I've had access to Vista Ultimate for a while now but have held back due to the fact that I couldn't have concurrent RDP sessions.  This has helped no-end and I upgraded this evening due to the testimony on this site.

I love the look and feel of Vista MCE and with the ability to RDP in at the same time as it being used on my high-def tele has checked all the right boxes.

Thank you so much!

Neil

Great work guys!

Did anyone applied the new patching instructions yet (below) ?

Here is an enhanced version of the patch that adds one more byte:

C:\Windows\System32>fc /b termsrv_patched.dll termsrv_rtm.dll
Comparing files termsrv_patched.dll and TERMSRV_RTM.DLL
000150D8: BA 3B
000150D9: 00 91
000150DA: 01 20
000150DB: 00 03
000150DD: 90 00
000150DF: 89 0F
000150E0: 91 84
000150E1: 20 0C
000150E2: 03 CA
000154BF: 90 43

C:\Windows\System32>

with this additional byte terminal services will check the registry HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server\fSingleSessionPerUser and if will reconnect to the existing user sessions if this is 1 or create a new session if this is 0.

To patch the file you need to use some kind of hex editor. Make sure that original version and patched version differ in exactly this locations by verifying with fc. Also to overwrite termsrv.dll you need to change the file’s owner and permissions as by default the ACL allow write only for TrustedInstaller.

Did anyone try it on a 64-bit version yet? I looked in the termsrv dll and it looked different from the 32-bits file. So I guess the patching should also be different?

DeOS:

Great work guys!

Did anyone applied the new patching instructions yet (below) ?

Here is an enhanced version of the patch that adds one more byte:

C:\Windows\System32>fc /b termsrv_patched.dll termsrv_rtm.dll
Comparing files termsrv_patched.dll and TERMSRV_RTM.DLL
000150D8: BA 3B
000150D9: 00 91
000150DA: 01 20
000150DB: 00 03
000150DD: 90 00
000150DF: 89 0F
000150E0: 91 84
000150E1: 20 0C
000150E2: 03 CA
000154BF: 90 43

C:\Windows\System32>

with this additional byte terminal services will check the registry HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server\fSingleSessionPerUser and if will reconnect to the existing user sessions if this is 1 or create a new session if this is 0.

To patch the file you need to use some kind of hex editor. Make sure that original version and patched version differ in exactly this locations by verifying with fc. Also to overwrite termsrv.dll you need to change the file’s owner and permissions as by default the ACL allow write only for TrustedInstaller.

Did anyone try it on a 64-bit version yet? I looked in the termsrv dll and it looked different from the 32-bits file. So I guess the patching should also be different?

Updated dll with the new bit for checking for exsisting connections is located here:
http://demayo.hopto.org/downloads/termsrv_new.dll

Note: you will have to change the file name to termsrv.dll before you can paste it into the system32
folder...

Tnx! Can you also confirm that the dll works for the 64-bits version?

Unconfirmed, but if you send me the 64bit dll (sunmorgus at gmail dot com) i will check to see if they are similar

The files appear to be very different, but I will look through it to see if I can find the appropriate settings to change. No promises...

Guys - great works so far.  I can confirm that this hack does not work for the 64 bit version of Windows Ultimate.  If I can assist in any way, please let me know. 

Will it work if the computers a member of a domain?

noimp is on a roll @ http://riccardo.raneri.it/blog/eng/index.php/2006/04/24/windows-xp-multiuser-remote-desktop/#comment-37796

Here is the patch for x64 Vista RTM:

fc /b termsrv_x64_patched.dll termsrv.dll
Comparing files termsrv_x64_patched.dll and TERMSRV.DLL
0005BC8F: B8 8B
0005BC90: 00 81
0005BC91: 01 38
0005BC92: 00 06
0005BC94: 90 00
0005BC95: 89 39
0005BC97: 38 3C
0005BC9B: EB 75
0006523E: 00 01

I will test it tonight when I get home.

File is located here for anyone who wants it...

http://demayo.hopto.org/downloads/termsrv64.dll

This is just to good to be true 

Thanks alot guys.

Regards

Anders

 

mikinho:

yman:

Any updates mikinho on your software MCX?

well i came back from vacation yesterday and promptly had my car broken into last night.  they stole a lot of items including my laptop that had my source code.  not sure if i will pick this up again, if i do i have a list of people who sent me pms that i will use as beta testers if they are still interested.  right now i'm more interested in getting my nintendo ds to work as a touch screen remote for media center.

 

btw, glad to see a working vista rdp workaround

 

I think you'll find that there is still plenty of interest.. i am very interested.. and waiting for your software MCX.. when you make that im going vista!!!

 

I have found the site http://wikihost.org/wikis/mediacenter/wiki/start The guy who runs the site is basically trying to emulate an MCX host computer so his Xbox 360's MCX can connect to Linux/Myth etc. He documents the handshakes which the MCX and the MCE must do before the MCE will allow the MCX to connect. He hasn't discovered the video streaming method yet, however he's found the majority of informaton which is required for an MCX to advertise its presence and successfully handshake with the MCE.

I believe we can work off this documentation to successfully emulate a real working software MCX, aka SoftSled. Anyone interested? Let's face it. Microsoft won't release SoftSled anytime soon. They might release it on the next update of Media Center (late this, I believe), however I seriously doubt it. 

The first thing we need to do is to get the MCX to advertise its self to Media Center. This is done through UPnP. I've downloaded the Intel UPnP SDK for Microsoft.NET, and will start trying trying to implement an app to successfully advertise its self to Media Center as an MCX (A balloon notification  appears in Vista, correct? Saying that  an MCX is available). Mikinho, would you mind revealing the APIs and the stuff you used?

yman, I'm up for it. Could be a fun project. I'm a fairly good .NET programmer, so can help with some of the coding. PM me for contact details if interested.

Anyone else?