Pensacola Computer Help Technoblog

I recently ran across an issue where a client using a Windows Vista machine could not connect to a specific server via RDP. Every time they would try to connect to this specific server they would get an error that stated “The remote computer disconnected the session because of an error in the licensing protocol”. This computer would connect ok to other servers via RDP, and I could connect to that specific server via RDP from many other computers I tried. So I searched the web for an answer, and many seemed to point to a specific registry key.

The instructions I found all said to delete a couple of keys using these instructions:

1. Click Start, type regedit and hit enter.
2. On registry editor window, navigate to Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\MSLicensing
3. Right click on MSLicensing, click Export and give a name to file e.g. RemoteKeyBackup and click Save it on the Desktop.
4. Right click on HardwareID and Store keys folder under MSLicensing and click Delete.
5. Restart the computer for the changes to take effect. Restarting the computer will create new keys.

I did this and it did not create the new keys and I kept getting the same error.

After a bit more digging, I found the answer, a very simple on it seems in hindsight, but one that escaped me.

**Note: I am not sure if doing the above mentioned registry fix had anything to do with the final fix or not, but it made sense to try it.

To fix this, all I did was go to Programs > Accessories, and right click on Remote Desktop Connection and select “Run as Administrator”

Running as administrator fixed the issue – I think that I probably had a corrupt registry key and only by running Remote Desktop as an administrator was I able to recreate the proper keys.

Hopefully this will save someone else a ton of searching

1. Kirk says:

   April 11, 2012 at 11:31 am

   Thank you very much. I had the same issue this morning on a win7 workstation and this fixed it.