Identify Client Hardware Requirements

Clients that run Terminal Services are not required to have much processing power. Therefore, it is very easy to integrate Terminal Services into a network that has older computers and equipment. Terminal Services supports the following platforms: Microsoft Windows 2000, Microsoft Windows NT, Microsoft Windows 98, Microsoft Windows 95, Microsoft Windows for Workgroups 3.11, Windows CE Handheld PC 3.0, and Windows-based Terminals. The following table describes the client hardware requirements.

The requirements for the 32-bit and 16-bit versions of Terminal Services Client are the system and hardware requirements for the operating system. A network adapter and the TCP/IP protocol must also be installed on the client. The 32-bit software is designed to run on 32-bit operating systems that include the entire Windows NT family (including Windows 2000 clients). The 32-bit Terminal Server Client also runs on Win9x clients such as Windows 95 and Windows 98.
The amount of network traffic between the Terminal Server and client is kept at a reasonable minimum. Therefore, while always preferable, a Fast Ethernet adapter is not required.

Although vendors offer a variety of hardware configurations for handheld PCs, the HPC 3.0 specification defines a minimum hardware configuration that supports the Terminal Services Client. Before purchasing any Windows CE Terminal Client you must check the manufacturer's specifications regarding support for the Terminal Client software. Of course, the HPC device must support a network connection in order to interface with the Terminal Server.

Your company has about 300 computers and all of them run Office 4.3 on Windows for Workgroups. There are several on the network, two Windows NT 3.51, and a Windows NT 4.0 server that is the Primary Domain Controller. The other servers are used for File and Print Services.
You would like to take advantage of the power and features included with the latest version of Microsoft Office, which is Office 2000. However, most of the computers are 386 and 486 computers with 8 to 16 MB of RAM.
In order to run Office 2000, you would need to upgrade all the machines to Pentium-class processors and upgrade the amount of RAM to at least 32 MB. While you may be able to do this on some of the 486 computers, few 386 computers can support that much RAM, and even the 486 computers likely use Fast Page Mode RAM, which is very difficult to find these days.
Although your hardware is aging, overall it works fine, and management does not support buying new hardware until there is no alternative. They ask you for any alternatives. You suggest upgrading the servers to Windows 2000 and using at least two of them as Terminal Servers with Office 2000 installed. In order to accomplish this task, you need to upgrade the RAM on the machines that have less than 16 MB. However, since the operating system is Windows for Workgroups, you may be able to get by with 12 MB or even 8 MB. All of the machines have VGA cards and therefore support the required 256 colors to run the Terminal Server Client. The next lesson looks at how to define server configuration for Terminal Services.

Before you move on to the next lesson, click the Exercise button to try your hand at identifying the hardware requirements for installing Terminal Service.