Remote Desktop Licensing Error

This is a repost of a post from an old blog, made on February 29, 2012, that used to be on:

http://adminramble.com/remote-desktop-licensing-error/

Original post:

Today I got a call from client that he can’t connect to his Terminal Server from his Windows XP client.

He would get following error:

The remote computer disconnected the session because of an error in the licensing protocol. Please try connecting to the remote computer again or contact your server administrator.

Since I was sure the licensing was in order I searched for another possible problems.

The cause of the problem was in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MSLicensing.

So here is one of possible solutions if you are getting this error when trying to connect to Terminal Server (Be sure to backup your registry before you do this or export the MSLicensing keys, in case this isn’t the cause of your problems):

  1. Open registry editor (Start > Run > regedit)
  2. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\ and find MSLicensing folder
  3. Right click on it and select delete
  4. Start Remote Desktop Client (Start>Run>mstsc) as local administrator to rebuild the deleted keys

Iif you are getting some other type of licensing error or if this doesn’t work for you try looking to http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc756826%28v=ws.10%29.aspx for some other possible solutions.

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