Jun 16, 2018 New licensing registry keys will be created the next time you try to access launching your applications, thus allowing the Citrix Receiver to successfully virtualize your application thereafter. If you haven't done so already, please consider creating a system restore point prior to proceeding. Windows 2000 Server Terminal Services usually uses a license server in the local domain; however, you might want to have a central license server for audit purposes or use a server in another domain. Perform the following steps to designate the license server you want a Terminal Services server to use: Start regedit.exe. Apr 17, 2018 The next time the client connects, an attempt is made to upgrade the validated temporary Terminal Server CAL token to a full Terminal Server CAL token. If no license tokens are available, the temporary Terminal Server CAL token will continue to function for 90 days. The license is stored in the client's registry. Jul 11, 2018 When you home lab and you don't have Microsoft license for RDS, you have two options. Reinstall the server (redeploy the VM) or cheat a bit. Yes, in fact, This post is a tip post for IT admins willing to reset RDS Grace period. How To Reset 120 Day RDS Grace Period on 2012 R2 And 2016 Server.
So we recently started looking into Terminal Services and RemoteFX to power some of our admin users and move them off to thin clients instead of full blown desktops. As a trial I begun setting up RDS on one of our Dev machines. After going through the motions of enabling the Remote Desktop Features and setting up RemoteFX on a Virtual Machine for testing, I found that I couldn’t login via RDP to that machine. Going back to the RDS host I found the Licensing popup that informed me that the 128 day trial license had expired. Since this was a test I didn’t want to go using keys to activate or setup a licensing server (purely a PoC for us in IT at this stage).
To reset the grace period there is a registry key that we need to delete. As always when editing the registry, take a backup of the key/s you’re modifying. Navigate to the following location
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlTerminal ServerRCMGracePeriod
Now there should be a binary key value (like in the screenshot), you first need to have full access permissions to the folder (or take ownership) and then simply delete that value and reboot the server. Once back up your RDS Licensing should be back at the start of a 128 Day grace period. I wouldn’t do this if you have already obtained licensing and should definitely not be used in a production environment.
Registry Keys for Terminal Services
The relevant configuration options for terminal servers, terminal server sessions, users, and clients can be found in different places in the registry. The administration tools and Group Policies, described in the previous chapters, usually change several registry values. The following section provides you with information on their paths and default values.
General Settings
We will first examine those areas of the registry that are vital to the global configuration of the terminal server and its sessions. These areas are located in the HKLM root hive.
One of the central HKLM root hive areas can be found under SYSTEMCurrentControlSet and SYSTEMControlSet00n. The numbered ControlSet001 and ControlSet002 subkeys contain control information that is needed to start and keep Windows Server 2003 running. One of these two numbered subkeys is the original; the other is the backup copy. On startup, the system determines which one of the keys is the original and saves the result under HKLMSYSTEMSelect. The last successful set of control information is saved in HKLMSYSTEMCurrentControlSet. The three sets of control information are for the most part identical, but only one is valid and used by the system.
The HKLMSYSTEMControlSet001HKLMSYSTEMControlSet001ControlTerminal Server hive allows you to configure general settings, just as you can under Terminal Services configuration or Group Policies. Some of the values described here will be discussed in detail later in this chapter.
Figure 6-5: Registry values in the HKLMSYSTEMControlSet001ControlTerminal Server hive.
In addition to individual values, this path holds several subkeys that, in turn, contain keys and values for Terminal Services configuration.
Log and User Session Settings
In Table 6.3, the last elements listed are the Wds and WinStations keys. They play a key role in configuring the RDP protocol and user sessions. Because some keys might exist in several hives, they should be explained in more detail. It is impossible to list and explain all keys in this book, so the following tables show only a selection of the most important configuration options. They can be found in one or more of these registry hives:
Table 6.4 lists the so-called flags. Flags are binary values that make a statement true (1) or false (0).
Table 6.5 lists the most important keys with the REG_DWORD data type. These are often directly related to one of the flags listed in the preceding table.
Finally, Table 6.6 shows the most important keys of the REG_SZ data type.
Drivers and Services
The HKLMSYSTEMControlSet001ServicesTermDD hive contains the attributes of the Termdd.sys terminal device driver. However, do not change these attributes. You can find the device driver’s path and start option here.
An adjoining hive, called HKLMSYSTEMControlSet001ServicesTermService, hosts both the configuration of Terminal Services within the generic Svchost.exe Windows service and of the Services.exe process. The keys you find there include, for example, the display name, description, complete path, or start options as also listed under services administration. The subkeys show license settings and parameters for the performance indicator object of the system monitor.
Figure 6-6: Drivers and services for terminal server functions.
Logon
If you log registry access in a focused manner during logon of a user session, you will gain interesting insights into the corresponding initialization processes. For example, which areas relevant for terminal servers does the Winlogon.exe logon process access?
One piece of information needed during logon concerns creating or loading the user profile. HKLMSOFTWAREMicrosoftWindows NTCurrentVersionProfileList. These keys contain the default paths for a default user (DefaultUser), general user (AllUsers), and individual user profiles. Furthermore, you can find a list of all users who have logged on to the system here. If a user logs on to the terminal server for the first time, he or she inherits both the normal default user settings and the default values for the terminal server session. They are saved under HKLMSYSTEMControlSet001HKLMSYSTEMControlSet001ControlTerminal ServerDefaultUserConfiguration.
Another relevant area is located under HKLMSoftwareMicrosoftWindows NTCurrentVersionWinlogon. It includes the AppSetup key that defines a special script file called UsrLogon.cmd. This script file is executed along with a possible logon script on startup of each terminal server session. (See Chapter 7.) The same location also contains the WinStationDisabled key that either denies (0) or allows (1) new terminal server users to log on, regardless of the protocol. At the prompt, you can modify this value using the Change logon /enable or Change logon /disable prompts.
The HKLMSoftwareMicrosoftWindows NTCurrentVersionWinlogonNotifytermsrv area is also needed for logon. It defines a specific logic as a response to system events.
Figure 6-7: Determining the response to system events.
When a user logs on, even driver configuration is accessed. The area reserved for terminal servers is located under HKLMSOFTWAREMicrosoftWindows NTCurrentVersionDrivers32Terminal ServerRDP. The video driver configuration plays a certain role for the user session, too. For instance, Explorer.exe needs the corresponding data that is located here: HKLMSYSTEMControlSet001HKLMSYSTEMControlSet001ControlTerminal ServerVIDEOrdpdd under the DeviceVideo0 key.
If local Group Policies for Terminal Services settings were established, these must be loaded at the right time, of course. This happens during logon with keys found under HKLMSOFTWAREPoliciesMicrosoftWindows NTTerminal Services and the EnableAdminTSRemote key under HKLMSOFTWAREPoliciesMicrosoftWindowsInstaller. However, these areas can be fairly empty if no or just a few local Group Policies were predefined.
Printing
Connecting and managing printers for terminal servers is a very complex topic. (See Chapter 4.) This fact is also quite evident in the registry. The general configuration of the printers used and the associated driver information are located under HKLMSystemCurrentControlSetControlPrint.
You will find references to the currently installed printer drivers of the terminal server under HKLMSYSTEMControlSet001ControlPrintEnvironmentsWindowsNTx86DriversVersion-3<Printer name>. This correlates with the files under %SystemRoot%system32spooldriversw32x863. The user-specific settings for the printers are located in the registry under HKCUPrinters.
If you do not want to install printer drivers from sources that might not be controllable, you have the option of choosing a binding path. This path is called a trusted printer driver path. To configure this behavior, you need to add the following keys to HKLMSYSTEMControlSet001ControlPrintProvidersLanManPrintServicesservers:
Terminal Server 2003 License Registry Key
It is important that the structure of the Server nameShare folder mirror the %SystemRoot%system32spooldriversw32x86 folder. If all the data was properly entered, printer drivers can be installed only from the predefined source, allowing complete control of the printer drivers used.
User-Specific Configuration![]()
The registry’s user-specific section also contains keys that are relevant to the terminal server. For example, the HKCUSoftwareMicrosoftWindows NTCurrentVersionTerminal Server hive has the key called LastUserIniSyncTime. This key indicates the last system time a user-specific .ini file was synchronized to its corresponding system-wide .ini file (discussed later in this chapter).
If a user has administrator permissions, there is an additional key called TSADMIN here, containing several subkeys. These subkeys allow access to attributes for connection options, alerts, refresh rates, keyboard shortcuts for remote control, server list options, and display values for system processes in the Task Manager.
Figure 6-9: User-specific terminal server settings for an administrator.
After a user session has been established, it has its own ID (SESSIONNAME). It is located next to the client name (CLIENTNAME) and the logon server name (LOGONSERVER) in the HKCUVolatile Environment section of the registry.
Microsoft Terminal Server License
Use the following registry sections to define all relevant user folders in which to save data about the applications, desktop, local settings, personal files, network environment, print environment, or start menu:
Terminal Server License Registry Fix
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