Changes to Remote Desktop Connection Options in Windows Server 2008
There are a lot of changes happening in Windows Server 2008. Among those changes are how you connect to servers via remote desktop. One of my favorite switches for remote desktop is /console. I use this switch all the time to connect to the console (session 0) of servers to perform administrative tasks. Guess what, /console is gone in Windows Server 2008. So, what happens if you use this switch in Windows Server 2008? The Terminal Service Team recently posted an article that contains scenarios as well as why the /console switch was deprecated. Here is an excerpt from the article describing the behaviors:
|
Scenario |
Behavior |
|
You type mstsc.exe /console at the command prompt, and then connect to a remote server that does not have Terminal Server installed. |
The /console switch is silently ignored. You will be connected to a session to remotely administer the server.
(For more information about the Windows Server 2008 behavior, see the “Behavior when you connect to a server that does not have Terminal Server installed” section of this article.) |
|
You type mstsc.exe /console at the command prompt, and then connect to a remote server that has Terminal Server installed. |
The /console switch is silently ignored. You will be connected to a standard Remote Desktop session that requires a Terminal Services client access license (TS CAL). |
|
In the RDC client UI, you specify Computer_name /console in the Computer box (where Computer_name represents the name of the remote computer to which you want to connect), and then click Connect. |
You receive the following error message:
“An unknown parameter was specified in computer name field.” |
|
In the .rdp file, you specify /console in the “full address” property, and then try to start the Remote Desktop connection. |
You receive the following error message:
“An unknown parameter was specified in computer name field.” |
|
In the .rdp file, you specify the “connect to console” property, and then start the Remote Desktop connection. |
The property is silently ignored. You will be connected to a session that requires a TS CAL. |
|
As a developer, you programmatically call the put_ConnectToServerConsole function or the get_ConnectToServerConsole function of the IMsRdpClientAdvancedSettings interface. |
The function fails, and returns S_FALSE. |
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