How to enable the 2 concurrent (+1 console) sessions on Windows Server 2012

Posted by Dai on Server Fault See other posts from Server Fault or by Dai
Published on 2013-10-29T01:33:09Z Indexed on 2013/10/29 3:57 UTC
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I have a Windows Server 2012 VM running on Windows Azure.

I want to enable the ability for 2 simultaneous administrative sessions over Remote Desktop. This is permitted under the EULA for Windows Server 2012. This is NOT the same thing as the fully-blown Terminal Services / RDS feature.

In Windows Server 2000 and 2003, multiple concurrent sessions (up to a limit of 2, plus the root /console session) were enabled by default (such that logging-in via RDP without logging-out first would create a new session rather than reconnecting to the old session). In Server 2008 and later it uses single-sessions by default, as this simplifies administration (as most people want to connect to old sessions).

In Windows Server 2008 R2, you can add the MMC snap-ins for Remote Desktop Host Configuration which allows you to re-enable concurrent sessions.

However, in Server 2012, after adding the Remote Administration snap-ins from Server Manager it seems the Remote Desktop Host Configuration snap-in has been removed.

How can I re-enable the multiple concurrent sessions for Remote Desktop for Administration in Windows Server 2012?

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