Enable Concurrent Sessions on Windows 7, Windows Vista and Windows XP (Termsrv.dll)

What is Concurrent Sessions?

Concurrent sessions is a feature in server editions of Windows that lets more than one user to log on remotely and use the server at the same time. By default in Vista when you connect to a remote computer using Remote Desktop it will force the user who is physically sat at the computer to log off, this concurrent sessions hack allows you to Remote Desktop in to a computer without logging the current active user off, this will allow two people to use the resources on the same computer at the same time.

Why would you want to do this?

There could be many different reasons, for example in our house we have a dedicated Media Centre PC running in the living room, its handy for me to be able to log on to the pc without disrupting the person watching TV, with concurrent sessions I can do this.

It could also be useful if you have a shared computer and want to access your computer from school/work when someone else at home is using the computer, with the concurrent sessions hack you could do this without disrupting the user physically sat at the computer.

How to do it?

1) Download the Universal Termsrv.dll Patch by DeepXW and unzip it

2) Choose the corresponding patcher based on you Windows Version:

For 32bit (x86) select UniversalTermsrvPatch-x86.exe
For 64bit (x64) select UniversalTermsrvPatch-x64.exe

3) Right-click the exe file, select Run as Administrator.



4) After patch has been applied restart your computer.





A backup file is located in \windows\system32\termsrv.dll.backup.

Other Info:

I have personally tested this on Vista Ultimate SP2 (x64) and Windows 7 Ultimate RC, RTM and SP1 (x64) and can confirm it works perfectly.

To test it out simply leave the current user logged on to the pc, now connect to the computer remotely using a different user account to the one you left logged on. If all has gone well both users will be logged on and active.

Here is a screen shot of me logged on to our Media Centre remotely without logging the Media Centre user off:



A Windows 7 RC Install:



You can vist deepxw’s blog here: TCP-Z, Best TCP/IP Patch

Thank you!!, I have tried this with XP SP2 and SP3 and they both work brilliantly.

Are there ANY pitfalls with this patch at all?

It seems you have to run the XP.reg mod as well but are there any REGISTRY changes to be made for WIN 7? I haven't tried that one yet.

rmm1 said:

Are there ANY pitfalls with this patch at all?

Click to expand...

I don't think so, I patched Windows 7 Ultimate on a few computers when I installed the RTM last July, everything is still working perfectly here.

Ive never had any problems connecting to our Media Center PC with remote desktop when someone else is watching live TV.

Will running the Concurrent sessions affect the WINDOWS UPDATE feature - ie: prevent updates or mark WINDOWS as not being GENUINE?

rmm1 said:

Will running the Concurrent sessions affect the WINDOWS UPDATE feature - ie: prevent updates or mark WINDOWS as not being GENUINE?

Click to expand...

Nope it will work perfectly

Up to how many sessions? I am pretty handy around a server but I don't want to have to be at beck and call for server managing and need to know if this can support say 30 rdp sessions? I don't really need that many but just wanting to know. For future reference.

I honestly don't know, I have had the local user logged in and two remote ones.

The person who created the patch has managed 7:



I would just try it and see, it will probably let you have as many as the machine can handle with the resources it has available.

Would This Work On Windows 8 Beta?

Should do if nothing major has changed, it searches your Termsrv.dll and patches it, it doesn't just replace the DLL like other similar patches.

You would have to try it and see, I can confirm it still works perfectly on Windows 7 SP1.

It Works On Windows 7 Home Premium...

vista sp2/windows 7 doesn't need this as the limit is removed in the default setting

From the author's site:
TCP-Z, Best TCP/IP Patch: Say Bye To Half-open TCP Connections Limit In Vista/2008 SP2

That's about half open TCP connections, it has nothing to do with howmany people can be logged on and using the same computer, at the same time

Question. This seems to only work if you have a second computer to use to remotely connect to the server. How would you do this if you only had one computer, with two monitors, two keyboards, and two mice? (Something like Multipoint Server). Is that possible?

This will not work like multipoint server, closest you could get to that with this is having some thin clients and have them all remote desktop in to the main PC which would be like a hacked terminal server.

@InsaneNutter:
Sorry to resurrect this thread, but I have a similar problem, I was hoping you could help me out with... I've sent you a pm, but I'm not sure, if it went through or not.
Please confirm if you've received my pm. Thank you!

Hesadanza said:

Question. This seems to only work if you have a second computer to use to remotely connect to the server. How would you do this if you only had one computer, with two monitors, two keyboards, and two mice? (Something like Multipoint Server). Is that possible?

Click to expand...

Is it must that two computers that are part of this concurrent sessions have to be on internet? eg. media center pc in living room and pc from other room

(I can understand that if I wish to access home pc from work pc it has to be through internet).

On this concurrent issue, can you crate one user and add everyone or you must crate the user base on the number of the computer that you wants to connect.