difficulty installing rdpwrap on windows 10 (to get multiple remote desktop connections)
If you go to https://github.com/stascorp/rdpwrap/ there are three ways one may try to download the program. There's downloading the code, from the code tab. Or, under the releases tab, there's downloading the MSI file. Or, also under the releases tab, there's downloading the zip.
Out of those methods, the method I used that worked, was to go to the releases tab, and download the Zip there. So, not the code tab, not that zip. And not the MSI under releases. But the zip under releases. RDPWrap-v1.6.2.zip
Then, extract that zip to some directory. Start a cmd prompt run as administrator. So an administrative cmd prompt. (from there you can run install.bat that's better than being in a regular cmd prompt and right clicking install.bat and doing runas on the bat, 'cos apparently that can be buggy).
Extracting the zip produces
C:\rdpwrap>dir
Volume in drive C has no label.
Volume Serial Number is C811-E477
Directory of C:\rdpwrap
03/05/2020 15:34 <DIR> .
03/05/2020 15:34 <DIR> ..
03/05/2020 15:34 458 install.bat
03/05/2020 15:34 1,045,504 RDPCheck.exe
03/05/2020 15:34 1,096,192 RDPConf.exe
03/05/2020 15:34 1,460,224 RDPWInst.exe
03/05/2020 15:34 249 uninstall.bat
03/05/2020 15:34 249 update.bat
6 File(s) 3,602,876 bytes
2 Dir(s) 440,941,117,440 bytes free
C:\rdpwrap>
You needn't run RDPWinst.exe directly, the bat files run it with the right switches/options.
Run install.bat from an administrative cmd prompt
C:\rdpwrap>install
RDP Wrapper Library v1.6.2
Installer v2.5
Copyright (C) Stas'M Corp. 2017
[*] Notice to user:
- By using all or any portion of this software, you are agreeing
to be bound by all the terms and conditions of the license agreement.
- To read the license agreement, run the installer with -l parameter.
- If you do not agree to any terms of the license agreement,
do not use the software.
[*] Installing...
[*] Terminal Services version: 10.0.17134.706
[-] This version of Terminal Services is not supported.
Try running "update.bat" or "RDPWInst -w" to download latest INI file.
If it doesn't help, send your termsrv.dll to project developer for support.
[+] TermService found (pid 8592).
[*] No shared services found.
[*] Extracting files...
[+] Folder created: C:\Program Files\RDP Wrapper\
[*] Downloading latest INI file...
[+] Latest INI file -> C:\Program Files\RDP Wrapper\rdpwrap.ini
[+] Extracted rdpw64 -> C:\Program Files\RDP Wrapper\rdpwrap.dll
[*] Configuring service library...
[*] Checking dependencies...
[*] Checking CertPropSvc...
[*] Checking SessionEnv...
[*] Terminating service...
[*] Starting TermService...
[*] Configuring registry...
[*] Configuring firewall...
Ok.
[+] Successfully installed.
______________________________________________________________
You can check RDP functionality with RDPCheck program.
Also you can configure advanced settings with RDPConf program.
Press any key to continue . . .
C:\rdpwrap>
A major thing that did is made this directory and these files
C:\Program Files\RDP Wrapper\rdpwrap.ini
C:\Program Files\RDP Wrapper\rdpwrap.dll
You can run uninstall.bat but then you'd have to run install.bat again
C:\rdpwrap>uninstall
RDP Wrapper Library v1.6.2
Installer v2.5
Copyright (C) Stas'M Corp. 2017
[*] Uninstalling...
[+] TermService found (pid 3340).
[*] No shared services found.
[*] Resetting service library...
[*] Terminating service...
[*] Removing files...
[+] Removed file: C:\Program Files\RDP Wrapper\rdpwrap.ini
[+] Removed file: C:\Program Files\RDP Wrapper\rdpwrap.dll
[+] Removed folder: C:\Program Files\RDP Wrapper\
[*] Starting TermService...
[*] Configuring registry...
[*] Configuring firewall...
Deleted 1 rule(s).
Ok.
[+] Successfully uninstalled.
Press any key to continue . . .
C:\rdpwrap>
But you want it installed so run install.bat
So you have those two files now in \program files\rdp wrap
You could try
C:\rdpwrap\rdpconf
That will tell you if your version of c:\windows\system32\termsrv.dll (which came with your OS), is supported by your c:\program files\rdp wrap\rdpwrap.ini
See what version your termsrv.dll is (rdp wrap will not and has not replaced this file).
You can use right click..properties, or as I have for the sake of this post, the command line
C:\rdpwrap>wmic datafile where name="c:\\Windows\\System32\\termsrv.dll" get version
Version
10.0.17134.706
You can check yourself whether it's supported by your ini file.. either in notepad and edit..find and see or
C:\rdpwrap>find "10.0.17134.706" "c:\Program Files\RDP Wrapper\rdpwrap.ini"
---------- C:\PROGRAM FILES\RDP WRAPPER\RDPWRAP.INI
C:\rdpwrap>
not there
There are some versions there in this case but not my version
C:\rdpwrap>find "10.0.17" "c:\Program Files\RDP Wrapper\rdpwrap.ini"
---------- C:\PROGRAM FILES\RDP WRAPPER\RDPWRAP.INI
[10.0.17004.1000]
[10.0.17017.1000]
[10.0.17025.1000]
[10.0.17035.1000]
[10.0.17046.1000]
[10.0.17063.1000]
[10.0.17004.1000-SLInit]
[10.0.17017.1000-SLInit]
[10.0.17025.1000-SLInit]
[10.0.17035.1000-SLInit]
[10.0.17046.1000-SLInit]
[10.0.17063.1000-SLInit]
C:\rdpwrap>
rdpconf.exe will say "not supported"
Unfortunately the ini file bundled with the project is old.
There is an update.bat but it gets an old ini file that doesn't support many termsrv.dll versions.
So you have to go to the github page and look at issues or pulls and see if you can get an ini file with your build version in it.
In order to replace c:\program files\rdp wrap\rdpwrap.ini you will have to stop the 'remote desktop services' service, so as to unlock the ini, then replace it, then start it. And you see from services.msc that it's called TermService. You can do sc queryex termservice to see if it's running or not. s (sc queryex is a bit better than sc query 'cos sc queryex shows pid). And you can do net start termservice, net stop termService, and taskkill it if it gets stuck 'stopping'.
Then you can run rdpconf.exe see if it says successful.. (as opposed to 'not supported'). You could even use rdpconf before (re)starting terminal services
And then you can do rdpcheck, and see if that says "limited connections" , or if it just works. (or you could test with mstsc, but rdpcheck is very quick to test)
And then you know and hopefully it will work for you.