Override the license server discovery process in Windows

To select a specific license server for use with various Windows Terminal Services servers in a domain or site, you can modify the registry to point to a particular license server. You can specify that all Terminal Services servers work with a particular license server for accounting purposes. A Terminal Services server and the license server can reside in different domains. Microsoft recommends that you use the LicenseServers registry key to reduce any issues with the Terminal Server licensing discovery process.

To select a specific license server, follow these steps, and then quit Registry Editor.

1. Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.
2. Locate and then click the following key in the registry:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\TermService\Parameters
3. On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click Key.
4. Name the new key “LicenseServers”
5. Locate and then click the following key in the registry:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\TermService\Parameters\LicenseServers
6. For each licensing server to which you would like to point the Terminal Services server, point to New on the Edit menu, and then click Key.
7. Name the new key “ServerName” where ServerName is the NetBIOS name of the license server that you want to use, and then press ENTER.

   Note The new key name can be any of the following designations that represent the license server:

   • The NetBIOS name of the server
   • The fully qualified domain name (FQDN) of the server
   • The IP Address of the server
8. Restart your computer.