Terminal Services Manager for Windows 8

Windows Generic Windows Server

Terminal Services Manager for Windows 8

By simone.corbisiero 0

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.

  1. 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.
  2. Copy them all in C:\Windows\System32 on the machine running Windows 8 (or 8.1, Server 2012/2012 R2).
  3. 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]
  4. Double click on the reg file you just created on the target machine in order to add these keys to the registry.
  5. 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.

Click here to Download Terminal Services Manager

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