How To Eanble Remote Desktop on a Remote Machine/Server

How To Enable Remote Desktop on a Remote Machine/Server

Figure 1. System properties for a remote machine does not have Remote tab.

If you are uanble to login to your server/machine and forgot to turn on RDS manually, fortunately, there’s a workaround. Log on to your  workstation using your administrator credentials and start Registry Editor by Start –> Run –> regedit –> OK. Then select the Connect Network Registry option under the File menu (Figure 2).

Figure 2. Connecting to the Registry on a remote machine.

This opens the Select Computer search box. Either browse Active Directory to locate the remote server, or type its name in the textbox (Figure 3).

Figure 3. Connecting to the Registry on a remote server named SRV220.

Click OK and a node will be displayed in Registry Editor for the remote machine (Figure 4).

Figure 4. HKLM and HKU hives on SRV220.

Now browse HKLM on SRV to find the following Registry key (Figure 5).

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server

Figure 5. Registry key for Terminal Server on remote machine.

Under the Terminal Server key, you’ll find a REG_DWORD value named fDenyTSConnection. Double-click on that value to open theEdit DWORD Value box and change the value data from 1 (Remote Desktop disabled) to 0 (Remote Desktop enabled), as in Figure 6 below.

Figure 6. Set fDenyTSConnections to 0 to enable Remote Desktop on SRV220.

The remote machine needs to be rebooted for the change to take effect, so open a command prompt and type the following command:

shutdown -m \\srv220 -r

After the remote machine reboots, Remote Desktop should be enabled on it. To test this from your workstation, open Start –> All Programs –> Accessories –> Communications –> Remote Desktop Connection, enter the name of the remote server in the Remote Desktop Connection logon box, supply your administrator password when prompted, and you’re in.