Badkey Corner | RDP and Windows XP Service Pack 3 console option is replaced. Use mstsc /admin

Saturday 10th, May 2008

RDP and Windows XP Service Pack 3 console option is replaced. Use mstsc /admin05/10/2008 04:00 PM

Yep after installing XP SP3:

mstsc /console has been replaced by mstsc /admin

Note: Please use the new option to achieve the same results as before

RDP works fine when there's an available seat on the target server. However, when the terminal server exceeds it's maximum number of allowed connections you can't run Start > Run > type in MSTSC /CONSOLE.

Basically, the RDP console switch doesn't work with SP3 RC2 installed on XP Pro. There's workarounds by logging into other servers and connecting to the target server and logging someone off, but that's not an option for small companies with 1 server.

No more /console switch on the Windows Remote Desktop Connection tool, MSTSC.exe, starting from Windows XP Service Pack 3, Windows Vista Service Pack 1 and Windows Server 2008.

This is because of the design enhancements in Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, by virtue of which you cannot connect to Session 0, which is the default session. Running services and user applications together in Session 0 poses a security risk because services in Session 0 run at elevated privileges and therefore can be targeted by malware that attack by attempting and exploiting a privilege escalation.

The new generation of the Windows operating system mitigates this security risk by isolating services in Session 0 and making Session 0 non-interactive to the user. In Windows Vista (and Windows Server 2008), only system processes and services run in Session 0. The first user logs on to Session 1. Subsequent users log on to subsequent sessions (Session 2, Session 3 etc). This means that services (like printer drivers loaded by spooler service, UMDF drivers, user/window interactive services, etc) never run in the same session as users' applications and are therefore protected from attacks that originate in application code.

Notice that the /console option is not available, but there is a /admin option. The /admin option lets you connect to Session 0 on a remote computer that doesn't have Windows Vista SP1, Windows XP SP3 or Windows Server 2008 or later installed.

However, if you try to pull the /console switch on a Windows Server 2008 or Vista SP1 machine,
you get an error "An unknown parameter was specified in the computer name field".

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