The Exchange Server 2003 Resource Kit is almost ready for the shops. It should be available by the end of March 2005 and coming soon to the C7 Solutions web site is a book givaway. I have some copies to distribute as I am one of the authors of the book.
Author: Brian Reid
Categories
Enabling Remote Desktop Remotely
Run the following from a Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 PC:
WMIC /NODE:”client” /USER:”nwtraders\administrator” RDTOGGLE WHERE ServerName=”client” CALL SetAllowTSConnections 1
Categories
Two Logins To Install Software
With Windows XP you sometimes see that your Group Policy settings take two reboots or two logins to work. This is because Windows XP operates (by default) in a mode called Fast Logon Optimization. This means that the computer boots and logs in quicker, but it does mean that events that should occur during the computers boot or login will be delayed until the second boot or login.
Examples of events that this effects are software installations via Group Policy and folder redirection (i.e. home folders). During (or usually just after) the first boot/logon XP sets a flag and then during the second boot/logon Windows operates one time only without the Fast Logon enabled.
An example of the two events that appear in the event log (in chronological order) are:
Event Type: Warning
Event Source: Application Management
Event Category: None
Event ID: 108
Date:
Time:Event Type: Warning
Event Source: Application Management
Event Category: None
Event ID: 101
Date:
Time:
This behaviour can be changed by turning the Fast Logon Optimization off. This can be switched on and off via Group Policy and the following setting:
Computer Configuration
Administrative Templates
System
Logon
Always wait for the network at computer startup and logon
More on Fast Logon Optimization can be found in article 305293 at Microsoft Support.
The default port for Remote Desktop is 3389, but there are cases where it is useful to change this port, for example on the external interface of a firewall should you be providing remote support of said firewall. These steps are known to work on Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. They have not been tested by me on other versions of Windows.
On the Remote Desktop Server
- Start Registry Editor (Regedt32.exe).
- Locate the following key in the registry:HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ System\ CurrentControlSet\ Control\ TerminalServer\ WinStations\ RDP-Tcp\ PortNumber
- On the Edit menu, click Modify, click Decimal, type the new port number, and
then click OK.
- Quit Registry Editor.
On the Client
- Click Start, click All Programs, point to Accessories,
point to Communications, and then click Remote Desktop Connection.
- In the Computer box, type the computer name or IP address of the
computer to which you want to connect, followed by a colon (:) and the port
number you want to use.For example, to connect to port 3390 on a computer named “MyXPPro,”
type the following information: MyXPPro:3390To connect to port 3391 on a computer with IP address 10.10.10.1,
type the following information: 10.10.10.1:3391
More information at
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;306759 and
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;304304
Categories
Enabling Remote Desktop During Installation
If you are installing a number of servers and you want to ensure that Remote
Desktop is enabled on each then add the following lines to the unattend file
that you are using to build the Windows servers (or XP client)
[TerminalServices]
AllowConnections=1
Categories
How to enable remote desktop remotely
Lots of sites on the internet discuss how to enable remote desktop in Windows XP and Windows 2003 Server, but the majority of them require you to have physical access to the computer first. So how do you enable remote desktop when you do not have physical access to the computer. It is all to do with the registry!
- Make a network connection to the remote computer to ensure that you have administrative access to the machine (i.e. \\computer\c$). This will prompt for a username and password of the administrator. Enter the correct details.
- Start the registry editor regedit.exe (and not the older application regedt32.exe if it exists – it does not in later releases of Windows)
- Choose File, Connect Network Registry
- Enter the computer name as above.
- Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ SYSTEM\ CurrentControlSet\ Control\ Terminal Server for the registry settings for the remote computer (take care not to select your own desktop)
- Double-click fDenyTSConnections.
- Change the value of this setting to 0 to enable Remote Desktop or 1 to disable it, and click OK.
- If your remote computer has multiple network cards and you want to ensure that Remote Desktop is operating only on a selected card then navigate to the following registry location: (as above)\WinStations\ RDP-Tcp and note the LanAdapter value. If this is 0 Remote Desktop operates on all networks, and if this is another number then it operates only on the network as identified in the (as first)\lanatable registry key
- Disconnect the remote computer from the registry editor using File, Disconnect Network Registry, and selecting the correct remote computer in the list.
- Finally, you need to restart the computer remotely.
Note: Subsequent to publishing this I have discovered a much quicker way using Windows management Instrumentation command line (WMIC). See here for more on this.