My father-in-law called me today and mentioned he was going out of town and wanted a way to manage his email within Outlook so he doesn’t come back with a thousand pieces of spam in his inbox. Simple enough request right? Not really. Apparently Microsoft actually believes that “home” users will not need remote access to their own machines. This is obviously not the case I have detailed one above, and I’m sure there are plenty more. However, in a need to differentiate their products to justify charging more, they must remove certain features from certain versions. Thus, the lack of remote access on home versions of Windows.

Windows Vista Home (and XP for that matter) does not actually allow for incoming Remote Desktop connections. The Remote Desktop software is installed and you can connect to other machines, but by default, you can’t accept incoming connections. In addition, remote connections are disabled by default on Windows Vista. However, after some searching, I came across a site detailing how to enable incoming Remote Desktop connections.

My first attempt was to install some VNC software called Ultra VNC. This worked and I was able to connect to the computer remotely and see the desktop. The problem was that my mouse wouldn’t click on anything and the keyboard input was non-responsive. Probably a simple fix, but not something I wanted to spend lots of time looking for and troubleshooting.

I did some searching to see if I can enable Remote Desktop as I had never tried on Vista (I had tried previously on my own XP Home machine). I ended up coming across exactly what I was looking for at frans goes blog. Frans has developed batch files for Windows Vista that replaces the original termsrv.dll in the System32 folder with one that will allow incoming connections. Below are the files as well as instructions for installing them.

Download file for Windows VistaWindows Vista
Download file for Windows Vista Service Pack 1Windows Vista Service Pack 1

  • First off, make sure you get the right zip file. There are two on the site. One for regular Vista Home, and one for Vista Home SP1. I grabbed the wrong one initially
  • Extract the file to a directory you can remember
  • Open a “Command Prompt” in Administrator mode (Run As Administrator)
  • Next, run the corresponding batch file for your version of Vista (Business, Premium, Ultimate). To run the batch file, switch to the directory your file is extracted into. Type the command ‘cd’ followed by the full path of the directory your files are in. To run the batch file, simply type the name of the file you wish to run. Example:
    C:\> cd C:\WINDOWS\Temp\termsrv\
    C:\WINDOWS\Temp\termsrv\> premium.bat
  • I got an error while running the batch file that the Terminal Services service could not be stopped, followed by an error that the computer was not listening on port 3389 (the Remote Desktop Port). I tried stopping Terminal Services manually through the services screen with no luck. To resolve this:
    1. Go to Start > Run > “cmd”
    2. Switch to the directory where the batch files are stored with the cd command. (see above)
    3. Rename the current termsrv.dll with the command "ren termsrv.dll termsrvBAD.dll"
    4. Go to Start > Run > “services.msc” and stop the Terminal Services service.
    5. Run the batch file again and it should work
  • My father-in-law didn’t have Windows Firewall running, but I believe, from the output of the batch file, that it will take care of configuring Windows Firewall for allowing access over port 3389. If it doesn’t, make sure you add an exception on your firewall for that port.
  • Lastly, if you are using a router, you will need to setup port forwarding on the router as well to tell your router which computer that incoming Remote Desktop connections need to go to.

Those were really the only errors I ran into while running the batch file. Keep in mind the second steps are only necessary if the Terminal Services service does not stop during the execution of the batch file and it finishes with the computer not listening on port 3389. If it finishes successfully, there’s no need for that step.

This was a great resource to find and saved my father-in-law lots of email hassle when he gets back in town. Plus, it helps me to be able to troubleshoot any issues he may have in the future with his computer. Remote Desktop is a powerful tool and is something that I think shouldn’t have been left out of Vista (or XP) Home.

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