Enhanced Session Mode in Windows Server 2012 R2

Q: What is Enhanced Session Mode in Windows Server 2012 R2 Hyper-V?

A: One change in Windows Server 2012 R2 for virtual machines (VMs) is that the Remote Desktop Connection can now integrate with the VMBus, which is used between a VM and the parent partition. This enables VM connections (via Hyper-V Manager or via VMConnect.exe) to leverage functionality traditionally associated with RDP connections, including:

The requirements that need to be met are as follows:

When you connect to a VM that supports ESM, an initial dialog allows configuration of display and local resources redirected in addition to letting you save the configuration. Any saved configurations are written to %APPDATA%RoamingMicrosoftWindowsHyper-VClient1.0 with a name format of vmconnect.rdp..config.

Note that this is considered an administrative connection, so the RDS CAL isn't required.