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I am using Guacamole 0.9.7 which uses RDP through a middle server to then project the RDP to a web browser. Works great, but I have users who want font smoothing. Guacamole doesn't yet support font-smoothing over RDP. There are some manual fixes, but they look daunting and no guarantee it will work.

What I am wondering is if there is a way to simply force font smoothing on the Windows 2012 server. I can set font smoothing manually after connecting, but it goes away the next time a user connects. I also would prefer to use RemoteApps as opposed to giving them access to the full desktop, so they wouldn't even have the option to set it manually every time.

I've dug around endlessly in the registry, group policy and searched the web, but I can find nothing that will force font smoothing to stick. Any ideas/suggestions?

A batch file that enables font smoothing that I could put in the startup folder would also be fine. If anyone knows the command lines for that, it would be much appreciated.

Mike
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  • do you mean that the Server forces all RDP-Clients to use anti-aliasing or that the Server provides the anti-aliasing? – Kevin Horvat Aug 20 '15 at 18:55
  • Currently with Windows "Remote Desktop Connection" there is an option under the "Experience" tab that allows "Font smoothing" to be enabled or disabled. The Guacamole software doesn't (currently) support this option. It seems that the server sets font smoothing to off unless explicitly told to turn it on. It can be turned on manually after connecting, but it resets back to default "off" every time a user reconnects. If I have to turn it on for every user on the server, that's fine. Whatever it takes to get it working. Even a batch file that would modify this setting on login would be good. – Mike Aug 20 '15 at 19:14

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As of Guacamole 0.9.8, you can enable font smoothing using the enable-font-smoothing parameter: http://guac-dev.org/doc/gug/configuring-guacamole.html#rdp-perf-flags

From the documentation linked above:

If set to "true", text will be rendered with smooth edges. Text over RDP is rendered with rough edges by default, as this reduces the number of colors used by text, and thus reduces the bandwidth required for the connection.

The corresponding issue in JIRA was GUAC-835 ("Support RDP performance flags").

Mike Jumper
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Enable/disable ClearType in Windows7 Found that buried in the internets. It worked for me on a Windows 10 test machine through guacamole. Make it a logon script or something. powershell "& 'C:\myscript.ps1' 1" Found that command in the comments, should let you make it into a batch file if needed. If you've figured out how to get clipboard sharing and sound and other integrated stuff, please share.

Community
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Kent
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I figured out how to enable font smoothing in Windows Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) for Windows Server 2012 when a user logs in and/or when they reconnect to a remote session.

  1. Download and install a program called ClearTypeSwitch.
  2. Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Task Scheduler
  3. Select "Create Task..."
  4. General tab, name it and check "Run with highest privileges" and "Hidden"
  5. Create two triggers "On connection to user session" and "At log on"
  6. Actions "C:\Program Files (x86)\ClearType Switch\ClearTypeSwitch.exe" s+ c+"
  7. Click "Ok"
Mike
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