Refresh Remote Desktop Connection

Summary: In order to connect to virtual machines as a user, you need to have CAL Licenses, purchased from microsoft. Our Development Machine (RDS01), comes with a "Trial" license package, that allows us to connect to the machine. If we can't connect to the machine, then chances are the trial has expired. Instead of purchasing licenses to connect (as we only use the machine occasionally), the trial key can be deleted, and reinitiated for another 4 months of access. The below covers the steps to do so.

Instructions:

1. Connect to ay-robot-rds01.eastus.cloudapp.azure.com as Admin
2. After logging in, sign out and then back on your main machine follow the next step
3. From windows run type: mstsc.exe /console or mstsc.exe /admin, this will log you on to the server console and bypass the Remote desktop service.
4. To renew RDS grace period, you need to find the following registry key and delete the GUID
5. “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server\RCM\GracePeriod”
6. Before you can delete the registry key, you need to change ownership. You can do that by following these steps: (May or may not be required)
7. Right-Click on the key. Click on “Permissions”. Click on “Advanced”. Click on “Owner”. Select “Administrators”. Click on “Apply”
8. You can now delete the key. Reboot the server and you now have a new grace period.