Windows Remote Desktop (aka Terminal Services) Port Change

There often becomes a need to remotely access/administer a Windows machine.   While I’d normally recommend using a different method such as an VNC connection over a VPN or a SSH Tunnel, you MAY get away with using the built in services.   Even so, using the default port 3389 may prove troublesome with some security mechanisms such as firewalls and proxy servers.   Here’s a simple way around it all…To change the default port for all new connections created on the Terminal Server:

  1. Run Regedt32 and go to this key:
    • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server\WinStations\RDP-Tcp
  2. Find the “PortNumber” subkey and notice the value of 00000D3D, hex for (3389). Modify the port number in Hex and save the new value.
    • NOTE: Ports 80 and 443 are recommended because they route well across various networks.

Good luck… now go out and find a “safer” method!

Windows file cleanup/housekeeping

Since I routinely run WAMP servers (see previous article) and develop primarily on Windows machines, I find that a lot of garbage remains on these machines. Often these files are created temporarily and not deleted and/or are created for some perceiver performance gains. Additionally, its often nice to schedule cleanup operations for times when you are not using the machine…. here’s a few common items to consider.

@echo off echo ======= DELETES =========
del /q %windir%*.log
del /q %windir%*.tmp
del /q %windir%securitylogs*.*
del /q %windir%SoftwareDistributionDataStoreLogs*.*
del /q %windir%msdownld.tmp*.*
del /q %windir%$hf_mig$*.*
del /q %TEMP%msdownld.tmp*.*
del /q %TEMP%*.dat
del /q %TEMP%*.log
del /q %TEMP%*.tmp
del /q %TEMP%*.xpi
del /q %TEMP%sess_*.*
del /q %TEMP%logs*.*
del /q c:*.log
del /q c:logs*.*
del /q /s %USERPROFILE%*.dmp
del /q /s %USERPROFILE%SIDisttemp*.*"
echo ======= Prefetch ==========
del /q %windir%Prefetch*.*
echo ======== DEFRAG ===========
%windir%system32defrag.exe c: -f -v >%TEMP%batch_defrag.txt
echo ========= done ============

Options….

echo ======== ANALOG ===========
cd c:analog6.0 analog +glocalhost.cfg
echo ========== IP =============
%windir%system32ipconfig.exe /all > %TEMP%batch_ip.txt
echo ======== NETSTAT ==========
%windir%system32netstat.exe -a > %TEMP%batch_netstat.txt

NOTE: this entry will be updated occasionally!

WAMP Servers

I often find myself administering WAMP (Windows, Apache, PHP/Perl/Python, mySQL) servers…. usually this occurs because it is better ‘supported’ (or perhaps ‘tolerated’) configuration in a corporate alternative to the more common LAMP (Linux… etc.) variety. This gives you the benefit of a centrally controlled operating system while maintaining a mostly open source server environment. Albeit with Microsoft’s poor security record, you’ll be patching it a LOT!

Many common distributions exist… here’s some helpful resources with downloads:

If you are a Java shop, you might also consider the following…

Configuration of each of these is a topic in it’s own right. If you need a shortcut to development, you may want to check out this!

Good luck!!!