Remote Desktop connection: anti-aliasing and color depth

When logging on using terminal services (remote desktop) anti-aliasing for fonts is disabled by default. However, by adding a value to the registry of the host machine this can easily be enabled.

(You will have to reboot the host, since you can't restart the Terminal Services service easily.)

Another limitation is the maximum color depth. By default, this is limited to 16-bit but it can be changed to 24-bit by changing the "ColorDepth" value in the registry of the host machine:

The DWORD value of 0x3 represents 16-bit and 0x4 represents 24-bit (which is, unfortunately, the maximum supported in XP, so no support for 32-bit). The value 0x3e7 is the option "client compatible".

This could also be added to the group policies: Computer config / Administrative templates / Windows components / Terminal services -> Limit maximum color depth.