How to Remotely Enable Remote Desktop (Terminal Services or RDP) via Registry in Windows 2000/XP/2000/Vista/2008

Remote Desktop or RDP service is a free yet useful tool to remotely log on to remote computer and gain full access and privileges as if user is in front of local console. Remote Desktop is also known as Terminal Services. It’s useful if the server, or PC is located miles away in remote location, and frequent trip to the site to troubleshoot, configure or manage the system is not a viable option.

Although most versions of Windows operating system such as Windows 2000, 2003, 2008, XP and Vista does come packaged with Remote Desktop, however it’s disabled by default. Turning on and enabling the Remote Desktop via local console is easy, where Microsoft provides similar GUI (graphical user interface) in all editions of Windows

However, if an off-site server needs to be access via Remote Desktop Connection (RDC) client immediately, yet the Remote Desktop is not enabled on the server, then it will be a headache. Luckily it’s possible to remotely enable and turn of the Remote Desktop service on a remote PC or server by remotely editing its registry.
To remotely enable Remote Desktop on another computer, follow these steps:

1. Login to the workstation with administrator credentials.
2. Run Registry Editor (regedit).
3. Click on File menu.
4. Select the Connect Network Registry in the pull down menu.
   

1. A “Select Computer” dialog search box is opened. Type the host name of the remote computer in the text box, or browse Active Directory to locate the remote server, or click on “Advanced” button to search for the remote computer.
   

1. Click OK after the remote computer is selected. A node for the remote computer network registry will be displayed in the Registry Editor with HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE (HKLM) and HKEY_USERS (HKU) hives. 

1. Navigate to the following registry key for the remote computer: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server
   
2. In the right pane, locate a REG_DWORD value named fDenyTSConnection. Double-click on fDenyTSConnection and change the value data from 1 (Remote Desktop disabled) to 0 (Remote Desktop enabled).
   

1. Reboot the remote machine by issuing the following command in Command Prompt: shutdown -m \\hostname -r
   Replace hostname with the actual computer name of the remote host.
2. Remote Desktop for the remote computer has been enabled, and listening on default Remote Desktop port for any incoming Remote Desktop Connection. For security reason, you may want to consider changing the Remote Desktop listening port.

Exchange 2010 clear move request fails

In the process of migrating users to Exchange 2010 we will occasionally get an error clearing move requests through the console after they have completed.

--------------------------------------------------------
Microsoft Exchange Error
--------------------------------------------------------
Action 'Clear Move Request' could not be performed on object 'user name'.

User Name
Failed
Error:
Couldn't find a move request that corresponds to the specified identity domain.name/user name'.
--------------------------------------------------------
OK
--------------------------------------------------------

We have found these can usually be cleared through PowerShell using Remove-MoveRequest "user name" and you can add -verbose to the end to get details if there are any issues.

Creating VMware Virtual Machine Templates

Virtual Machine Templates come in very handy when you want to have a repository of Virtual Machine base or images or SOE’s that you can easily create a virtual machine from. This saves you the time of installing the operating system, installing regular common applications and patching the system.

In this tutorial we will run through creating a Virtual Machine Template from a Windows 2008 32-bit virtual machine I created earlier.

1. Creating Virtual Machine Templates is all done within vCenter. Open vCenter and select the virtual machine that you wish to create a template with and select Clone to Template. This will not make any changes to the source system. However if you wish to convert the Virtual Machine to a template you can select Convert to Template, though keep in mind that the source virtual machine will not be usable after that process. We will select Clone to Template.

2. The Clone Virtual Machine to Template wizard pops up. Give the Template a name and select the folder or Datacenter object that you wish to save the template to. I created a Templates folder earlier that i’ll be storing this template in. Click Next.

3. Select the Cluster or Host if you are not running a Cluster of where you want to store this Template. Click Next.

4. Select a datastore with sufficient room to store the Template and click Next.

5. I will be using Thin Provisioning to store me Template so it does not take up too much room. If you are not sure what Thin Provisioning is, head over to the Resources section and click on the Thin Provisioning link under VMware vSphere 4. Click Next.

6. Verify your settings and click Finish.

7. As you can see my new Template is now ready to use under the Template Folder.