Interesting Trick For Installing And Enabling Remote Desktop In Home Edition Version Of Windows XP
Terminal Services or Remote Desktop (RD) feature is not packaged with the Home Edition version of Windows XP. Though it has a RDC (Remote Desktop Connection) client which enables you to connect to a remote computer, you are unable to accept any RDC on your XP Home Edition system.
Nevertheless, you may install RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) on your system and enable it to accept a Remote Desktop Connection. You need to follow the trick mentioned below.
As an alternative, you may use convenient and free VNC remote control software such as UltraVNC if you are just looking to remote control a distant computer having a Home Edition version of Windows XP.
Incase you wish to install Terminal Services or Remote Desktop (server component) on your XP Home Edition system, you will need to configure the operating system to identify itself as XP Professional Edition.
After making the necessary configurations, you need to make sure that the operating system now recognizes itself as XP Professional Edition. For verifying the same, you need to right click on “My computer” and choose “Properties” from the context menu and view the “System Properties”.
Now, follow the below mentioned steps.
- Download DevCon, a command-line utility from Here and install it. This utility works as a substitute to Device Manager.
- You need to execute the self-extractor executable, devcon.exe. Choose a folder in order to unpack its contents.
- Once you do that, devcon.exe will generate two folders namely “i386” and “ia64” within the chosen folder.
- Now go to command prompt (Cmd) and change the directory to the folder “i386” (generated by DevCon). To reinstall the rdpdr driver, run the below mentioned command:
- devcon.exe -r install %windir%\inf\machine.inf root\rdpdr
- Next, restart your PC.
Your system which is been converted to XP Professional Edition from XP Home Edition, does not possess the necessary settings related to Terminal Services in the system registry. To enable Terminal Services or Remote Desktop in your XP Home Edition turned Professional Edition system, follow the below mentioned steps:
- Download the batch script “enable_tsxp.bat” and run it.
- Once you run the batch script, a .reg file will be created so as to merge the necessary values related to Terminal Services into the system registry and bootlog.
- Once the registry is patched, you need to restart the PC.
After the PC reboots, the Terminal Services will start running and will be ready to accept any incoming RDC session.
- You may verify whether Terminal Services is really running. Go to “Control Panel”, select “Administrator Tools”, and then select “Services”. Look for the Entry “Terminal Services”. Check if is status is set as “Started”. If not so, set it as “Started” manually.
- You won’t find the tab “Remote” within “System Properties” and you need to ensure that the Firewall does not restrict the port 3389, which is default port for RD.
It is quite helpful if you use a cracked version to patch termsrv.dll as it allows numerous RDC sessions. It also helps you in fixing disconnection issues and testing.
You need to note that the setting in the registry enables the auto logon feature. Therefore, the computer will automatically logon to the administrator account on the local console every time the system starts up without prompting for a password or allowing you to select a user account to login.
However, you may disable this feature by using the below mentioned steps:
- Go to “Run” option in the Start Menu, type in “regedit” and press “Enter” to open the “Registry Editor”.
- Locate the registry key mentioned below:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
- Double click on “AutoAdminLogin” and change its value data to “0”.