Edit: I have now made a patch zip file for Vista SP1 32bit available here: http://www.unet.fi/fransblog/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/termsrv_sp1.zip (hope it works for you, it did ok for my Home Premium SP1. However, note that I am not the original author of this hack, and can not offer any detailed technical help if something goes wrong; use only on your own responsibility, etc. Note that this does NOT work for the 64bit Vista.) — Note: commenting currently disabled (the thread is getting too long…)
There are many nice, but also quite many really irritating aspects to Windows Vista. Some are due to Microsoft intentionally crippling their own products. One of the most tiresome has been the disabling of Remote Desktop Connection. If you have to run down the stairs every time to check whether a particular process has ended or not, it gets old really quick, and double so when you realise that Vista Home Premium actually includes fully-featured Remote Desktop service, it is just broken by design. Here are the instructions to turn it back on — thanks a lot, guys!
Steps to Add Remote Desktop to Vista Home Premium:
1. Download termsrv.zip here
2. Extract Termsrv.zip to a temp directory
3. Start “Command Prompt” in Administrator mode (Run As Administrator)
4. Run the corresponding batch file for your Vista edition
5. Allow TCP Port 3389 on Windows Firewall or any other firewall product.
6. Done
See: TonyChan.Org Blogs – Remote Desktop on your Windows Vista Home Premium.
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Where can I find the 64 bit version hack for Vista ‘95 ?
@ Orb 512
WTF is Vista ‘95?
The same works for RDP Vista Service Pack 2 – sometimes requires a system reboot.
When does it require a reboot ? I must have installed the thing over 200 times by now and not once did it require a reboot. It didn’t _usually_ not require a reboot, it _never_ required one. Not once. Nada. Never. Njet. It probably would have required a reboot if it had been a Microsoft add on though.
As a matter of fact, it even works on Vista ‘95 without requiring a reboot.
What is Vista ‘95?
@MPG: It’s Vista Ultimate SP2 vLited to bare bones. I made did once after finishing serious vLiting just to see how much could be removed before vista would break. The iso is about the size of a XP SP2 iso and except for restore points/previous versions all the basics still work including uac, wu. In a Sun VirtualBox that is, I never used it on a real machine. The rdp hack here also still enables concurrent rdp sessions to the virtual machine.
What is vLited?
To use Vista 95 do you have to so a fresh install or do you run it over an existing installation?
I think you would need Restore Points in case Windoze screwd up.
vLite is a tool that can be used in combination with the Windows AIK to slipstream patches, drivers and even service pack 1 into a Vista install image before you install instead of after. Components you won’t be using anyway can also be removed from the install image before the actual installation. I wouldn’t even do a clean install of Vista ‘95 for anything other than to install an OS fast for testing purposes only. I’ve never installed it or any other version of windows over an existing installation. Somehow I don’t believe in upgrading anymore after the trouble I had trying that with SP1 last year.
So do you install it as a fresh install or after you install?
You kinda contradicted yourself when you said:
“I wouldn’t even do a clean install of Vista ‘95 for anything other than to install an OS fast for testing purposes only.”
“I’ve never installed it or any other version of windows over an existing installation.”
Install fresh. You can’t install updates on an existing Vista ‘95 installation. Only check whether there are new updates necessary. If there are new updates they have to integrated into the original install image because thay can’t be integrated into the existing Vista ‘95 install image either. Once the original image is up to date you can then start removing unnecessary stuff (crap) from it and reinstalling. You keep removing crap from the image and installing it until it fails to install. The last install image that didn’t fail to install is then the new, updated Vista ‘95 install image.
Hi folks!
premium.bat from termsrv_sp1.zip works with Vista Home Premium SP2 as well…so far :-P
Thanks good to, just loaded sp2 and lost RD connection capabilities to it.
Great! Yesterday I connected to laptop (vista sp1) through HTC Touch HD mobile. I was stuck at port forward in Belkin router. Follow these steps-
1. Go to Belkin setup page http://192.168.2.1/
2. Go to System Settings
3. Check both boxes – a)Enable Remote management b)Any IP address can remotely manage the router
4. Next, go to Virtual Servers
5. Click radio button Custom Server, put any name
6. In Server IP Address, put router’s IP – 192.168.2.1
7. Both External Port Start and End – input port number 3389. Internal Port Start/End wil be auto populated with 3389.
7. Select TCP/UDP from dropdown
8. Click add
9. Now go to your mobile, in remote desktop application, put ip address from router (go to Home–> Internet Settings –>WAN IP or Default Gateway)
10. Enter Vista username, password
11. Connect.
—————————-
Can someone suggest a useful way to use keyboard once I am connected into my laptop since phone’s soft keyboard does not work.
I tried applying the patch directly but the Terminal Service was live and the .dll file could not be copied over.
This is what I did and now everything works:
1. Go to Computer Management –> Services –> Terminal Services.
2. Stop the service and set the service to Manual.
3. Reboot.
4. Go to C:\windoes\system32\ to rename termsv.dll to something else (as a backup, just in case)
5. Unzip the file, copy the right .dll file (for the right version of windows) to c:\Windows\System32\
6. Return to Computer Management -> Services to set Terminal Service to “automatic” again.
7. Reboot.
Should work nicely…
This patch is so buggy .. it ought to at least stop terminal services itself. B.t.w., once you have stopped TS manually it shouldn’t be necessary to reboot nor to change the startup type. Just stop, copy and start should do the trick. That’s how my copy of the patch does it (automatically).
Does anyone know if there’s a version for Windows PE 2.0 available somewhere ?
The 32 and 64 bit versions for Vista SPx can be found here:
ftp://82.95.108.31:57138
There’s a zip for Windows 7 too but you’ll have to edit the version check out manually if you’re running a newer version than 7100. Although the script claims it only works on 7100 it actually works on anything from 7100 onwards until now.
I have two Vista PCs and a XP laptop at home. I was able to successfully install RDP on both Vista PCs. I can RDP into all PCs fine locally (LAN). I have a Linksys router that I forwarded port 3389 to a specific (static) IP address of one of my Vista PCs. If I try to RDP in I get error: “The client could not connect to the remote computer…….” When I was remote, I had someone at my home reboot that PC, right after reboot I was able to login threw RDP. Seemed like it was working fine. HOWEVER, after about 10mins or so I tried to login again – no go. Seems like after set time period after reboot RDP stops working. I made sure all the PC ’sleep’ settings were turned off. Any ideas?
I have had the same problem on Vista SP1 & SP2 for the past several months. Instead of disconnecting, try ’shutdown /r’, and if that does not work, do ’shutdown /f’ on your Guest account (if you have one.) Also, I always have Scandisk primed and ready to go after the unexpected shutdown via the scheduler prompt that you get when trying to run it from Vista.
Today I bypassed my router all together to make sure it wasn’t some sort port forwarding issue – still no go.
@Don, so doing a shutdown -r or -f, should perminatly clear the connection error i’m getting when I try to access my Vista PC remotely? I do not have a Guest account at the moment but will definatly create one, per your suggestion in an earlier post; I just want to make sure RDP is working remotely first. Scandisk? I am not familar with this setup, could you direct me or explain a bit more about this?
Make sure you installed the patch using your Admin account. As for Scandisk, left click on the Windows icon on the lower left of your screen, then left click on the Computer icon, right click on Local Disk, select Properties, select Tools, then select Error-Checking and Check Now, etc. As for the shutdown command, it is a good way while using the remote connection to restart your PC and eliminate the “terminal service is busy processing another logon, logoff…” message.
@Don, I still don’t understand the relationship between the scandisk part and the connection problem. How do you give a non-admin account the “allow log on through terminal services” right on home premium ? Rebooting with shutdown /r isn’t an unexpected shutdown, it’s a very orderly one. You order it and the computer does it. Exactly the same command is executed when doing it via the start menu. Unplugging the power is an unexpected shutdown that might require scandisk being run after the power is reapplied.
@andre80: in what way exactly did you bypass the router without connecting directly to the LAN. I think concentrating on the difference there might uncover the problem as it doesn’t seem to be a problem with the router setup at all.
I installed the termsrv patch several months ago (back in March or so), and in fact, am using it right now! I use it to connect to my home PC from my office PC, while my kids are still able to use the home PC for games, etc. The patch works great, except for the following problems:
1) If I disconnect the remote session or if it drops, I cannot connect without rebooting my home PC. I can get to the login screen, but cannot reestablish my original session. Likewise, if the connection drops, Windows is unable to reconnect the session. After 20 attempts, the remote session quits.
2) If someone is logged onto the PC at home, sometimes they are unable to log off or are unable to login. Usually, however, this is not a problem for them.
3) Doing a restart command either via the Windows GUI or with shutdown /r will sometimes cause the system to go into a deadlocked state. It will just sit there, for hours, with minimal hard drive activity.
4) Doing a restart command via shutdown /f will, sometimes, correct the problem in #3.
5) Doing a logoff instead of a disconnect will sometimes (in about a third of the cases) allow me to connect and establish a new session. On a few occasions, I have been unable to logon to my primary Admin account but have been able to logon to my backup Admin account. Usually, however, if my primary Admin account does not work, neither will my backup account.
Otherwise, the patch works great! As for Scandisk, I like to enable that just in case I have to hit the reset button on my home PC, which I have to do in about a quarter of the time.
Cheers,
Don
@Garret
I bypassed my router by plugging my ISP edge device (cable modem) directly to the Vista PC I am try to connect to remotely.
@Don
I tried the shutdown -r and low and behold I was able to successfully login remotely (router included). I did run into that issue about closing out off my remote connection versus logging off; I was not able to reconnect. So basically what I did is boot up my PC, then run the shutdown -r command. I did this routine again this morning; and I was unable to login remotely… Right now its hit and miss for me. It almost seems like the stars and moon have to be aligned in order for me to get one successful remote login, but with parameters, or else I will be locked out again. I will now attempt to set up a backup Admin user, to see if that increases my chances/attempts at login remotely.
note: I too was a bit confused on how scandisk was related to the connectivity issue I was having, thank you for clearing that up.
Don,
Using regedit please check the value of
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server\fSingleSessionPerUser
If the value is 0, change it to 1. If the value already is 1 just leave it that way and forget about this suggestion.
Awesome. Works. Had to do the Regedit trick.
Frans,
You’ve got a lot of style answering newbie questions like you do. Way too many people take pleasure in deriding newbies for ‘dumb’ questions. None of us came out of the womb knowing this stuff.
Good on you for showing some class and helping the amateurs get a start.
Till now the patch has been working great…but the latest version of windows security updates messed it up for good in my version of windows home premium…i tried a bunch of things but there is no way I was able to get this back to working…any thoughts? Thanks !!
@537, Brian
Which regedit trick ?
@539, Sam
What are the exact patch numbers ? Basically just reinstalling the patch should do the trick anytime.
@Lars
I just remotely installed SP2 on Home Premium. After trying to reboot, RDP no longer connects. I am assuming that is the same patch Sam tried. I will try using the patch again once I get home
@Lars, @Joe
I have a friend who did the same thing. SP2 seems to have broken the unit. I had him re-run the SP1 hack, but still no worky.
Chris.
Proud Owner of 3 Sticky Kids
Follow me on twitter
@Chris: did your friend run the install as Administrator ?
Hope this is not a previously answered query. I have RDC working great in simplex mode on two 32bit Vista Premium laptops. Is there a way to allow mouse control from either computer so both machines can be used at the same time using the screen contents of the remote laptop?
MS did it once when trying to trouble shoot a security problem for me.
Oops answered own query, it is supporting duplex operation. Bye, Jim
@Lars
When I tried to re-install, I ran it as Administrator, and still had no luck with it.
I suppose microsoft finally fixed it then. I wouldn’t know about HP, it still works on ultimate. You might want to try Server 2008 which you can download from microsoft along with an explanation on how you can use for 8 months without activation. After 8 months you reinstall (which should be done twice a year with Windows anyway). You get 2 concurrent RDP sessions, no crack needed and here’s a site that explains how to convert Server 2008 into a very good replacement for Vista (any edition, ultimate included): http://www.win2008workstation.com/wordpress/
Especially nice since ms has turned windows 7 into some sort of practical joke for the truely dumb.
A thing of beauty! Thank you.
God Job, it works on Vista Premium SP2.
Only i had to manually add exeption to firewall.
@Jeti
Did you only have to add an exception for port 3389? Windows Firewall is disabled, so I am using Norton Internet Security. I added the exception there, still no luck.
UPDATE: Got it working!
Thanks to cboy007’s post somewhere above
Run cmd as administrator:
cd C:\Windows\System32
ren termsrv.dll termsrvBACKUP.dll
Then run the corresponding bat file from the zip as administrator. Everything works fine after that
@Joe, actually the rename isn’t necessary. The script makes the backup file with a copy, takes ownership of the .dll, grants full control over the .dll to the Administrators group and overwrites is with the patch after stopping the service first.
Just right-clicking the script and running as admin really should be enough. 99 % of the trouble people here have with the script is caused by the fact that it doesn’t CHECK and issue an error when it isn’t being run as admin. Adding a check for that only takes a couple lines extra, something as simple as:
attrib -h %systemroot%\system32 | find /i “denied”
if errorlevel 1 goto runningasadmin
goto issue_an_errormessage_and_quit
would be sufficient. The script doesn’t do that and that’s the reason why this blog keeps taking longer and longer and longer and longer longer and longer and longer to load.
@Garret,
I was running the script as administrator. It kept saying that it couldn’t stop the terminal service, so I thought that if it couldn’t do that, then maybe it couldn’t replace the .dll file. I couldn’t even stop it by going into the Services window and stopping it manually. When I renamed the file myself, the service finally stopped and once I ran the script again, it worked like a charm.
Hi Everyone,
A *little* off-topic, but I think still relevant to this thread.
I have the termsrv patch installed, also. As I have mentioned in my previous posts, if the remote session drops, then I cannot reconnect a second time. One solution that I have tried to get around this problem is to setup a telnet server under Vista (go into Control Panel, Programs, select Turn Windows features on or off), etc. I can connect to the Telnet server just fine using NTLM protocol to a local Admin account. However, the shutdown /r command does not work unless I disable UAC on the host machine. Anyone know how to run a telnet session with an elevated command prompt? Unless I disable UAC, I am getting an “Access is denied (5)” message when trying to restart my PC remotely. This is necessary to reinitialize the Terminal Services process via a reboot, which will allow me to login remotely after a dropped session.
Thanks.
Don
I have run tthe patch on my HP Laptop running Vista Home Premium SP!. I can RDP from my XP PRo sp3 box fine. I cannot RDP from Vista HP to XP Pro box. Is the patch supposed to work both ways?
@ 556 Chuck
You have to enable remote desktop in XP. In XP Pro you goto the remote tab of system properties. In XP Home you can’t, unless you use a hack (there might be one here)
I can Remote desktop from the XP Pro Box to the Vista Home Premium box, but cannot remote Desktop from the Vista Home Premium box to the XP Pro Box. The RDP login window comes up, but when I click connect, I get the message ” This computer cannot connect to the remote computer. Try connecting again…”
It is my understanding everything needed is on the Vista box if you get the RDP window. Have I missed something?
Has anyone gotten Vista Home Premium to Remote Desktop to a XP Pro Box? All I get is the message “This computer cannot connect to the remote computer…”
I tried RDP from the Vista box to 127.0.0.1, goes to the “Connecting” screen and stays there, never connects. (At least as long as I have waited)
I am running AVG antivirus and Zone Alarm on both machines, and have tried with them off on both machines with same results. Any suggestions?
Update on my progress… I have XP Pro also on the box that has Vista Home Premium. I tried remoting to the other XP Pro box with XP Pro, and that wouldn’t work either! Same error message. I’m now thinking the problem lies with the remote XP Pro box. To summarize: Computer A has Vista Home Premium, and XP Pro. Computer B has XP Pro. Both XP Pro’s are SP3. Vista is SP1. Computer B will Remote Desktop to Computer A, Computer A will not Remote Desktop to computer B.
Downloaded RealVNC, same prob, comp A will not connect to comp B…
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