Enabling Remote Desktop…Remotely

I was a trip away from a computer that I needed to work on, so being the lazy bum that I am I figured out how to enable the Remote Desktop Protocl (RDP) remotely. It envoles an optional step of adding a user to the local computer management. It is useful if you need to add Administrator access to a specific user on that computer.

Here’s the dealio:

Add users to local computer groups remotely:

– Launch MMC (Microsoft Management Console)
– Add Snapin – Computer Management (for the remote machine)
– Under System Management -> Local User and Groups -> Groups (add users as needed to specific groups)

Enabling RDP remotely:

– Launch regedt32.exe (can’t use regedit.exe for remote registries)
– Connect to the remote Computer’s Registry
– KEY: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlTerminalServerDATA: fDenyTSConnectionsVALUE: 0 = enable Remote Desktop / 1 = disabled

It works like magic, and saves you much time and trips to those pesky remote PCs. This application is mainly for someone on a LAN or through a VPN connection. If you are trying to do this over the regular internets you will have issues.