Terminal Services Remote Control

[James MacKenzie]

I have two Win2K Servers set up - one is a DC. I have Terminal Services set
up for remote administration (for licencing). I can use the client from
another workstation and have no problems accessing both servers via Terminal
Services. However, what I cannot figure out is how to use the remote
control. It should be obvious and I have tried everything. I enter the
Terminal Services manager and can see the sessions. However, when I right
click, the remote control option is grayed out. I cannot figure out how to
get it to activate.

The useless MS help just says to right click it. The monkeys who wrote the
help never figured out that sometimes it may not be available!

I have admin rights to the servers, domain admin on the network and still
nothing. I cannot see how it has anything to do with permissions. Remote
control is set on server terminal services configuration and the connection
is set to allow remote control. In fact all the default settings are there.
I have admin rights to both machines and can access the server via TS. I
have tried with multiple users accessing the same server using TS and still,
not enabled remote control option to right click

Any suggestions would prevent me from pulling all my hair out!!

James

 

[Guest]

You MUST be logged onto a terminal services session to remote control another session. This can't be done while logged onto the console

Some of the "monkeys" you refer to may actually read these threads so keep that in mind. Asking politely for help goes farther than calling people names

Terminal Server how tos & FAQ
http://www.workthin.com/tshta.ht

Patrick Rous
Microsoft MVP - Terminal Serve
http://www.workthin.co

----- James MacKenzie wrote: ----

I have two Win2K Servers set up - one is a DC. I have Terminal Services se
up for remote administration (for licencing). I can use the client fro
another workstation and have no problems accessing both servers via Termina
Services. However, what I cannot figure out is how to use the remot
control. It should be obvious and I have tried everything. I enter th
Terminal Services manager and can see the sessions. However, when I righ
click, the remote control option is grayed out. I cannot figure out how t
get it to activate

The useless MS help just says to right click it. The monkeys who wrote th
help never figured out that sometimes it may not be available

I have admin rights to the servers, domain admin on the network and stil
nothing. I cannot see how it has anything to do with permissions. Remot
control is set on server terminal services configuration and the connectio
is set to allow remote control. In fact all the default settings are there
I have admin rights to both machines and can access the server via TS.
have tried with multiple users accessing the same server using TS and still
not enabled remote control option to right clic

Any suggestions would prevent me from pulling all my hair out!

Jame

 

[James MacKenzie]

I agree

My apologies. However, a comment that many people do concur with is that
much of the help in Microsoft Help is actually quite poorly written. Most of
it is only useful to people when they totally understand something but have
forgotten exactly how to do it. I have had at least 20 people ask me
questions about terminal services such as the question below. If the
programs were written in a more obvious way (not always the case) and the
help was more descriptive - or actually mentioned things that people want to
know, then a huge number of people would spend a lot less time cursing and
spending all night pulling their hair out.

I have had many a frustrating night spent trying to figure something out
which, had there just been a slightly better description in help, wouldn't
have been necessary. Usually, the help files just take you round in circles
never actually giving what you want. Most give detailed explanations about
how to actually open a control panel up by clicking on the start button etc
when actually most users know that. It then stops exactly at the bit that
you need to know!

Perhaps you could now help me to understand how actually to log onto a
session. What do you mean by "logged on to the consol"? Do you mean logged
on locally to the server or do you mean logged on through terminal services
as I'm not sure I understand you.

If you mean logged on locally, then no, I was not logged on to the consol. I
have read all the articles in the document that you gave the link to and
still I have failed to see how to log on to a session. It should be as
simple as right clicking on a session and choosing remote control. However,
my remote control option is still grayed out and I am now spending yet
another night trying to figure the damn thing out.

The article tells me how to configure, disable and actually use remote
control but NOWHERE does it say what the hell is wrong if your REMOTE
CONTROL is GRAYED OUT.

An example of extremely bad help is Group Policy. I spent ages trying to
work out why Group Policy would not always work. Changes would be made and
the changes would not be reflected on the clients. I tried everything. I put
help messages out and asked on the newsgroups. No-one could offer an
explanation. The cause of the problem was the DNS Server address on the
network card on the client. It wasn't pointing to the DNS server on the
Domain but to the ISP's DNS servers. Now everything else virtually works
with this setting and around 1 in 2 win2000 servers I come across are
configured this way. Now, the one most fundamental thing about GP is exactly
that the DNS servers on the NIC are correctly configured because GP uses DNS
to update the clients. It does not use NetBIOS or anything else. Nowhere
have I ever seen any indication anywhere about this. I have since helped
countless people who have the same problem. To me this is as fundamental as
putting gas in a car to make it run. Surely, it should say something in the
help files about this! I have over 100 examples so I think I am possible
justified in being pissed off sometimes with he quality of help files!!

If you are not now too pissed off with me, I would appreciate some help on
these damn TS. You can guarantee that countless people will end up
benefiting from it, not just one rather frustrated individual.

Regards

James

You MUST be logged onto a terminal services session to remote control

another session. This can't be done while logged onto the console.

Some of the "monkeys" you refer to may actually read these threads so keep

that in mind. Asking politely for help goes farther than calling people
names.

 

[James MacKenzie]

Dear Patrick
Many thanks for that
However, I am now getting closer to the problem. I have no Remote Desktop
Client. I have now seen someone elses server and it has a Remote Control
Client in the Communications folder under Accessories. I do not have this
and have never had this. Is this because I installed TS for Remote Admin
rather than as an Application Server? If not, how do I get Remote Control
Client because I have installed TS on multiple server and never seen this
before. This would have eliminated all the confusion.

If this is the reasopn, then the help should indicate the in oder to use
Remote Control then TS must be installed in this mode.

Thanks

James, I'm not upset with you in any way. I just wanted you to be aware

that members of the MSFT Terminal Services support & design teams do
frequent these newsgroups, so choosing tactful language is more appropriate.

I can certainly understand the frustration you're having and can offer you some assistance.

1. When I state "log onto a session" I'm referring to using the Terminal

Server Client or Remote Desktop client to logon to the terminal server.

2. Logging onto a "console session" is done by adding the /console switch

to the remote desktop client, i.e. Start -> Run -> mstsc /console (only
works when connecting to 2003 TS)

3. You must NOT be logged onto the console to use the remote control

features, but rather a standard RDP Session using the Remote Desktop Client.

If you wish to read something that is more "user Friendly" than the help

files then I can recommend an author who's writing style is to my liking,
i.e. from experience and not directly from the help files. Check out some
of Brian Madden's books, they're easy to read and give very in-depth,
detailed instructions on how to do things.

 

[Vera Noest [MVP]]

You don't need the Remote Desktop Client on the server, you need it
on your client (workstation). If you run XP on your client, it is
already there (under Accessories - Communication). If you don't have
it there, you can download it from
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=a8255ffc-
4b4a-40e7-a706-cde7e9b57e79&DisplayLang=en

Note that this URL will wrap over several lines. You will have to
paste the complete URL in your webbrowser.

Once you have the Remote Desktop Client installed on the client,
start it and write the name of your Terminal Server into the
"computer" field. That's it!

The Remote Desktop Client is not by default installed on the server,
but you can install it if you need to connect from the server to yet
another server. This seems to be the configuration that you have seen
somewhere else.

--
Vera Noest
MCSE, CCEA, Microsoft MVP - Terminal Server
http://hem.fyristorg.com/vera/IT
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