Connecting to Terminal Services When All Active Sessions are Used

• Oct 13, 2005
• 9 Comments
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UPDATE: If you are using Windows Server 2008, the switch is /admin not /console. See this post for details.

We use Remote Desktop (Terminal Services) to remotely manage a Windows 2003 server that is not part of our domain. Recently we ran into the two user limit for remote desktop connections, which barred anyone from connecting.

Jon discovered a neat little trick that got us in. He ran the following command from the command line:

mstsc -console

It turns out that mstsc.exe is the remote desktop connection application. The -console flag specifies that we want to connect to the console session of a server. Since we generally launch Remote Desktop from the icon, we almost always leave this console session free. Nice!

When I got back in the server, I used the Terminal Services Manager tool to reset the disconnected and idle sessions. I then used Terminal Services Configuration tool to set a timeout for disconnected sessions. Finally, I remembered to logout rather than simply close the remote desktop window. Simply closing remote desktop doesn’t reset the session.

What others have said

Jeff Atwood Oct 13, 2005 9:30 PM

# re: Connecting to Terminal Services When All Active Sessions are Used

Also this

http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000222.html

Marcus Lenngren Oct 14, 2005 1:39 AM

# re: Connecting to Terminal Services When All Active Sessions are Used

Hello Doc, I think this post broke the validation of your feed. Neither FireFox or MagepieRSS can parse it.

XML Parsing Error: not well-formed
Location: http://haacked.com/Rss.aspx
Line Number 72, Column 46:MSTSC [<connection file="">] [/v:<server[:port]>] [/console] [/f[ullscreen]]

-m

Haacked Oct 14, 2005 9:05 AM

# re: Connecting to Terminal Services When All Active Sessions are Used

Thanks Marcus. I just fixed it and checked feedvalidator.org. It validates now.

Marcus Lenngren Oct 15, 2005 2:08 AM

# re: Connecting to Terminal Services When All Active Sessions are Used

Great. Thanks :)

Michiel Jul 31, 2006 2:58 AM

# re: Connecting to Terminal Services When All Active Sessions are Used

In a pinch, I sometimes tell TS manager to connect to another server and then kill off any idle sessions.

But the console connection option of MSTSC is a neat find, I had overlooked it myself.

you've been HAACKED Oct 11, 2006 5:41 PM

# Tip For Managing Remote VMWare Server

Tip For Managing Remote VMWare Server

you've been HAACKED Oct 17, 2006 7:54 AM

# Remote Desktop On A Non-Standard Port

Remote Desktop On A Non-Standard Port

Rodrigo C. Souza Jul 03, 2007 4:22 PM

# re: Connecting to Terminal Services When All Active Sessions are Used

You rock man!!, Cool, very cool!
Saved my live!!
Bye.

Jab Apr 01, 2008 11:55 PM

# re: Connecting to Terminal Services When All Active Sessions are Used

Sweet!! thanks for the tip man, just used it!

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