Terminal Services Manager for Windows 8
For some reasons Microsoft has removed such a useful tool from RSAT (Remove Server Administration Tools) for Windows 8 and 8.1 and it’s not on Windows 2012 and 2012 R2 server either. Looking around on the internet I haven’t found many people posting a concrete solution that allowed us to use the Microsoft Terminal Services Manager for Windows 8+.
I prefer to avoid installing a 3rd party tool when Microsoft had a good application that could achieve that. Some people on forums said “why don’t you just use task manager?”. Well these people clearly never worked in a large environment 🙂 .
The thing I liked the most about the Terminal Services Manager is the way I could create groups and look at all of the sessions from different servers in the same screen (still thinking about the guy who proposed to use task manager..).
Solution
Yup 🙂 There’s one and it worked on my Windows 8.1 system. Other people have reported that this solution works on Servers too but to be honest, I would not apply such a solution to a server. You can, but I won’t 🙂 .
I’m not sure yet whether the files required are the same on both x64 and x86 OS, I’ve done this by getting the files from a 2008 R2 (x64) machine and applied them on my Windows 8.1 x64 laptop.
- On a 2008 SP2/2008 R2 Server get the following files from C:\Windows\System32 [%systemroot%\System32]:
tsadmin.dll
tsadmin.msc
umcRes.dll
wts.dll
Note: When I did it, I already had umcRes.dll in System32 and I decided not to overwrite it. - Copy them all in C:\Windows\System32 on the machine running Windows 8 (or 8.1, Server 2012/2012 R2).
- Copy and paste the below code in notepad and save it as a .reg file:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MMC\SnapIns\FX:{3FCE72B6-A31B-43ac-ADDA-120E1E56EB0F}] "ApplicationBase"=hex(2):43,00,3a,00,5c,00,57,00,69,00,6e,00,64,00,6f,00,77,00,\ 73,00,5c,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,00,00 "About"="{00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}" "VersionStringIndirect"="@C:\\Windows\\System32\\umcRes.dll,-106" "ProviderStringIndirect"=hex(2):40,00,43,00,3a,00,5c,00,57,00,69,00,6e,00,64,\ 00,6f,00,77,00,73,00,5c,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,\ 5c,00,75,00,6d,00,63,00,52,00,65,00,73,00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,2c,00,2d,\ 00,31,00,30,00,32,00,00,00 "NameString"="Remote Desktop Services Manager" "HelpTopic"=hex(2):25,00,73,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,72,00,6f,00,6f,00,\ 74,00,25,00,5c,00,68,00,65,00,6c,00,70,00,5c,00,74,00,73,00,5f,00,6d,00,61,\ 00,6e,00,61,00,67,00,65,00,72,00,2e,00,63,00,68,00,6d,00,00,00 "AssemblyName"="tsadmin" "RuntimeVersion"="v2.0.50215" "Description"="Manage Remote Desktop Services sessions" "DescriptionStringIndirect"=hex(2):40,00,43,00,3a,00,5c,00,57,00,69,00,6e,00,\ 64,00,6f,00,77,00,73,00,5c,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,\ 00,5c,00,75,00,6d,00,63,00,52,00,65,00,73,00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,2c,00,\ 2d,00,31,00,30,00,34,00,00,00 "LinkedHelpTopics"=hex(2):25,00,73,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,72,00,6f,\ 00,6f,00,74,00,25,00,5c,00,68,00,65,00,6c,00,70,00,5c,00,74,00,73,00,5f,00,\ 6d,00,61,00,6e,00,61,00,67,00,65,00,72,00,2e,00,63,00,68,00,6d,00,00,00 "NameStringIndirect"=hex(2):40,00,43,00,3a,00,5c,00,57,00,69,00,6e,00,64,00,6f,\ 00,77,00,73,00,5c,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,\ 75,00,6d,00,63,00,52,00,65,00,73,00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,2c,00,2d,00,31,\ 00,30,00,33,00,00,00 "IconIndirect"=hex(2):40,00,43,00,3a,00,5c,00,57,00,69,00,6e,00,64,00,6f,00,77,\ 00,73,00,5c,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,75,00,\ 6d,00,63,00,52,00,65,00,73,00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,2c,00,2d,00,31,00,31,\ 00,31,00,00,00 "FxVersion"="2.0.1.7" "Type"="Microsoft.TerminalServices.Monitor.SnapIn.TSManagerSnapIn, tsadmin, Version=6.1.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35" "FolderBitmapsColorMask"=dword:00000000 "ModuleName"="tsadmin.dll" "Provider"="Microsoft Corporation" [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MMC\SnapIns\FX:{3FCE72B6-A31B-43ac-ADDA-120E1E56EB0F}\NodeTypes] [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MMC\SnapIns\FX:{3FCE72B6-A31B-43ac-ADDA-120E1E56EB0F}\Standalone]
- Double click on the reg file you just created on the target machine in order to add these keys to the registry.
- Done! You can now start %systemroot%\System32\tsadmin.msc
Download the files
In case you do not have access to an old 2008 box, no worries, below is the zip file with those files in it (from a 2008 R2 – x64 machine). I’ve also included add_TSadmin.reg in it which takes care of step 3 for you.