Remote Desktop Connection – Console (RDP)

I use Remote Desktop (RDP) to connect to Windows servers and workstations every day(XP, 2000, 2003, 2008, Vista and Windows 7).

However I only occasionally need to connect to the console on the remote computer.
And every time I do I have to look up how to do it again because I can’t remember the syntax.  Like today.

So when I looked it up today I just decided to copy the Shortcut I had on my Quick Launch bar and have a second button to connect to the console.

• First, I right clicked on the shortcut,  clicked “Copy Shortcut”,  this put a new shortcut on my Quick Launch bar but it will work where ever you have a shortcut,  including the Start Menu.
• Then, I right clicked the new shortcut and went to properties and change the name to “Remote Desktop Connection (2)” to “Remote Desktop Connection – Console” and added this switch to the end of the target field ” /console”  so it looks something like
  …….mstsc.exe /console”
• Then, I clicked Change Icon on the properties and I picked from the list of icons so the it looked different on the icon menu.

Problem solved,  It only took 2 minutes and I can quickly connect to the console via Remote Desktop easily now.  (of course this blog took another 10 minutes)