HOWTO: Temporarily bypass connection limit - terminal server has exceeded max number of allowed connections

So you need to remote desktop into a Windows 2000/2003/XP/Vista box, but when you do you get the dreaded "terminal server has exceeded max number of allowed connections" error causing you to flail and try to contact all those you think *might* be connected. Which is a major hassle, especially when all you really need to do is touch one little thing and jump right out.

To see who's currently connected (from the command line of your local box):

C:\>qwinsta /server:[server name or ip here]
SESSIONNAME       USERNAME                 ID  STATE   TYPE 
console                                     0  Conn    wdcon
rdp-tcp                                 65536  Listen  rdpwd
                  jane.doe                  2  Conn    rdpwd
                  john.doe                  3  Disc    rdpwd

So you can see jane.doe and john.doe are both logged into the box. But john.doe is disconnected, so let's pick him to boot:

C:\>rwinsta /server:[server name or ip here] 3

Where the "3" is john.doe's ID. That should boot him off. If it doesn't, the alternative is to login to the console session. We can do this using a command line switch for the Remote Desktop client. Open a command prompt and run:

mstsc.exe /console

This tells Remote Desktop to try to connect to the console instance when you click Connect. This should allow you one more concurrent connection over the limit imposed by windows (usually 2). Happy Remote Desktopping!