Enable Remote Desktop via Group Policy

Remote Desktop allows remote administrators to log in remotely to manage a workstation. In some cases you may need to enable Remote Desktop remotely. As opposed to manually setting registry key on hundreds of of PC you can easily accomplish this via Windows Group Policy.

NOTE: This article assumes you know how to apply Group Policies

Copy and paste the following text into notepad

———-COPY EVERYTHING BELOW THIS LINE———-

CLASS MACHINE
CATEGORY “Remote Desktop Configuration”
KEYNAME “SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows NT\Terminal Services”

POLICY !!DENY_CONNECT
#if version >= 4
SUPPORTED !!WinXP
#endif
EXPLAIN !!DENY_CONNECT_EXPLAIN
ACTIONLISTON
VALUENAME “fDenyTSConnections” VALUE NUMERIC 1
END ACTIONLISTON
ACTIONLISTOFF
VALUENAME “fDenyTSConnections” VALUE NUMERIC 0
END ACTIONLISTOFF
END POLICY
End Category

[strings]
WinXP=”At least Windows XP Professional or .NET Server”
DENY_CONNECT=”Do not allow client connections”
DENY_CONNECT_EXPLAIN=”Prevents remote desktop connections to the system.”

———-COPY EVERYTHING ABOVE THIS LINE———-

Save file to C:\windows\inf as Remote_Desktop_Configuration.adm

Open Group Policy Management
Navigate to Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates
Right Click on Administrative Templates and select “Add or Remove Templates”
Select Add and add “Remote_Desktop_Configuration.adm” and hit open
Hit close on the next screen
Expand Administrative Templates in Group Policy Management
Select Remote_Desktop_Configuration
Select “Do Not Allow Client Connections”
Delect Disable

Now to Select your Remote Desktop Users
Still under Group Policy Management, navigate to:
Computer Configuration-> Windows Settings-> Security Settings-> Local Policies-> User Rights Assignments-> Allow Log on through Terminal Services.
Select your user groups or users which you want to have access to Remote Desktop into the workstations.
Hit OK and close out of Group Policy Object Editor

Apply this group policy to to the OU for the computers you want to apply this to.

This article is provided “AS IS” with no warranties expressed or implied.