Enableing and Disabling Remote Desktop from another Pc

jamesd

An unusual issue:

We use remote desktop on a server as a support program on a site, the client wants a way to enable / disable remote desktop on the server from a client pc.
I have created a user called remote.support and have tried various methods but cannot get any of them to work:
User cannot be told the administrator password:

Method1: Batch file to enable remote desktop ~ works as administrator
@ECHO OFF
ECHO Remote Desktop Support Enabled on Server
ECHO Once Enabled do not Forget to Disable it once Support is finished working as it is a security risk.

@reg add "\\Servername\HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server" /v fDenyTSConnections /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f

I get access denied.

I have also tried using the sc command and the net stop /start command and come back with right's issues too.

I tried using the default gpo and services and giving right to stop/start the terminal services but still get a right's issue.

Any idea's? Server is too far away to walk to for the user.

Capt'n Midnight

if all else fails then have a batch file running all the time with the rights looking at a folder the user has write access to

:loop
 if exist x:\file.txt  net start something 
 if not exist x:\file.txt  net stop something 
 ping 127.0.0.1 -n 60
goto :loop

jamesd

So if the user has a mapped drive to i:\\share and if he puts a file called support.txt into it the server will start the service and when the user deletes the file the server will stop the service.
Sounds good - thanks for that.

James

cance

When it comes to scripting i feel endless looping batch files = the devil.

heres a better idea for you mate.

setup two batch files one enabling remote desktop and one disabling remote desktop.

enable batchfile:

@reg add "\\Servername\HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server" /v fDenyTSConnections /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f.

Disable batchfile:

@reg add "\\Servername\HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server" /v fDenyTSConnections /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f.

save these batch files to the windows directory, to hide them away from the user.

Create a schedueled task on the users local machine for each batch file with a time to run in the past ensuring they wont accidentally run, then set the schedueled tasks to run as the administrator. (right click, properties, enter the domain username and password)

Now all the user needs to do is go into the computers schedueled tasks and right click > run.

the user should be able to run the enable remote desktop command as himself which will enable remote desktop, once he is finished advise him to run the second schedueled task to disable it and hey presto

jamesd

Cance - the scheduled task running will not stop, I have gone into the properties of the scheduler and told them to stop after 1 minute so thats stopping them.

It's working fine though.

Thanks