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Brendan Tompkins [MVP]

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XP Remote Desktop Bug - Fix

Microsoft's Remote Desktop technology is Rocket Science. I have no idea how it works, but I've come to depend on it. Gone are those trips down to the server room to stand in the cold while installing an application. Gone are the days of bringing home the project on CD and having everything installed at home. I just VPN and connect to my machine at work. Over my Cox connection, it's like I'm sitting at my desk.

So when it doesn't work, it sucks. There's a bug in the client that causes everything to be REALLY SLOW on a second connection. Well, MS has a fix for this that will be released with XP SP2. But for now, a simple restart of your remote computer will do it. Problem is, it's not obvious how to restart your computer when connected remotely. You don't get the shutdown options. So, if this happens to you, open a command promt, and type the following:

tsshutdn /reboot

-Brendan

Published Jan 17 2004, 06:58 AM by Brendan Tompkins

Comments

Chris Slatt said:

Another option is to open up Task Manager, it has a shutdown menu.

I've used it to logoff when I'm Remote Desktopping through one computer to get to another (to get to one behind our firewall) and only want to logoff of the 2nd one.

# January 17, 2004 7:10 AM

Brendan Tompkins said:

Chris.. When do you get this menu? Do you have to explicitly enable it? When I'm remoting to an XP machine, I don't see it.

Brendan

# January 17, 2004 8:41 AM

Shannon J Hager said:

when using Remote Desktop, click the Start Button (on the remote computer). There will probably be a "Windows Security" link under the "run" link. This will give you the equivalent of ctrl+alt+delete on the remote PC.

# January 17, 2004 8:54 AM

Adam Hill said:

2K3 also has "Shutdown" on the Start Menu now.

# January 17, 2004 8:56 AM

Jim said:

ctrl+alt+end will send a ctrl+alt+del to the remote computer you are connected to.

# January 17, 2004 9:08 AM

Chris said:

That's odd, they've just always been there for me. File, View, Shutdown, Help. Right across the top of Task Manager.

# January 18, 2004 5:59 AM

Dylan Greene said:

Ironicly, I'm beta testing XPSP2 and remote desktop hasn't worked since I installed it.

# January 20, 2004 12:38 PM

Dylan Greene said:

Silly me. After having no remote desktop for two weeks I just fixed the problem: The new included firewall was blocking the port.

Conclusion: Firewall good. Bad UI bad.

# January 20, 2004 12:45 PM

Smele said:

ctrl+alt+end

That's fantastic, I have been trying to work out how to do a CTRL+ALT+DELETE for ages.

# April 20, 2004 12:41 PM

Peng said:

If you're using classic start menue, "Windows Security" option is under Start->Settings.

# May 3, 2004 4:59 AM

KC said:

you can just right click on the task bar and choose the task manager

# May 14, 2004 3:29 AM

Roger Mialkowski said:

Yeah, but that won't give you the options to log off or shutdown.

# July 23, 2004 9:18 AM

Jason said:

This has nothing to do with that bug but any user can disable or enable remote desktop connections to a system in the (My Computer)-Properties- Remote (tab)... I just noticed it today while messing with it and I dont have admin priveledges. Is there a fix for this?

# July 28, 2004 1:34 AM

joshuahhhhhhh said:

i know wat yer talkin about in the taskmanager it givs u the option to reboot the remote computer u haft to have fast user switching on and the welcome screen on i dont know about the welcome screen having to be on for it to work but i remote 6 machines here at home and i had this prob when i shut off fast user switching. hope this helps

# August 9, 2004 11:00 PM

James said:

WONDERFUL!!! My Thanks To ALL

# October 8, 2004 5:39 AM

protofj said:

simple - alt+ f4 !!!!

# December 9, 2004 3:07 AM

Tom V said:

Thanks alot!!!
Workig remote from home during the holidays. The only thing that worked was the first suggestion to do reboot from the command line. The connection was to slow to do anything else! Now i have rebooted and my connection is fast again! Thanks again!

# December 29, 2004 1:28 AM

Blade said:

Hi,

The PC i was trying to connect to was hung, so I could not use the start button, but tried the alternative key combination ctrl+alt+end, and it worked!

# January 13, 2005 3:00 AM

champyonfiyak said:

for yall w/ task manager problems, also try ctrl-shift-esc. works the same.

# January 21, 2005 3:53 PM

fixy said:

in you command line type:

shutdown with following switches:

-r for reboot
-s for shutdown
-l for logoff
-t for delayed shutdown in seconds
-m for remote machine
-f to force running applications to close

so command to reboot a local machine would be:

shutdown -r -t 5 -f

or remote machine

shutdown -m \\machine name -r -t 5 -f

# October 19, 2005 8:48 AM

Dave said:

Fixy & Jim - that's superb! Thanks a million

# April 2, 2006 8:37 PM

Roman said:

After Rebooting Remote Desktop... Can I able to reconnect?? or I have to do some settings for that? On my desktop ... there are 4 users and only one (I) have right to connect remotly. ~XP PRO

# April 6, 2006 12:52 PM

Suolunce said:

When I log off the remote computer, the option ' Allo users to connect remotely to this computer' is disabble automaticly. Why?

# August 1, 2007 11:42 PM

Brian said:

I know this is an old topic, but this is for those hitting it from a Search Engine.

The reason it disables it when you log off is that in XP, the current user always has the right to remote desktop the machine. When you log off, there is no remote user and therefore no one has that right.

You have to right click My Computer and go to the Remote tab, then enable remote desktop and select the users in order to remote into an XP machine that isn't currently logged in.

# November 29, 2007 12:18 PM

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About Brendan Tompkins

Brendan has been programming with .NET since the first public beta and is owner and operator of Port Technology Services, a consultancy company providing .NET application development services to the Maritime industry. In July, 2007, he was awarded the Microsoft MVP award for ASP.NET. He's also a proud co-founder of failed .COM startup Intrinsigo, and has had a hand in the failure of numerous other businesses. He currently runs CodeBetter.Com and Devlicio.us, and lives in Norfolk, Virgina with his wife Tiara and son Ian.

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Brendan Tompkins [MVP]

XP Remote Desktop Bug - Fix

Comments

Chris Slatt said:

Brendan Tompkins said:

Shannon J Hager said:

Adam Hill said:

Jim said:

Chris said:

Dylan Greene said:

Dylan Greene said:

Smele said:

Peng said:

KC said:

Roger Mialkowski said:

Jason said:

joshuahhhhhhh said:

James said:

protofj said:

Tom V said:

Blade said:

champyonfiyak said:

fixy said:

Dave said:

Roman said:

Suolunce said:

Brian said:

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