Microsoft Remote Desktop Services issue

This is clearly not a usual virtualisation related blog post. But every now and then I'm asked by either a customer or colleague to have a look at a non virtualisation issue they run into, mostly because the issue is occurring on a virtualised server.
In this particular case for some unknown reason, overnight all RemoteApp programs serviced from their "Terminal Services" server suddenly stopped working.
When users started a RemoteApp they where prompted for their username and password, after entering these nothing happened. Looking in the Application event log two events were logged for each RemoteApp start attempt.

When looking at the first information event (ID 9003) it looks like the Windows Desktop Experience feature is not installed or the service is not started.

The second event (ID 9009) is a logical result from the first event, the Window Desktop Manager exits.
When searching for the cause of event ID 9003 all I found was that indeed the Windows Desktop Manager Experience probably was not installed or the RemoteApp was being started within a Remote Desktop Session.
When looking at the installed Windows features it turned that the feature was installed, I also verified that the service belonging to this were also started and no Remote Desktop sessions were used.
The next obvious thing was to recreate one of the RemoteApp programs, to see if this would solve this issue. Unfortunately this did not solve it.
Then I started thinking about the description of event ID 9003 "The Desktop Window Manager was unable to start because a composited theme is not in use" and the fact all Internet resources linked this to either the Window Desktop Feature or a not supported desktop theme on the client.
For this customer there were no changes to the desktops, although a small change due to a Windows Update / Patch could be possible considering the RemoteApp Programs stopped working at the same time on all workstations.
I started searching on the server part where I could define the settings for the Desktop Experience or for the allowed desktop theme's.

I started at the configuration of the Remote Desktop Session Host server, I opened the properties.

And going through the tabs I ended up at the Client Settings tab, were you find the Color Depth limit setting. This setting was set to 32-bit per pixel, I removed this limit by deselecting it.

As a result all RemoteApp Programs started working again on all workstations. About the root cause I still have no clue, for now I will keep it at a patch or update on the "Terminal Services" server.

Resetting (local) Windows 2008 and 2012 Administrator password

Although not a actual virtualization topic, I think it's something a lot of Admin's have to deal with every now and then. For me it's occasionally when working with templates of Windows server based VM's, when they are created a long time ago some Admin's just tend to forget what local administrator password was used. Because it is usually changed after a VM has been deployed to a different password.

When you then need to work on such a template for some reason you will get stuck when you do not remember the password. In the past I used the "Offline NT Password & Registry Editor" to reset the administrator password, but recently a Admin at a customer informed me there was a other way to reset the password and this way would also work on Windows server 2012.

You need to have the Windows server install dvd, or if you're like me into virtualization a ISO of that dvd. For both Windows server versions you need to go to the "Repair your computer" option on the Setup menu after booting the VM (if it's a template, first convert to VM) from this dvd.

After selecting this you need to select the OS instance you want to repair in the "System Recovery Options". Next select "Command Prompt". Once you are in the command prompt you need to go to the disk that holds the system32 folder, default this is C:

Then run the following commands:

• cd windows\system32
• ren Utilman.exe Utilman.exe.old
• copy cmd.exe Utilman.exe

After reboot the server (not from dvd!). At the logon screen press Windows-key + U this will open a command prompt.

Now run the following command "net user administrator Password" where password stands for you the password of your choice. After closing the command prompt you will be able to login to the server as local administrator with the password you previously entered.

You're able to logon again but you are not completely done yet, there is some clean-up to be done.

Again boot your VM from the Windows server dvd and follow the previous mentioned steps to get to the Command Prompt and go to the disk that holds the system32 folder.

• cd windows\system32
• ren utilman.exe utilman.exe.new
• copy utilman.exe.old utilman.exe

When finished close the Command prompt and click "Continue" now you're VM should be running as it should and you should be able to logon as local administrator.

If it was a template do not forget to convert your VM back to a template. And store the local administrator password in some sort of password-vault !