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.
It works fine with XP SP2 but it stopped working when I installed Service pack 3.
Do you have any experience with SP3?
it works with XP SP2, but don’t work and show the message like ” The user xxx is currently logged on to this computer. If you continue this user’s windows session will end and any un-saved data will be lost, do you want to continue”.
i’am use DOMAIN, this it’s a problem?
Unfortunately this seems to be broken in Windows XP SP SP3. If anyone knows of a fix, please post. Thanks!
I’m just bringing up SP3 myself. Looks like it’s back to running vnc until its re-hacked.
I’ve just installed SP3 and my previous fix to the multisession was killed, and no way to get it up again.
Yesterday I found these instructions from Jason and applied them. Did everything by the book, just one little difference: “C:/windows/system32/dllcache” does not exist. Si all I did was skip that instruction and go to “C:/Windows/System32″ find the termsrv.dll delete it and paste the one downloaded from here. All the rest was just the same as explained. Very straight forward… and now: I’M BACK WITH MULTISESSIONES IN XP SP3!!!!!!
Thx so much Jason, I use an XP machine with 2 simultaneous users sharing one app installed in that computer that can not share the data base, so I have to have multisessions to run the business (very small business… 3 people) to be able to open the this back office system app we use (one per user) without having to shut down the primary user session.
Your the MAN!!!
Windows XP SP3 RTM no user limit
E:\WINDOWS\system32>fc/b termsrv.bak termsrv.dll
Comparing files termsrv.bak and TERMSRV.DLL
00022A17: 74 75
00022A69: 7F 90
00022A6A: 16 90
Hey Anon… can you post a link to that dll?
The information is for you to modify the dll by yourself. The mod dll is not available anywhere as far as I know.
http://www.filesend.net/download.php?f=f6667a5bf071836b024b9c319ec3110e
kaue_sp@hotmail.com.br
kaue_sp@hotmail.com.br
I can confirm that this works a treat with SP3
thanks agian
Thanks the process works great. A note for XP SP2 build 2600 and later, the path c:\windows\system32\dllcache no longer contains termsvr.dll it resides in c:\windows\system32 directory.
Very fast, amazing the amount of free processor and memory that is on a typical computer.
Worked like a charm! I used it on a win xp sp3. There was no termsvr.dll in c:\windows\system32\dllcache. It was in c:\windows\system32 only on mine. I had three sessions so far logged in at the same time without any problems. NICE!!!
To anyone that cant find the ‘Limit number of connections’ part make sure you are actually looking in the terminal services folder options – there is no folder that is called ‘Limit number of connections’
Thank you so much for getting this out here for all of us!
çiçek gönder | çiçek çeşitleri | çiçek türleri online çiçek | çiçek siparişi | çiçek sipariş | cicek gonder | online cicek | cicek siparisi | cicek siparis
Makasih atas informasinya y.,., belum dicoba sih, tapi baru mau saya coba untuk kantor… ^.^
Hi,
To those looking for XP SP3 update, you can download a copy of ThinServer that support this
http://www.aikotech.com/thinserver.htm
[...] Original Article Leave a reply [...]
dupakkur
[...] Enabling Multiple Remote Desktop Sessions in Windows XP Professional and Media Center Edition 2005 [...]
[...] Enabling Multiple Remote Desktop Sessions in Windows XP Professional and Media Center Edition 2005 [...]
The mod dll is not available anywhere as far as I know.
Tihs mod is great and Work perectly as long as you do not forget to create the EnableConcurrentSessions in the registry…
—————
Now I have a question…
Is it possible to allow the same user to log two or more times ?
I am connected as a local user and want to be able to connect with the same account remotely.
Or I want to open two sessions.
Thanks,
I have SP2 with normal security updates. But I cannot make this patch work. Get the same messega that the already logged in user will be logged off. My “EnableConcurrenSesssions” DWORD was already in place in registery. I only changed its value to 1.
i have a problem with step
Go to Start -> Run and type gpedit.msc to run the Group Policy Editor
Browse to Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Terminal Services and double click Limit number of connections
Select the Enabled button and enter the number of connections you would like to enable….at least 2.
I also had trouble getting more than 1 connection started after following the original instructions above. I have XP Pro with SP3. I found that there are several other registry keys that need to be modified in addition to EnableConcurrentSessions. You can find all of the reg keys that need to be edited in the zip file linked by the poster “web tasarım”, check the TS Reg Patch.reg file. Once I changed the other 4-5 keys, it worked fine with 5 unique sessions.
well, hack seems to have worked for a lot of people, but not me
the box I’m tryiing to enabled multiple concurrent RDP sessions on is running XP SP2.
firstly, could not find dllcache folder, even after enabling ‘view hidden folders.’ So I just put “C:\WINDOWS\system32\dllcache” into Explorer and it went there, though there was no termsrv.dll file in that folder
after following instructions, I first was not able to connect to the box via RDP at all. But after copying the termsrv.dll file provided to C:\WINDOWS\System32 , I was able to connect via RDP, but with only one session.
I then tried running the TS Reg Patch.reg file mentioned by “home_network” on 22/8/08, but still unable to connect more than one user to the box via RDP (just get the usual message that the other user will be kicked off when trying to connect another user via RDP)
Is it possible to allow the same user to log two or more times ? Like Windows Server 2003
I am connected as a local user and want to be able to connect with the same account remotely.
Thanks,
Luis L.
In Windows vista. How it works?
It don’t work in Vista.
Hi,
For all the guys out there who couldn’t get this to work. Trust me I understand , suffered through it too. Have detailed it out here what finally worked for me …
http://piglings.blogspot.com/2008/08/multiple-remote-desktop-connections-rdc.html
All the best !!
Hey Vikram…
You are directiing people to a trojan. I followed a link on your site and got:
Kaspersky Anti-Virus 6.0 for Windows Workstations
The requested URL http://ice-club.com.ua/antiwpa/Other/TermSrvNoRestrPatch-1-3/TermSrvNoRestrPatch-1-3.ZiP is infected with Trojan.Win32.Agent.fxq virus
Hola buenas noches esto si funciona lo unico que hace falta a mi criterio es colocar un paso número siete que seria copiar el archivo dll que descargamos a traves del link, en la carpeta system 32. Gracias ahora se puede evitar el mal rato de cerrar tu sesion si estas haciendo algo importante
Very nice Jason. Fun to play with and the discussion is not bad either.
If you are at XP SP2 I found the Termserv_XPSP2_I386_1.0.exe to work well also, at least the copy I downloaded. People have got to be smart about finding and downloading files other than the termsrv.dll you recommend though. Read and understand before acting folks!!!
And congrats on getting married! Hope things are going well.
This is awesome man… and worked fine for me. Thanks a lot to the original poster to help me out.
Hey for what it’s worth, while this technique did work for me, my Anti Virus software (AVG) told me that the termsrv.dll I downloaded from http://members.lycos.nl/nessyh/files/termsrv.dll was a trojan (Trojan horse Generic11.AGPO)… So proceed with care if you do this method. (Myself, I’m rolling back to an earlier snapshot of my machine!)
Beware of Thin Soft and their Winconnect XP client. I wish i had seen this article before i bought their stupid software. After about a year of using it, i had to change computers because the other hard drive died.
These guys told me that in order to use my licenses that i paid $300 for, i would have to hook up the dead drive to my new computer and make it the master drive or remove the network card from the old computer. By the way, my network card is built in and cannot be removed!!
Oblivio,
You should have tried ThinServer XP which is very similar to Winconnect. However their software is very easy to install and their license is not tied to network card etc
You can try it at :-
http://www.aikotech.com/thinserver.htm
Hey guys,
I have enabled the multiple remote desktop ‘hack’, but I have run into a problem when setting multiple local users on the box. I currently have 4 different local users on the box, and if i try to use the fast user switching between the local users, it doesn’t work. How can I fix this?
Thanks in advance,
Jeremy.
Is it possible to avoid remote machine getting locked when the machine is accessed using remote desktop from a different machine in Windows XP?
TURN OFF THE SCREENSAVER and it won’t get locked.
\Enrico
I tried with your instruction for enabling multiple RDP sessions in the Windows XP Professional. There was no termsrv.dll file in dllCache folder earlier before I copy it. I had deleted termsrv.dll file from system32 folder. But It did not work for me. If possible please send the instruction to my email id properly. Please help me out to resolve this issue.
Thanks
“Hey for what it’s worth, while this technique did work for me, my Anti Virus software (AVG) told me that the termsrv.dll I downloaded from http://members.lycos.nl/nessyh/files/termsrv.dll was a trojan (Trojan horse Generic11.AGPO)… So proceed with care if you do this method. (Myself, I’m rolling back to an earlier snapshot of my machine!)”
Joshua this is VERY common for anti viruses to state modified system files as viruses. If you use, or can use, multiple av scanners on that file you will get very different results.
There is another “hack” out there that reverses an XP’s limit on TCP/IP connections from like 10 to 100. Its perfectly normal, not a problem and helps with heavy network traffic (see P2P). Anyways, several Av scanners show this as a virus, and it clearly is not. Even the creator of the file discusses this openly on his site and explains why it shows as a trojan.
So not to worry, this is not a virus of any kind, this DLL file.
(PS – Keygens show up as a trojan from Norton and Mcafee, not on Kaspersky or Bit Defender. Go figure)
Everything works fine of course. There’s only one thing I can’t manage. In windows 2003 (for example) I can have multiple logins from same account (i.e. from console and RDP by the same user at time) and both are two independent sessions. In windows XP, after this hack I can’t login at the same user both to console and RDP or on two independed RDP sessions. When user “X” is logged in at console, every try to logon at this user via RDP causes to disconnect user “X” from console. Do you have any solution on that ?
very useful for me
its working fine
thanks
i have Windows XP Pro SP3
Everything work fine, but
And I Have WIndows XP Pro 64Bit i need the termsvr.dll for 64bit version of windows xp, if any one have or know where to download please post it
Good work Thanks
After running gpedit.msc I can’t find the “Terminal Services” group policy under Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components to complete the setup. I’m running XP Pro SP3. Any advise would be appreciated.
HELP
In principle it works for my. Several users can RD-connect to this PC and work.
BUT I can’t control it locally. When booting the usual starting screen (with the dots running from left to right) appears. After that I get either a black screen or a light blue screen with the mouse showing up (color depending on log on mode (showing users to click on vs. old mode with user and pass to be entered manually)). But it is impossible to log onto that PC when sitting in front of it because I can’t do anything while these black/blue screen appears (also tried strg alt del to log on).
I tried to remove it all (rereplace termsrv.dll and remove registry entry and gpedit.msc change) but still the same.
Please can anyone help me to get it either working correctly or completely remove it? Thank you in advance!!!
UPDATE: I installed this patch I’m able to have Multiple Remote Desktop Sessions in XP SP3 without needing a group policy setting for “Terminal Services”.
thanks a lot for great solution