This tutorial will help you to setup Concurrent Remote Desktop Sessions in Windows XP SP2. Windows XP does not allow concurrent sessions for its Remote Desktop feature. This feature allows to watch the local PC monitor while somebody working on it remotely.
What this means is that if a user is logged on at the local console, a remote user has to kick him off. His screen will kick to log in screen and the one who is sitting infront of the PC will not be able to see any thing other than a login screen.
Microsoft did try out the feature in earlier builds of Service Pack 2 and that is what we are going to exploit here. We are going to replace termserv.dll (The Terminal Server) with an earlier build 2055.
To get Concurrent Sessions in Remote Desktop working, follow the steps below exactly:
- Download the termserv.zip file below and extract it in any temp folder.
- Reboot PC into Safe Mode, in safe mode windows removes File Protection.
- Copy the termserv.dll you downloaded to %windir% >; System32 and %windir% >; ServicePackFilesi386. If the second folder doesn’t exist, don’t copy it there. Delete termserv.dll from the dllcache folder: %windir%system32dllcache
- Merge the contents of Concurrent Sessions SP2.reg file into the registry.
- Make sure Fast User Switching is turned on. Go Control Panel ->; User Accounts ->; Change the way users log on or off and turn on Fast User Switching.
- Open Group Policy Editor: Start Menu >; Run >; ‘gpedit.msc’. Navigate to Computer Configuration >; Administrative Templates >; Windows Components >; Terminal Services. Enable ‘Limit Number of Connections’ and set the number of connections to at least 3. This enables you to have more than one person remotely logged on.
- Now reboot back into normal Windows and try out whether Concurrent Sessions in Remote Desktop works.
If anything goes wrong, the termserv_sp2.dll is the original file you replaced. Just rename it to termserv.dll, reboot into safe mode and copy it back. The termserv.dl_ file is provided in the zip is for you slipstreamers out there. Just replace that file with the corresponding file in the Windows installation disks.