Enabling Multiple Remote Desktop Sessions in Windows XP Professional and Media Center Edition 2005
October 18th, 2005 - 304 CommentsIf you have ever used a real remote computer system like Citrix, then you have probably been craving multiple Remote Desktop sessions since you first fired up Windows XP Professional and/or Media Center Edition. 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?
- Print these directions so that you have them to work from.
- Restart your computer in Safe Mode – Follow this link to learn how to restart Windows XP in Safe Mode
- Turn off/disable Remote Desktop Connection (RDC) and Terminal Services
- Right click My Computer
- Select Properties
- Click on the Remote tab at the top of the window
- UNCHECK the box next to, “Allow users to connect remotely to this computer“
- Click OK
- Go to Start -> Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Services
- Find Terminal Services in the list
- Right click on Terminal Services and click Properties
- In the Startup Type box, select Disabled
- Click OK to close the window
- Here is a copy of the Terminal Services DLL – Save it to your Desktop or other suitable location
- Using a file manager like Windows Explorer open C:\Windows\system32\dllcache
- Rename the file termsrv.dll to termsrv_dll.bak or whatever you would like.
- Copy the downloaded termsrv.dll file (the one you just downloaded from the web) to C:\Windows\system32\dllcache
- Open the C:\Windows\system32 folder
- Delete the file termsrv.dll in C:\Windows\system32
You should be good to go.
I am not a helpdesk worker. I am an IT professional. I am rich. I have an awesome Dual Core XP Pro Box with this Termainl Serivices Patch. It works great so my wife can be on at home and I can remote in from a worksite to check on some things. I’m at the TOP of my game in IT so ignore the mouthy losers with nothing better to do than bash others. Live life now becuase you never know when your name gets picked!
Sorry about the typos. That happens when you type 80 wpm and don’t spell check!
I would like to congratulate all the guys for their hard work getting this to work. I shall try the patch shortly. I decided to install Win2k3 server on my P4 with Desktop board, but was really sad when I realized that Intel Desktop Boards does not support Server drivers. The only reason I installed 2k3 Server was for multiple RDP’s. Now I can finally accomplish this thanx to you “STUPID” guys (as you were called by the two morons). I hate it when people act like children. Just because they are too stupid to follow instructions on a useful site like this, or have to much damn money.
Regards, Giepie
Is the terminal server suppose to start on its own or are we suppose to manualy staer it .. at the moment it will no longer let me log in via remote desktop, If I look at the Terminal Services I noticed that it is not started and when I try to start the service I get Error 126: The specified module could not be found.
Can you help me with this ?
Ok, I have fixed my problem .. I Just copied the dll file to the system32 folder aswell and didn’t let windows repair …. Works a treat .. Just what I needed
Works great with XP.
Anybody tried this with Vista?
It’s working, but I would like to remote into the same computer I’m remoting from – use one computer to create multiple concurrent sessions on that same computer.
This would be helpful with my home theater setup.
Any ideas how to resolve the local host issue?
It worked for me but cannot use /console mode. Can anyone suggest how would I get the console mode in RDC?
Looking to get several people to log in to one desktop simulteniously, using it for an office so that way we can access a specific program, can this hack do that or am I crazy? Looking to do this as an alternative to a server, tried a WAN and VPN and the specific program will not work through that method, short of buying duplicate machines and remote logging in through citrix or logmein. Please let me know. Thanks!
Does anybody now how to stop a session started at the console using remote desktop?
I am using a version of remote desktop that comes with the windows 2003 cd. It controls the console session.
The dll works.
The problem arises when it is a member of a domain.
What I’ve done is remove it from the domain and create or join a workgroup for it. Enable Fast User Switching and Reboot. That’s it.
Don’t forget to create user accounts and add them to the remote desktop users if they are non-administrators.
I hope I have been of help.
Dude…no offense but the crack from the site http://www.kood.org works seemlessly fine without all these hassles. Thanx for the info… I tried my best with all the info from all these posts… finally this works.
This is for the guys endlessly trying to get the work done.
The DLL works fine with 3 connections, but not for more.
Please help me, I need more connections, about 10-12 con.
thxs for help
hey…anyone know if there’s a workaround for xp home?
I’m dying trying to figure out how to get terminal services to work with home…I have it right up to the point where it tells me it connects then disconnects immediately…
very frustrating….
thanks!
I have three computers on three floors. I want all of them to be able to control the server which is connected to a whole house music/video system. In other words, all three computers should display the same desktop/Mirror. I want to be able to control the server from any terminal to be able to play the same content on the whole house music/video system. Any suggestions? I don’t want to wire three touchscreens in parallel.
Thanks.
this site http://www/adminviet.net has theard about this and step and step configuration
Just tried it, works great for up to 3 RDC.
Thanks for the instruction.
[...] Enabling Multiple Remote Desktop Sessions in Windows XP Professional and Media Center Edition 2005 –Jason Golod Blogs (tags: windows xp remote desktop) [...]
Hi folks!
Does anyone knows multiple remote desktop sessions solution on Windows Vista?
It does not work in the Spanish version of my Windows XP Pro.
worked perfectly for me. didn’t have to do much since i’m using pre-SP1 winXP
thanks!
[...] http://www.golod.com/2005/10/enabling-multiple-remote-desktop [...]
will it work in domain scenario
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Heya, tried this atleast 10 times. It dont work for me, im running xp Pro sp2. But it just dont work. RDC works before i do the process but afterwards i cant use remote desktop at all. Help me please
I dont find out C:\Windows\system32\dllcache directory. rest other setup done n followed by ur instruction but multiple access still not allowed. what should I do. help me pls.
Hi,
I have followed the procedure and i get the Unable to find module error message, does anyone of you have found the solution?
Provide me
[...] Enabling Multiple Remote Desktop Sessions in Windows XP Professional and Media Center Edition 2005 [...]
Hey Folks. I got the termsrv.dll hacked to allow unlimited users (really it is set to 99) to log into XP!!
http://www.likestuff.com/termsrv.dll
I did some big tests with some thin clients. Here are my results:
5 thin clients on 512mb ram, no problem. If you close the connection instead of logging off, when you try and log back in you get booted with TCP/IP error 4226. Download the 4226 patch at http://www.likestuff.com/EvID4226Patch.exe and set the connections to at least 50.
10 thin clients got some resource errors on 512mb ram. On 1 gig, no problem. Opened lots of copies of word, excel, etc. Had my 4226 patch set at 100 connections.
20 thin clients needed 2 gigs of ram to have each one open both word and excel. I had my 4226 patch set to 500.
When the 21st user tried to login, I got an out of virtual memory and a BSOD (invalid page fault in module svchost.exe). I didnt have more then 2gigs of ram to try, so not sure if that woulda helped.
Anyway folks, enjoy!
http://www.likestuff.com/neoware/large/serverdesktop.jpg
And video:
http://www.likestuff.com/neoware/thinclients.wmv
Sweeeeet.
-Jamie M.
hi
i m facing some problem in xp
i m not able to multiple remote login in xp
as ur advise i have chnge .dll & make changes in registry but i can login multiple
please be needfull
regards,
Naresh prajapati
i have no ddlcatch folder what i should do
works perfectly for me, now i can remote desktop to my computer without pissing off my girlfriend by kicking her off haha. thanks a bunch!
it worked for me, you just need to log off or disconnect once your done with the session, don’t just close the session it will leave you connected from the server.
you can actually see who’s logged in to the host computer using TASK MANAGER on USER TAB. You can even logoff or disconnect the remote client, or even send the client a message. cool stuff
I did this, am having trouble now with remote desktop, I didn’t have any dllcache folder, but that was the only difference between my setup and the one listed here. i can login more then noce, but it locks all sessions when I do this.
any ideas?
I’m running XP, 2.5ghz, 1.5gigs of ram.
thanks,
-Ken
At first, I thought it had failed. But I tried to copy the termserv.dll directly to the system32 folder and start the terminal services. Now it is working like a charm. Thank you very much for your great information. I have been searching for this solution over one week by Googling, so I have to thank Google too.
Ken, the dllcache folder is hidden. If you type it into the address bar manually then Windows will show it.
Just discovered something else — you need to have “fast user switching” enabled in order for this to work. You enable that by going to Control Panel -> User Accounts and then to “Change the way users log on or off”.
Also, one other issue I had was that I had to manually copy the termsrv.dll file into C:\Windows\System32 as well (same as Wendra a few posts back).
[...] Maybe this trick is old but it’s usefull for multiclient in windows XP.. I was copy from here [...]
We wanted to convert a medical office from XP workstations to thin clients. The idea was allowed us to save on energy and support on energy while deploying a HIPPA compliant solution.
We have evaluated a few products, including patch and VMWare.
The best software we found – http://www.elusiva.com/products/TerminalServerPro.aspx
Hi,
ThinServer works quite well too and it fits into Windows Domain environment
http://www.aikotech.com/thinserver.htm
I followed the directions exactly, double-checked my work, but when I log in using RD from another XP Pro desktop in my LAN the host machine logs off still. Fast User Switching was already enabled and I too had to manually copy the dll from the cache to System32. The host is running MCE2005, fully updated. Have there been changes to this OS that are blocking this patch since your article was written?
Incidentally, for a variation on this there’s a post at:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/172294-46-windows
by someone named “Brian”. I tried his additional GPEdit changes but that still didn’t change the host’s behavior.
Any suggestions?
For anyone who doesn’t get this working; try this patch:
http://www.kood.org/terminal-server-patch/
Worked fine here
This Is nice way for multiple Remote Destop Connections
Do you have to be using group policy for the multi sessions to work?
Does this work for MCE 2003 also?
Hi Rene,
It will only work on MCE2005 and XP Pro
Why I cant see this folder?
C:\WINDOWS\system32\dllcache
What I must to do?
[...] November 2nd, 2007 If you have ever used a real remote computer system like Citrix, then you have probably been craving multiple Remote Desktop sessions since you first fired up Windows XP Professional and/or Media Center Edition. 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? [...]