If you had a utility that made use of the /console switch in remote Desktop Connection, and this utility made things a lot easier for you, then maybe you were kind of irritated when MS decided to change the switch to /admin in the latest version of Remote Desktop Connection.

Of course, this is a transitory problem. Eventually, since they aren’t allowing access to Session 0 in Windows 2008, this will cease to be relevant. That will happen when there aren’t any servers out there still running Windows 2003.

Of course, since there are in fact still servers out there running Windows NT 4.0, you might not want to hold your breath about that, and you might want to use the /console switch in the meantime.

Well, I think I found a way to do that.

I fired up a brand new Windows XP SP2 OS, and before upgrading to SP3, I grabbed a copy of these files:
c:\windows\help\mstsc.chm
c:\windows\system32\mstsc.exe
c:\windows\system32\mstscax.dll
These files can also be found in the $NtServicePackUninstall$ folder.

After installing SP3, I renamed these files, and replaced them with the older versions.

Maybe there is a good reason to keep the new ones. Maybe I am missing some awesomeness that I have yet to recognize in the new version of Remote Desktop Connection, and this is a mistake. That’s a risk I am willing to take.

It is also possible that these files will keep getting replaced every time a round of MS Updates comes out, and this will become too much trouble to keep up. For now, it seems to be working, and once again of my favorite tools has one of its most useful features back.

Tags: /console switch, Remote Desktop Connection