rd disconnected Enable multiple Remote Desktop Connections to your XP or MCE Machine.

Have you ever remote desktoped (that’s a word isn’t it?) into your home machine and kicked off your significant other? You wind up with her Bloomingdales order form and she winds up mad. She logs back in and kicks you off – fun, fun, fun.

We found a nifty little trick from Golod.com dating back a few years… He found out that by using a XP RC2 termserver.dll file and a little registry know-how you can enable up to 3 concurrent remote desktop sessions to the one machine. This makes it like Windows Server 2000 or 2003.

If you use a Windows Media Center this is gold. As the author goes on to describe when he remoted into his MCE machine the TV output would stop – weak. So this was his work-a-round…

Here is a HACK (translated: USE AT YOUR OWN RISK), to enable multiple Remote Desktop sessions on your XP Pro or MCE 2005 box:

NOTE: You will have to have knowledge of the Windows operating system and more specifically the Windows Registry. If you have no experience with the registry, then I would recommend you find someone who does or leave these alone. I do not make any kind of warranty that this will work for you or your friends. This is provided for entertainment purposes only. Don’t call me if your computer stops working. Got it?

  1. Print these directions so that you have them to work from.
  2. Restart your computer in Safe Mode – Follow this link to learn how to restart Windows XP in Safe Mode
  3. Turn off/disable Remote Desktop Connection (RDC) and Terminal Services
  4. Right click My Computer
  5. Select Properties
  6. Click on the Remote tab at the top of the window
  7. UNCHECK the box next to, “Allow users to connect remotely to this computer“
  8. Click OK
  9. Go to Start -> Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Services
  10. Find Terminal Services in the list
  11. Right click on Terminal Services and click Properties
  12. In the Startup Type box, select Disabled
  13. Click OK to close the window
  14. Next you will replace the current version of the Terminal Services DLL (termsrv.dll) with an unrestricted version from a previous release of Terminal Services. (XP RC2 to be exact)
  15. Here is a copy of the Terminal Services DLL – Save it to your Desktop or other suitable location
  16. Using a file manager like Windows Explorer open C:\Windows\system32\dllcache
  17. Rename the file termsrv.dll to termsrv_dll.bak or whatever you would like.
  18. Copy the downloaded termsrv.dll file (the one you just downloaded from the web) to C:\Windows\system32\dllcache
  19. Open the C:\Windows\system32 folder
  20. Delete the file termsrv.dll in C:\Windows\system32
  21. Now we can edit the Windows Registry to enable more than one RDP connection. Go to Start -> Run and type regedit – Hopefully you knew that already
  22. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server\Licensing Core
  23. Add a DWORD Key named EnableConcurrentSessions and give it a value of 1
  24. Close the Registry Editor window
  25. Go to Start -> Run and type gpedit.msc to run the Group Policy Editor
  26. Browse to Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Terminal Services and double click Limit number of connections
  27. Select the Enabled button and enter the number of connections you would like to enable….at least 2.
  28. Restart Windows
  29. Right click My Computer and select Properties.
  30. Click on the Remote tab at the top of the window
  31. CHECK the box next to, “Allow users to connect remotely to this computer“
  32. Click OK
  33. Go to Start -> Control Panel ->Administrative Tools -> Services. Select Terminal Services from the list and double click it or right-click -> Properties. Set the Startup Type to Manual.
  34. Restart Windows/Computer

You should be good to go.

[Via Golod.com]

_TheSchitzoAdmiN_