Windows Concurrent Terminal Services

  • Thread starter Thread starter cbruscato
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cbruscato

I know there is a way to accomplish this, and I lay the idea before all
of you Microsoft Gurus. In the beta of Windows XP SP2 there was a
hacked up termserv.dll that would enable a option in the local group
policy of a Windows XP Professional machine to allow concurrent remote
desktop users. The ideal situation to use this is to perform
maintenence on a machine while the user is still logged on without
"bumping" them off. Sound great, right? Well there is a couple of
problems with this scenario. The first is that the termserv.dll never
made it into the final version of XP SP2, therefore we must remove that
version from the beta and overwrite our local copy. Problem two is that
if during this "maintence" the computer needs to reboot there would be
no warning to the user that you were even logged on, much less
rebooting thier machine. This is remedied by issuing a "shutdown -r"
command instead which will give a notification popup to ALL users of
that machine. Problem two solved. Now for the tricky part, the
termserv.dll is enabling this functionality by (for lack of better
term) exploiting the functionality of Fast User Switching to have it be
a multi-session manager. When Windows XP Professional is joined a
Windows Server NT\2000\2003 Domain; Fast User Switching is turned off.
This prevents the multi-session from ever working. The other issue is
that when joined to a domain the domain group policy will override the
local group policy, this will prevent the option for multi-session from
ever showing up.

Enquiring minds want to know:

1) Why did Microsoft pull this feature before the beta was pushed to
RTM?

2) Is there a way to enable this functionality when the computer is
joined to a domain?

3) Is Microsoft planning a solution that will allow us to both
multi-session Clients as well as "Shadow" our users for Windows Vista \
Windows Server 2007 (Presumed).


Open Statement To Microsoft:

We need this functionality to make our daily job function easier when
repairing user machines it is very nice for us to be "Transparent" and
have them not look over our shoulders while we work. For this solution
there are 3 key terms: Remote, Transparent, Functional.

Realize my vision for the future of IT.
 
In
I know there is a way to accomplish this, and I lay the idea before
all of you Microsoft Gurus. In the beta of Windows XP SP2 there was a
hacked up termserv.dll that would enable a option in the local group
policy of a Windows XP Professional machine to allow concurrent remote
desktop users. The ideal situation to use this is to perform
maintenence on a machine while the user is still logged on without
"bumping" them off. Sound great, right? Well there is a couple of
problems with this scenario. The first is that the termserv.dll never
made it into the final version of XP SP2, therefore we must remove
that version from the beta and overwrite our local copy. Problem two
is that if during this "maintence" the computer needs to reboot there
would be no warning to the user that you were even logged on, much
less rebooting thier machine. This is remedied by issuing a "shutdown
-r" command instead which will give a notification popup to ALL users
of that machine. Problem two solved. Now for the tricky part, the
termserv.dll is enabling this functionality by (for lack of better
term) exploiting the functionality of Fast User Switching to have it
be a multi-session manager. When Windows XP Professional is joined a
Windows Server NT\2000\2003 Domain; Fast User Switching is turned off.
This prevents the multi-session from ever working. The other issue is
that when joined to a domain the domain group policy will override the
local group policy, this will prevent the option for multi-session
from ever showing up.

Enquiring minds want to know:

1) Why did Microsoft pull this feature before the beta was pushed to
RTM?
Click to expand...

No idea. To make you buy TS, maybe.
2) Is there a way to enable this functionality when the computer is
joined to a domain?
Click to expand...

Fast User Switching? No.
3) Is Microsoft planning a solution that will allow us to both
multi-session Clients as well as "Shadow" our users for Windows Vista
\ Windows Server 2007 (Presumed).
Click to expand...

Remote Assistance might work for shadowing/interactive RD with the user. I
don't know of any plans for Vista and concurrent sessions in XP. You could
get Terminal Services and do a lot of what you're asking....
Open Statement To Microsoft:

We need this functionality to make our daily job function easier when
repairing user machines it is very nice for us to be "Transparent" and
have them not look over our shoulders while we work. For this solution
there are 3 key terms: Remote, Transparent, Functional.
Click to expand...

There are third party solutions out there, but the good ones aren't cheap.
And I'm not sure how transparent they are.
Realize my vision for the future of IT.
Click to expand...

Wow, that's a large demand in a newsgroup post!
 
I know there is a way to accomplish this, and I lay the idea before all
of you Microsoft Gurus. In the beta of Windows XP SP2 there was a
hacked up termserv.dll that would enable a option in the local group
policy of a Windows XP Professional machine to allow concurrent remote
desktop users. The ideal situation to use this is to perform
maintenence on a machine while the user is still logged on without
"bumping" them off. Sound great, right? Well there is a couple of
problems with this scenario. The first is that the termserv.dll never
made it into the final version of XP SP2, therefore we must remove that
version from the beta and overwrite our local copy. Problem two is that
if during this "maintence" the computer needs to reboot there would be
no warning to the user that you were even logged on, much less
rebooting thier machine. This is remedied by issuing a "shutdown -r"
command instead which will give a notification popup to ALL users of
that machine. Problem two solved. Now for the tricky part, the
termserv.dll is enabling this functionality by (for lack of better
term) exploiting the functionality of Fast User Switching to have it be
a multi-session manager. When Windows XP Professional is joined a
Windows Server NT\2000\2003 Domain; Fast User Switching is turned off.
This prevents the multi-session from ever working. The other issue is
that when joined to a domain the domain group policy will override the
local group policy, this will prevent the option for multi-session from
ever showing up.

Enquiring minds want to know:

1) Why did Microsoft pull this feature before the beta was pushed to
RTM?

2) Is there a way to enable this functionality when the computer is
joined to a domain?

3) Is Microsoft planning a solution that will allow us to both
multi-session Clients as well as "Shadow" our users for Windows Vista \
Windows Server 2007 (Presumed).


Open Statement To Microsoft:

We need this functionality to make our daily job function easier when
repairing user machines it is very nice for us to be "Transparent" and
have them not look over our shoulders while we work. For this solution
there are 3 key terms: Remote, Transparent, Functional.

Realize my vision for the future of IT.
Click to expand...

One can't make a silk purse from a sow's ear. Use an operating system that
was designed to be multi-user from the ground up, such as GNU/Linux.
Windoze is NOT a multi-user o/s and was never intended to be.


--
The ULTIMATE Windoze Fanboy:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2370205018226686613

View Some Common Linux Desktops ...
http://linclips.crocusplains.com/index.php
 
NoStop
Your suggestions are totally useless.
95% of computer users know Linux on a destop is total crap!
 
Thanks for the feedback, I think Terminal Services \ Citrix is a little
much, for the intended application. I'm actually a little surprised
that they would be reccomended for this solution, as they are really
for application hosting, or at least that was thier primary intent. I
just know there has to be a way to do this, seeing as it works
flawlessly in Windows 2003 Server. Which is terribly surprising to me,
seeing as Windows Server 2003 does not have Fast User Switching.
However, I do concede that 2003 has a much more advanced Terminal
Services Server by default over XP's. Do you think there is some way to
remove that functionality from 2003 and install it on Windows XP. I
have seen many third party solutions for doing this, but I'm trying to
do something at little or no cost. It is hard to convince a company to
"purchase" something that makes your job easier. They already pay for
you to do the work, they don't care how easy it is.
 
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