Overview

H264 is the most widely used format for efficiently capturing, compressing, and distributing high-quality video content. Enabling it in Thinfinity® Workspace lets you deliver desktops and GPU-accelerated applications with high video quality while conserving bandwidth and system resources on the host.

This article walks you through the two configurations required to use H264 in remote sessions: turning on the option in the Workspace access profile, and enabling the matching Windows local group policy on the remote host. The same approach applies if you are publishing GPU-bound software such as AutoCAD on the web.

Prerequisites

• Thinfinity Workspace version 7 or later, installed and licensed.
• Administrative access to the remote host you are connecting to.
• A Workspace access profile already created for the connection you want to enhance.

Enable H264 in the Workspace Access Profile

First, turn on the H264 setting in the access profile that drives your connection.

1. Open the Thinfinity® Workspace Configuration Manager and go to the Access Profiles tab.
2. Select the profile for which you want to enable H264 and click Edit.
3. In the Profile Editor, open the Experience tab and tick the checkbox next to H264.
4. Click OK, then Apply the changes in the Configuration Manager.

Configure the Local Group Policy on the Remote Host

Once the profile is updated, enable the matching policy at the operating system level so Windows actually negotiates the H264/AVC codec for the session.

1. Click Start, type Edit Group Policy, and open the Local Group Policy Editor.
2. Navigate to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Remote Desktop Services > Remote Desktop Session Host > Remote Session Environment.
3. Right-click the policy Prioritize H.264/AVC 444 graphics mode for Remote Desktop Connections and select Edit.
4. In the policy window, choose Enabled, then click Apply and OK.
5. Open a Command Prompt window with administrator privileges and run the following to apply the policy immediately:

gpupdate /force

Wait for the confirmation messages indicating that the computer and user policies were updated successfully.

Verification

Launch a new connection through the access profile you edited and play video content or interact with a GPU-accelerated application. You should see noticeably smoother playback and sharper visuals compared with sessions where H264 was not enabled, while bandwidth consumption remains lower than with uncompressed remote graphics.

Troubleshooting

• No quality change after enabling H264: confirm that both the access profile checkbox and the Windows group policy are enabled, and that the policy was applied with gpupdate /force.
• Setting changes do not stick: reopen the Configuration Manager and verify the profile was saved with Apply; the toggle lives on the Experience tab of the profile, not in global settings.
• Existing session unchanged: H264 negotiation happens at session start. Disconnect and reconnect after applying the policy for the change to take effect.

Continue reading on our blog

• Optimize Remote Desktops with Thinfinity® Workspace and H.264 Encoding | Seamless GPU Performance
• Introducing Real-Time Audio and Video (RTAV) on Virtual Desktops