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  2. You cannot connect to a Windows Server 2003 Terminal Server as a standard Remote Desktop session; however, connection to console session with /console switch (or /admin switch with RDC 6.1 or higher) remains functional.

You cannot connect to a Windows Server 2003 Terminal Server as a standard Remote Desktop session; however, connection to console session with /console switch (or /admin switch with RDC 6.1 or higher) remains functional.

Symptoms

You cannot connect to a Windows Server 2003 Terminal Server as a standard Remote Desktop session. Connection to the console session with the /console switch (or /admin switch with RDC 6.1 or higher) remains functional. You may see the following error:

"To log on to this remote computer, you must have Terminal Server User Access permissions on this computer. By default, members of the Remote Desktop Users group have these permissions. If you are not a member of the Remote Desktop Users group or another group that has these permissions, or if the Remote Desktop User group does not have these permissions, you must be granted these permissions manually."

You can verify that the users are already members of Remote Desktop Users group and this group has the appropriate permissions.

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Cause

This will occur if the Terminal Server is unable to locate the License Server. When you try to connect to Terminal Server as a standard Remote Desktop session, you need a Terminal Services Client Access License (TS CAL).

This issue may occur more frequently if the Terminal Server and the License Server are in different domains and name resolution is unreliable.

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Resolution

On the Terminal Server, enter the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) for the License Server in the following registry key as explained below:

1. Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.

2. Locate and then click the following key in the registry:

   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\TermService\Parameters

3. On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click Key.

4. Name the new key "LicenseServers"

5. Locate and then click the following key in the registry:

   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\TermService\Parameters\LicenseServers

6. Point to New on the Edit menu, and then click Key.

7. Name the new key as the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) of the license server that you want to use, and then press ENTER.

8. Restart the Terminal Server.

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More Information

When you use RDC 6.1 or higher and you type mstsc.exe /console at the command prompt, and then you 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).

A Terminal Services server and the license server can reside in different domains. Microsoft recommends that you use the LicenseServers registry key to reduce any issues with the Terminal Server licensing discovery process.

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Keywords: vkball, kb

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Article Info
Article ID : 2448846
Revision : 1
Created on : 1/8/2017
Published on : 10/25/2010
Exists online : False
Views : 147