Freeware to Turn On and Enable Remote Desktop on Another Computer Remotely

Administrators can remotely enable and turn on Remote Desktop (Terminal Services) in remote computer or server in another or off-site location via network to accept incoming RDC connection. However, if manually editing the remote computer registry is not your cup of tea, or you’re facing error opening or editing the registry key value as required, here’s a few freeware utilities and tools which can be downloaded and used for free to enable (or disable) remote desktop or remote PC remotely, some even comes with more versatile functions.


IntelliAdmin RDP Remote Desktop Enabler

This program allows to enable the remote desktop feature of Windows XP/2000/2003 - remotely.

Download Remote Desktop Enabler: RDPRemoteEnabler_Free.exe

Acroni Remote Desktop Enable Utility

Allows user to enable Remote Desktop connections on remote servers using IP address or host name, change the port number that RDP listens on and add users to the “Remote Users” group on the local system.

Download Acroni Remote Desktop Enable Utility: RDPEnable.zip

RD Enable XP

RD Enable XP allows user to enable Remote Desktop connections on a remote computer running Windows XP Professional Edition within a domain environment using computer or IP address. Able to force Windows Firewall exception to allow Remote Desktop Connections client with the installed licensed copy of PsExec.

Download RD Enable XP: RD_Enable_XP_v1.zip

Remote RDP Enable Script

An easy to use command script by My Digital Life to remotely modify the remote system registry to enable and turn on Remote Desktop for multiple servers, computers and PCs at one go.

To use the Remote RDP Enable Script, simply open a command prompt, and then go to the folder which the command batch script is located. Then type the following command:

RemoteRDPEnable Computer1 Computer2 ….. ComputerN

where Computer1, Computer2 and ComptuerN represents the host name or computer name to remotely enable their Remote Desktop.

Download RemoteRDPEnable.cmd (in ZIP format)

Command for SysInternals PSTools PsExec

Download and install PSTools from SysInternals.com (now part of Microsoft), and the execute the following command:

psexec \\computername reg add “hklm\system\currentcontrolset\control\terminal server” /f /v fDenyTSConnections /t REG_DWORD /d 0

Replace computername with actual computer name.

Windows Management Instrumentation Command-line (WMIC)

For Windows Server 2003 or 2008, run the following command in Command Prompt window:

wmic /node:”[ComputerName (in FQDN format)]” RDTOGGLE WHERE ServerName=”ComputerName” CALL SetAllowTSConnections 1

For Windows XP SP2 or SP3:

wmic /node:”HostName” path win32_terminalservicesetting where servername=”HostName” call SetAllowTSConnections 1

Replace [ComputerName (in FQDN format)], ComputerName or HostName with actual computer name or host name.

Note that for remotely enable Remote Desktop feature to work, user must log on to the local computer with an admin account or user account of local admin group that has administrative privileges on the remote computer.