Technogearophilia

Despite the long-running complaints, Microsoft’s Windows operating systems are quite good. They are, however, complex and you have to configure them properly.

Windows Hidden Settings

Of course a lot of the settings are hidden, which makes good sense but makes things a bit harder to configure.

To many people’s minds the war between the various web browsers looks like a schoolyard brawl between two rambunctious boys, with a quiet – possibly special needs – kids sitting off to one side utterly unconcerned and oblivious to the fight raging beside him.

Mmmmmmmm…Glue Good

Yessir; that’s old Internet Explorer off to side eating glue while the other browsers get rowdy, trying to figure out who’ll be king of the internet playground – or so it’s really easy to think.

The thing is though that the “glue” IE is munching on is business critical Microsoft applications such as Office and SharePoint, and a plethora of other critical web-based or web-enabled systems that were designed to work natively with IE but which either do not function correctly with Firefox or Chrome or which require modifications to those browsers’ settings – Firefox users, think about:config – in order to work correctly.

Firefox, Chrome, and all the lesser contenders can fight between themselves for the recreational market all they want. Microsoft’s Internet Explorer doesn’t need to be the playground’s biggest bully; it’s busy at work – more like the nerdy straight-A student than the special needs kid.

Windows computer systems without Terminal Services licensing can only accept two (2) concurrent Remote Desktop (RDP). Sessions. This can occasionally cause Windows Administrators and Tech Support personnel problems since users often do not properly close their RDP sessions. This prevents the Admin or Support personnel from opening sessions of their own in order to work on issues.

There is actually a simple, if not widely publicized, fix for this problem.

If you’re using MSTSC version 5.x, installed by default on Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, and Windows Vista SP1 systems, enter the following from either RUN or CMD:


mstsc.exe /console


If you’re using MSTSC version 6.x, installed by default on Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista SP2, and Windows 7 systems and upgradeable to from Windows XP, enter the following from either RUN or CMD:


mstsc.exe /admin


In either situation using mstsc.exe with the appropriate switch – /console or /admin – will connect you to Session 0 on the remote system, bumping off another connection in order to do so if necessary. Then you can do whatever work that you need to do.