Thanks for all of that info. I've realized now by playing around that the VNC and Remote Desktop are using the exact same console. Each one can see that same desktop that I've logged into. I was worried that is was a "Remote Desktop console" that was somehow different. My should (and so far is) working just fine.

I've noticed that the VNC session and the remote desktop session can cause each other to drop if used at the same time, which is understandable and not a problem. But thankfully each server process doesn't mess with the other. So I can connect with either VNC or remote desktop depending on my needs. Remote desktop seems very fast an efficient.

I wish that the remote desktop session had a toolbar like VNC and PCAnywhere. It wasn't obvious how to send a cntrl-alt-del and how to transfer files. Figured these out thanks to Google.


>I have been using this for a while with no problems. just a few notes.
> The Terminal services manager no longer lists the console as console
> For me RealVNC server does not work after using remote desktop (Ultravnc works though). This can be a problem if others are still using VNC.
>
> You can set up a link to the session by saving the settings in in a RDP file and then creating a shortcut mstsc.exe
>
>%windir%\system32\mstsc.exe /console "C:\..path..\filename.rdp"
>
>a very useful app is portmapper from analogx to redirect ip traffic to a different computer/port if need be
>http://www.analogx.com/contents/download/network/pmapper.htm
>
>You can set the RDP client to use the non-standard port by using the syntax Computer:port in the computer field of the RDP settings
>
>
>>Finally! I've been trying to find this for years. For an application that I develop and manage, I need to have console access to the server to run the app. I've been using PCAnywhere and VNC which work perfectly well, but was starting to get push back from corporate system admins who didn't want to open the VNC and PCAnywhere ports. As of today, one of the admins simply refused to open any port except 3389 (remote desktop). Googling I manage to find a switch for remote desktop that forces the session to be a console session instead of a virtual session. The command line is mstsc /console
>>
>>So basically I start the server app, and it runs 24/7. Periodically I will sign in to the same sessiona and check for any errors or do a custom query.
>>
>>Anyone had any problems running an application logged in with terminal services in this way vs VNC/PCAnywhere?
>>
>>BTW, here is the link to the solution creating http://firechewy.com/blog/archive/2005/10/18/926.aspx