If you have a telnet server already configured (or an SSH server as is my case) but you forgot to, or need to, enable remote desktop to remotely control that computer, you can do this via the terminal.
Just connect to your console session (SSH / Telnet) and run this command:

reg add "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server" /v
 fDenyTSConnections /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f

This will make Terminal Services on the remote computer allow for incoming connections. Then, for Windows 7, type in:

net start "Remote Desktop Services"

This will start the listener service on the computer. You should now be able to access the computer using the administrators account (granted, you must have admin access to the ssh or telnet terminal to do any of this).

This entry was posted on Friday, May 8th, 2009 at 9:35 am and is filed under Apple, How To, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

4 Responses to “How to enable Remote Desktop through SSH or Telnet”

1. backgrounds September 16th, 2009 at 6:57 pm

   windows 7 is the greatest windows OS yet. your article was well written i look forward to reading more of your posts!

2. talbot November 23rd, 2009 at 1:14 pm

   I can’t give you a sure-fire formula for success, but I can give you a formula for failure: try to please everybody all the time.

3. DanD March 30th, 2010 at 4:11 pm

   If telnet or SSH isn’t enabled, you can prepend \\ComputerName\ to the HKLM do run the command remotely.

   reg add “\\ComputerName\HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server” /v fDenyTSConnections /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f

   Then use sc.exe or services.msc to start the RDP service remotely.

4. .intheMeanTime » Blog Archive » How to enable Remote Desktop … April 27th, 2010 at 11:34 pm

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