Install and Enable Remote Desktop in Windows XP Home Edition
Windows XP Home Edition (HE) does not come with or support Remote Desktop, or Terminal Services feature. There is Remote Desktop Connection (RDC) client which allows user to connect to remote host, but now accepting any remote desktop connection to the Windows XP Home PC. However, there is way to install and enable Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) in Windows XP using the trick below.
Note that if you just want to be able to remote control the desktop of the computer running on Windows XP Home Edition, it may be easier and wiser to use the free VNC as alternative instead. One such VNC server and client is UltraVNC.
To run Remote Desktop Terminal Services (server component) in Windows XP Home Edition, the operating system must first made to recognize itself as Windows XP Professional Edition. To do so, follow the guide to convert Windows XP Home to Windows XP Professional.
Confirm that the OS is now Windows XP Professional Edition by going to System Properties, by right clicking on “My Computer” and select “Properties”. Then download and install DevCon (direct download link to devcon.exe), a command-line utility functions as an alternative to Device Manager.
devcon.exe is a self-extractor executable. Execute “devcon.exe” and choose a folder to unpack the content. devcon.exe will create two folders inside the selected path – i386 and ia64.
Open a command prompt window (Cmd), and the change directory into the i386 folder extracted by DevCon. Then run the following command to reinstall rdpdr driver:
devcon.exe -r install %windir%\inf\machine.inf root\rdpdr
Restart the computer after running the command.
At this stage, Windows XP ‘Professional’ which is converted still does not have the necessary Terminal Services related settings in the registry to run the Remote Desktop. To reinstall and enable Terminal Services in Windows XP Home turned Professional OS, download and run the enable_tsxp.bat batch script (also support enable TS in Windows 2000), which will create a .reg file to merge the required Terminal Services values to registry and bootlog. Reboot after patching the registry.
After reboot, the Terminal Services is running and ready to accept incoming Remote Desktop Connection session. To verify the Terminal Services is actually running, go to Control Panel -> Administrator Tools -> Services, and locate the “Terminal Services” entry. If the service is not started, start it manually. There won’t be a “Remote” tab in System Properties, and ensure that the port 3389 (the default port for Remote Desktop) is open in firewall.
Sometimes, it may be useful to patch termsrv.dll with a cracked version which allows multiple RDC sessions and users to fix some problems such as disconnection issue. It’s also good for testing by allowing connect remote desktop to localhost.
Note that the registry settings enable the automatic logon feature, where the system will auto login administrator on local console on every system startup without prompting for password, nor allowing user to select account to log on. To disable this feature, run Registry Editor (regedit), and navigate to the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
Change the value data for “AutoAdminLogin” from “1″ to “0″.
Related Articles
- Turn On or Enable Remote Desktop on Windows Vista
- Enable Multiple Concurrent Remote Desktop Connections or Sessions in Windows XP
- Freeware to Turn On and Enable Remote Desktop on Another Computer Remotely
- How to Remotely Enable Remote Desktop (Terminal Services or RDP) via Registry in Windows 2000/XP/2000/Vista/2008
- Trick to Enable and Allow Windows XP and Vista Remote Desktop Login Without Password (or With Blank Null Password)
- Easily Maintain Multiple Remote Desktop Connections with visionapp Remote Desktop (vRD)
- Connect to Remote Computer using Specific Non Standard Port using Remote Desktop Connection Client
- Remote Desktop Connection (RDP) Client 6.0 for Windows XP and 2003
- Workaround for Remote Desktop Client to Connect to Localhost (Local Terminal Server Service)
- How to Remote Desktop to Connect And Access Console Mode Session
Entries (RSS)
May 14th, 2009 08:29
I suggest that this entire posting be deleted.
Changing XP Home to Professional will make the Windows Genuine Advantage tool detect a change in the OS and lock the user out of Windows,
PLEASE AT LEAST ADD A BIG WARNING.
April 22nd, 2009 13:23
what a great post
April 11th, 2009 10:46
Go download UltraVNC and leave this alone, it will work just as good as Remote Desktop and won’t hose your SP3 genuine advantage either.
April 7th, 2009 15:20
when i try stat the terminal services after completing everything it throws an error saying
“Could not start terminal services on local computer. Error 126: the specified module could not be found” can someone please help me
April 4th, 2009 01:42
[...] Re: How do I access a PC on a network from another ? Instructions for Windows Vista (it’s built in): Turn on Remote Desktop in Windows Vista :: the How-To Geek For XP Pro: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/d…dclientdl.mspx XP Home (a little trickier): Install and Enable Remote Desktop in Windows XP Home Edition My Digital Life [...]
March 25th, 2009 19:44
I tried this on XP Home (SP3) with no luck. Went through the whole thing and still cannot remote in to the PC.
I’m hoping the Home>Pro conversion won’t screw with getting updates.
I’m also hoping that, at least, the Home>Pro conv will let me do a couple of other things that I have not been able to, up to now. Will let you know.
March 21st, 2009 22:06
“Sometimes, it may be useful to patch termsrv.dll with a cracked version which allows multiple RDC sessions and users to fix some problems such as disconnection issue. It’s also good for testing by allowing connect remote desktop to localhost.”
Has anybody tried this? Does it work? I don’t know if I’m doing something wrong, but I couldn’t manage to make it work. First thing I had to do was “install” gpedit.msc – I took the necessary files directly from XP Pro installation CD, so I can run gpedit.msc and set “Limit Number of Connections” required in step 9. Nevertheless, I cannot simultaneously work on that computer and access it through RDC – disconection issue remains. I don’t know if it makes any difference, but I use Czech version of XP HE (so I possibly need to manually patch czech termsrv.dll). Can anybody help me please, or at least let me know if it works on english/non-english XP HE?
March 13th, 2009 05:54
Nice tutorial, appreciated.
February 26th, 2009 04:47
How do you disable the feature disabling logon with no password??
February 11th, 2009 07:25
hoping my experiment will have a good result:)
January 30th, 2009 08:51
Does this work with XP SP3?
January 6th, 2009 01:54
Hello,
I manage to go to microsoft update site, but I don’t see where it tells me if I have a home or pro xp version.
WGA notification is installed, and I have any problem.
January 5th, 2009 16:02
Thierry, what happens when you run Microsoft update? Does it recognize your machine as XP Pro or Home? http://update.microsoft.com
January 3rd, 2009 13:06
Hello,
I tried that and it works perfectly.
It’s easy to undo the part “Convert and Upgrade Windows XP Home to Professional Without Reinstalling”, I made a backup of that branch of registry.
But do you know how to desinstall this part in case of possible problems ?
Specially for devcon.exe line and sysocmgr of the bat script.
I forgot to make a save of this part of registry but I think it’s easy to compare with another Windows XP home unpatch.
Thanks a lot
December 30th, 2008 21:02
Here is a batch contents in case somebody has similar problems I had while trying download the file (hope blog engine will not spoil it):
@echo off
echo Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00> C:\TSXP.reg
echo [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\TermService]>> C:\TSXP.reg
echo “Start”=dword:00000002>> C:\TSXP.reg
echo [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server]>> C:\TSXP.reg
echo “AllowTSConnections”=dword:00000001>> C:\TSXP.reg
echo [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server]>> C:\TSXP.reg
echo “fDenyTSConnections”=dword:00000000>> c:\TSXP.reg
echo [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server]>> C:\TSXP.reg
echo “fAllowToGetHelp”=dword:00000001>> C:\TSXP.reg
echo [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon]>> C:\TSXP.reg
echo “AllowMultipleTSSessions”=dword:00000001>> C:\TSXP.reg
echo [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon]>> C:\TSXP.reg
echo “AutoAdminLogon”=”1″>> C:\TSXP.reg
%windir%\regedit.exe /S C:\TSXP.reg
echo [Components] > c:\bootlog~.txt
echo TSEnabled = on >> c:\bootlog~.txt
sysocmgr /i:%windir%\inf\sysoc.inf /u:c:\bootlog~.txt /q
DEL /Q C:\TSXP.reg
DEL /Q C:\bootlog~.txt
exit
December 28th, 2008 16:33
“Jaadu RDP currently does not support Microsoft’s Terminal Services Gateway.”
???
December 28th, 2008 16:31
http://www.jaadurdp.com/xp
Any way to emulate the settings they want here? I followed the directions written above and when I try to launch the RDP connect program I get a “No RDP server found on port 5900″.
Thanks.
December 28th, 2008 16:00
The remote desktop feature worked great in XP Home but unfortunately I was also bitten by the licensing issue and now Windows will not load. It keeps saying there is a licensing issue. I tried to back my way out by undoing all of the registry keys, but to no avail.
The hard drive in question has a configuration that takes days to replicate so I’ve just set it aside for now in hopes that someone will be able to list a clear way to back out of the procedure.
I’m not blaming any one by myself because the remote desktop feature did work well for a while, but something happened and now my windows configuration is locked. Any ideas anyone?
Thanks, Chuck
December 27th, 2008 21:14
[...] instructions for retrofitting Terminal server to Windows XP Home are here. This enables Remote Desktop to that [...]
December 22nd, 2008 18:52
This was the most absurd thing I’d ever done to my computer. I owned a genuine windows XP Home ed. for two years. After I changed it to Professional using your code, windows updated itself and Microsoft’s Genuine Advantage software poped up. Now it says that my windows is NOT genuine. I can’t get rid of this junk. Windows Restore does not work. I have to reinstall my windows. I’m so frutrated. and your enable_tsxp.bat file is broken. THIS IS RETARDED.
November 26th, 2008 04:40
If you make your XP Home think that it is XP Pro, what happens when it tries to download the updates and such? Won’t this cause conflicts in XP’s already crash-prone software?
November 25th, 2008 22:45
how do i merge the i386 into the cmd (command prompt)?
November 23rd, 2008 02:30
when i open i386 the command prompt opens then quickly goes away please help!!!!!!
November 20th, 2008 11:23
Hey Thanks This Helped Me ALOT.
i now use it all the time. (RDC.)
Ur Really Helpful!
November 14th, 2008 21:17
[...] folks over at My Digital Life have a blog post that explains how to install the necessary files for Terminal Services and trick the OS so Windows [...]