Terminal Server clients tips and tricks

The following article provides help with setting up a remote terminal session with dual monitor support and various other Remote Desktop Service tips such as using Control + Alt + Del when in a terminal session.

A few options for Dual Monitor Support for Remote Desktop Connections

Remote Desktop Connection supports high-resolution displays that can be spanned across multiple monitors. The monitors must be the same height and aligned side by side. To have the remote computer’s desktop span two monitors, type Mstsc /span at a command prompt.

This feature is sometimes called continuous resolution. To toggle in and out of full-screen spanned mode, press CTRL+ALT+BREAK.

Another popular method does not use span across all monitors but duplicates each monitor individually,

Example 1) mstsc /v:192.168.0.163:3389 /multimon

or this next example provides an .rdp file to use as a base for all settings not available via the command, first configure and save as your remote desktop client with all the settings you prefer and take note of where the file is saved for the correct syntax of the next command.

Example 2) mstsc c:\users\lduck\desktop\MyNewRDPSavedFile.RDP /multimon

Change the listening port for Remote Desktop Connection:

For additional security, you can change the port that Remote Desktop Connection uses (or “listens on”), instead of using the standard port 3389. When you log on, type the remote computer name, followed by a colon and the desired port (for example, Computer1:3390).

To change the port that Remote Desktop listens on, follow these steps,Start Registry Editor
Locate and then click the following registry subkey
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\TerminalServer\WinStations\RDP-Tcp\PortNumber
On the Edit menu, click Modify, and then click Decimal
Type the new port number, and then click OK
Quit Registry Editor
Restart the computer

Control + Alt + Delete:

When in a remote session you can send a ctrl+alt+del to the remote computer by pressing Ctrl+Alt+END