
$reasons = [System.Collections.Generic.List[string]]::new()

function Test-RegistryValueExists {
    param(
        [Parameter(Mandatory = $true)][string] $Path,
        [Parameter(Mandatory = $true)][string] $Name
    )

    if (-not (Test-Path -LiteralPath $Path)) {
        return $false
    }

    return $null -ne (Get-ItemProperty -LiteralPath $Path -Name $Name -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue)
}

function Test-RegistryValueEquals {
    param(
        [Parameter(Mandatory = $true)][string] $Path,
        [Parameter(Mandatory = $true)][string] $Name,
        [Parameter(Mandatory = $true)][string] $Kind,
        [Parameter(Mandatory = $true)][object] $Expected
    )

    if (-not (Test-Path -LiteralPath $Path)) {
        return $false
    }

    $valueObject = Get-ItemProperty -LiteralPath $Path -Name $Name -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
    if ($null -eq $valueObject) {
        return $false
    }

    $actual = $valueObject.$Name
    switch ($Kind) {
        'String' { return [string]$actual -ceq [string]$Expected }
        'ExpandString' { return [string]$actual -ceq [string]$Expected }
        'DWord' { return [uint32]$actual -eq [uint32]$Expected }
        'QWord' { return [uint64]$actual -eq [uint64]$Expected }
        'MultiString' {
            $actualArray = @($actual)
            $expectedArray = @($Expected)
            if ($actualArray.Count -ne $expectedArray.Count) { return $false }
            for ($index = 0; $index -lt $actualArray.Count; $index++) {
                if ([string]$actualArray[$index] -cne [string]$expectedArray[$index]) { return $false }
            }
            return $true
        }
        'Binary' {
            $actualArray = [byte[]]$actual
            $expectedArray = [byte[]]$Expected
            if ($actualArray.Length -ne $expectedArray.Length) { return $false }
            for ($index = 0; $index -lt $actualArray.Length; $index++) {
                if ($actualArray[$index] -ne $expectedArray[$index]) { return $false }
            }
            return $true
        }
        default { return [string]$actual -ceq [string]$Expected }
    }
}

# Policy: Optimize visual experience for Remote Desktop Service Sessions
# Name: TS_SERVER_VISEXP
# Scope: Machine
# State: Enabled
# Source: TerminalServer.admx

$isMatch = Test-RegistryValueEquals -Path 'Registry::HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows NT\Terminal Services' -Name 'VisualExperiencePolicy' -Kind 'DWord' -Expected 1
if (-not $isMatch) {
    $reasons.Add('Value mismatch: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows NT\Terminal Services\VisualExperiencePolicy') | Out-Null
}

if ($reasons.Count -eq 0) {
    Write-Output 'Compliant'
    exit 0
}

$reasons | ForEach-Object { Write-Output $_ }
exit 1

Remediation

$ErrorActionPreference = 'Stop'

function Set-RegistryValue {
    param(
        [Parameter(Mandatory = $true)][string] $Path,
        [Parameter(Mandatory = $true)][string] $Name,
        [Parameter(Mandatory = $true)][string] $PropertyType,
        [Parameter(Mandatory = $true)][object] $Value
    )

    if (-not (Test-Path -LiteralPath $Path)) {
        New-Item -Path $Path -Force | Out-Null
    }

    New-ItemProperty -LiteralPath $Path -Name $Name -PropertyType $PropertyType -Value $Value -Force | Out-Null
}

function Remove-RegistryValue {
    param(
        [Parameter(Mandatory = $true)][string] $Path,
        [Parameter(Mandatory = $true)][string] $Name
    )

    if (Test-Path -LiteralPath $Path) {
        Remove-ItemProperty -LiteralPath $Path -Name $Name -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
    }
}

function Clear-RegistryKeyValues {
    param(
        [Parameter(Mandatory = $true)][string] $Path
    )

    if (-not (Test-Path -LiteralPath $Path)) {
        return
    }

    foreach ($propertyName in (Get-Item -LiteralPath $Path).Property) {
        Remove-ItemProperty -LiteralPath $Path -Name $propertyName -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
    }
}

# Policy: Optimize visual experience for Remote Desktop Service Sessions
# Name: TS_SERVER_VISEXP
# Scope: Machine
# State: Enabled
# Source: TerminalServer.admx

Set-RegistryValue -Path 'Registry::HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows NT\Terminal Services' -Name 'VisualExperiencePolicy' -PropertyType 'DWord' -Value 1

History 2 retained releases

22H2 · 1.015 Jul 2024
- Translations changed; choose a language above to compare its wording.
1607 · 2.015 Jul 2024
- Already present in the first release ChangeIntel keeps.

Template

Internal name: TS_SERVER_VISEXP
Namespace: Microsoft.Policies.TerminalServer
Template file: TerminalServer.admx
Release: Windows 10 22H2 · 1.0 · file set bc15f6a5271783ee…

Definition, editor controls and support

Definition

<policy class="Machine" displayName="$(string.TS_SERVER_VISEXP)" explainText="$(string.TS_SERVER_VISEXP_EXPLAIN)" key="SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows NT\Terminal Services" name="TS_SERVER_VISEXP" presentation="$(presentation.TS_SERVER_VISEXP)" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/GroupPolicy/2006/07/PolicyDefinitions">
      <parentCategory ref="Microsoft.Policies.TerminalServer:TS_LEGACY_REMOTEFX" />
      <supportedOn ref="Microsoft.Policies.TerminalServer:TS_SUPPORTED_ONLY_Windows7_OR_SERVER2K8R2" />
      <elements>
        <enum id="TS_VISEXP_SETTINGS" valueName="VisualExperiencePolicy">
          <item displayName="$(string.TS_SERVER_VISEXP_RICHMEDIA)">
            <value>
              <decimal value="1" />
            </value>
          </item>
          <item displayName="$(string.TS_SERVER_VISEXP_TEXT)">
            <value>
              <decimal value="2" />
            </value>
          </item>
        </enum>
      </elements>
    </policy>

Editor controls

<presentation id="TS_SERVER_VISEXP" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/GroupPolicy/2006/07/PolicyDefinitions">
        <dropdownList defaultItem="0" noSort="true" refId="TS_VISEXP_SETTINGS">Visual experience:</dropdownList>
      </presentation>

Supported platforms and category

Microsoft.Policies.TerminalServer:category:TS_GP_NODE
<category displayName="$(string.TS_GP_NODE)" explainText="$(string.TS_User_Help)" name="TS_GP_NODE" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/GroupPolicy/2006/07/PolicyDefinitions">
      <parentCategory ref="Microsoft.Policies.Windows:WindowsComponents" />
    </category>
Microsoft.Policies.TerminalServer:category:TS_LEGACY_REMOTEFX
<category displayName="$(string.TS_LEGACY_REMOTEFX)" explainText="$(string.TS_LEGACY_REMOTEFX_Comp_Help)" name="TS_LEGACY_REMOTEFX" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/GroupPolicy/2006/07/PolicyDefinitions">
      <parentCategory ref="Microsoft.Policies.TerminalServer:TS_SESSIONS" />
    </category>
Microsoft.Policies.TerminalServer:category:TS_SESSIONS
<category displayName="$(string.TS_SESSIONS)" explainText="$(string.TS_SESSIONS_Comp_Help)" name="TS_SESSIONS" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/GroupPolicy/2006/07/PolicyDefinitions">
      <parentCategory ref="Microsoft.Policies.TerminalServer:TS_TERMINAL_SERVER" />
    </category>
Microsoft.Policies.TerminalServer:category:TS_TERMINAL_SERVER
<category displayName="$(string.TS_TERMINAL_SERVER)" explainText="$(string.TS_TERMINAL_SERVER_Help)" name="TS_TERMINAL_SERVER" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/GroupPolicy/2006/07/PolicyDefinitions">
      <parentCategory ref="Microsoft.Policies.TerminalServer:TS_GP_NODE" />
    </category>
Microsoft.Policies.TerminalServer:definition:TS_SUPPORTED_ONLY_Windows7_OR_SERVER2K8R2
<definition displayName="$(string.TS_SUPPORTED_ONLY_Windows7_OR_SERVER2K8R2)" name="TS_SUPPORTED_ONLY_Windows7_OR_SERVER2K8R2" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/GroupPolicy/2006/07/PolicyDefinitions">
          <or>
              <range minVersionIndex="2" ref="Microsoft.Policies.Products:WindowsServer2008_R2" />
              <range minVersionIndex="7" ref="Microsoft.Policies.Products:MicrosoftWindows7_RTM" />
          </or>
      </definition>
Microsoft.Policies.TerminalServer:unresolved:Microsoft.Policies.Products:MicrosoftWindows7_RTM
<unresolved reference="Microsoft.Policies.Products:MicrosoftWindows7_RTM" />
Microsoft.Policies.TerminalServer:unresolved:Microsoft.Policies.Products:WindowsServer2008_R2
<unresolved reference="Microsoft.Policies.Products:WindowsServer2008_R2" />
Microsoft.Policies.Windows:category:WindowsComponents
<category displayName="$(string.WindowsComponents)" explainText="$(string.WindowsComponents_Help)" name="WindowsComponents" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/GroupPolicy/2006/07/PolicyDefinitions" />
Microsoft.Policies.TerminalServer:category:TS_GP_NODE
<category displayName="$(string.TS_GP_NODE)" explainText="$(string.TS_User_Help)" name="TS_GP_NODE" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/GroupPolicy/2006/07/PolicyDefinitions">
      <parentCategory ref="Microsoft.Policies.Windows:WindowsComponents" />
    </category>
<strings><string id="Microsoft.Policies.TerminalServer:TS_GP_NODE">Remote Desktop Services</string><string id="Microsoft.Policies.TerminalServer:TS_User_Help">Controls configuration of Remote Desktop Services technologies that enable access to a server running Windows-based programs or the full Windows desktop</string></strings>
Microsoft.Policies.TerminalServer:category:TS_LEGACY_REMOTEFX
<category displayName="$(string.TS_LEGACY_REMOTEFX)" explainText="$(string.TS_LEGACY_REMOTEFX_Comp_Help)" name="TS_LEGACY_REMOTEFX" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/GroupPolicy/2006/07/PolicyDefinitions">
      <parentCategory ref="Microsoft.Policies.TerminalServer:TS_SESSIONS" />
    </category>
<strings><string id="Microsoft.Policies.TerminalServer:TS_LEGACY_REMOTEFX">RemoteFX for Windows Server 2008 R2</string><string id="Microsoft.Policies.TerminalServer:TS_LEGACY_REMOTEFX_Comp_Help">Configures all policies that apply to RemoteFX for Windows Server 2008 R2  with Service Pack 1.</string></strings>
Microsoft.Policies.TerminalServer:category:TS_SESSIONS
<category displayName="$(string.TS_SESSIONS)" explainText="$(string.TS_SESSIONS_Comp_Help)" name="TS_SESSIONS" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/GroupPolicy/2006/07/PolicyDefinitions">
      <parentCategory ref="Microsoft.Policies.TerminalServer:TS_TERMINAL_SERVER" />
    </category>
<strings><string id="Microsoft.Policies.TerminalServer:TS_SESSIONS">Remote Session Environment</string><string id="Microsoft.Policies.TerminalServer:TS_SESSIONS_Comp_Help">Controls configuration of the user interface in Remote Desktop Services sessions </string></strings>
Microsoft.Policies.TerminalServer:category:TS_TERMINAL_SERVER
<category displayName="$(string.TS_TERMINAL_SERVER)" explainText="$(string.TS_TERMINAL_SERVER_Help)" name="TS_TERMINAL_SERVER" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/GroupPolicy/2006/07/PolicyDefinitions">
      <parentCategory ref="Microsoft.Policies.TerminalServer:TS_GP_NODE" />
    </category>
<strings><string id="Microsoft.Policies.TerminalServer:TS_TERMINAL_SERVER">Remote Desktop Session Host</string><string id="Microsoft.Policies.TerminalServer:TS_TERMINAL_SERVER_Help">Controls configuration of a Remote Desktop Session Host server</string></strings>
Microsoft.Policies.TerminalServer:definition:TS_SUPPORTED_ONLY_Windows7_OR_SERVER2K8R2
<definition displayName="$(string.TS_SUPPORTED_ONLY_Windows7_OR_SERVER2K8R2)" name="TS_SUPPORTED_ONLY_Windows7_OR_SERVER2K8R2" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/GroupPolicy/2006/07/PolicyDefinitions">
          <or>
              <range minVersionIndex="2" ref="Microsoft.Policies.Products:WindowsServer2008_R2" />
              <range minVersionIndex="7" ref="Microsoft.Policies.Products:MicrosoftWindows7_RTM" />
          </or>
      </definition>
<strings><string id="Microsoft.Policies.TerminalServer:TS_SUPPORTED_ONLY_Windows7_OR_SERVER2K8R2">Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2 (and their subsequent Service Packs) only</string></strings>
Microsoft.Policies.Windows:category:WindowsComponents
<category displayName="$(string.WindowsComponents)" explainText="$(string.WindowsComponents_Help)" name="WindowsComponents" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/GroupPolicy/2006/07/PolicyDefinitions" />
<strings><string id="Microsoft.Policies.Windows:WindowsComponents">Windows Components</string><string id="Microsoft.Policies.Windows:WindowsComponents_Help">Contains settings for operating system components.</string></strings>