RDS Licensing Issue:How to reset RDC client license on Windows 7?

Issue  : RDS users gets Licensing Issue 

Note : Please take backup of registry before doing any thing… don’t think that worst can’t happen , but it does happen to best of us 🙂

Go to Start> Run > Regedit

In Windows 7 if you have a problem with your RDC client license, you can delete the HKLM\Software\Microsoft\MSLicensing key to force the license to rebuild itself on next login.

An Error occurred in the Licensing Protocol

To resolve this problem, right-click the Remote Desktop Connection shortcut, and then click Run as Administrator. By default, the remote desktop connection runs as a user with the lowest user permissions.

By default, a restricted user does not have permission to write registry entries to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE. Therefore, attempts to rewrite the MSLicensing key fail.

Starting Remote Desktop Connection with administrative credentials provides the permissions that are necessary to write the needed registry keys.

If you get this error message : Then simply log in with Admin account, run RDS web portal and login with your credentials. I had issue with users where they are local admin of the machine but somehow can’t re-create the MSLicensing register entry.

The problem is caused by UAC in Windows 7 / Windows Vista. Because the RDC client does not by default have permission to create a new key under the HKLM\Software\Microsoft branch, it cannot rebuild the licensing information once it has been deleted!

This causes a silent failure with the error message “problem in licensing protocol”. (Ideally, the program would be redesigned to display a UAC challenge prompt in this situation).

Revoke Licenses from RDS License Server

Another Possible issue related to RDS is License availability in RDS License Server. You should check if you have enough licenses , if you believe the number users have exceed the available licenses then it is best to revoke licenses for the users with less utilization.

 Here are the steps:

1. Login to your RDS Server
2. Start > Administrative Tools > Remote Desktop Service > Remote Desktop Licensing Server
3. Click on your License Server name , this will show you all available licenses with Total RDS CALs. Take a note of Issued licenses verses Total RDS CALs. 

4. Revoke the licenses for the users in the list which with older issued dates or less utilization. Simply highlight user > right click > Revoke RDS CAls