Sorry if this has already been posted before (couldn't find it in a search), but I recently did a fresh XP32 Pro install with nLite 1.4.5 using a bunch of various tweaks and component removals and everything is great except the computer will not accept remote desktop connections. I didn't remove Terminal Services and I have the "Allow users to connect remotely to this computer" checkbox ticked in the Remote tab of System Properties but it still doesn't work. When I try to connect it will look like it's connecting for a half second and then nothing, ready to connect again.

Unfortunately I don't have the configuration I used to create the image since it was done using the same computer before being formatted, but hopefully someone here has either a fix that will re-enable it or could shed some light on what I could have possibly removed or tweaked to make it not work.

Thanks in advance!

Are you sure about the obvious issues outside of nLite? Are you sure it's not a firewall issue? DNS issue? You sure you don't have McAffee, Norton or even Windows Firewall on your target PC? Can you ping the target PC by hostname? Ping it by IP? Which version of RDP are you using? Are you trying to connect to the desktop from within that network our from outside? If outside, does the target PC have a static IP? Port forwarding setup to that IP in your firewall? If inside the network have you tried connecting via IP and via Hostname?

Nice, thorough. Thanks for the rundown list. I don't think my problem is any of those, though. As far as networking, it's the same exact configuration I used before the format, which worked fine for TS. I don't have any firewalls or antivirus installed on either machine, both are behind routers and connecting over VPN. Connectivity is great, as I can ping it fine, browse shares, and access its VNC and HTTP servers.

1) Image slipstreamed with SP3, so whichever version of RDP that comes with (connecting from an SP3 machine as well)
2) Disabled services: Fast User Switching, Network DDE/DSDM, Remote Registry, SSDP, Themes, Firewall/ICS, Wireless Zero Config

I should mention that this has happened to me once before with nLite almost 2 years ago: everything was great except TS was broken. I ended up redoing the nLite image from scratch months later and reinstalling with everything working fine. I really think I'm randomly picking some combination of components to remove that are necessary for TS to work since I never work from a previous session configuration.

Thanks again.

Well you definitely sound like you know your stuff. Being as this has happened before with nLite, I'm sure it's possibly related. However, just to be sure, I'd take the easy route and rule out some more basics. I'd try to TS to the target machine from within the network, from say a laptop and see if that works. If it does, we can obviously rule out nLite. If it doesn't, then I would ensure that RPC is running. That is the only TS dependency that I am aware of.

If you don't have a seperate machine to test TS from within and you don't have a static IP, you can either use your dynamic IP for short term testing or setup DDNS on the target router. You can then TS in remotely and test that way. Just make sure you setup port forwarding in your target router for 3389 to the static IP of the target unit.

Tried that, no go. Just instantly "fails" with no error. RPC is enabled. Looks like I'll have to stick with VNC or reformat. I just wish I knew what I did to break it...

Get hold of a copy of Dependency checker, cant get url atm, but do it and check. Perhaps some system files are not proper updated or registered in system. All though what would be killer to find this out would be snoopdos as on the amiga. Dont know of anything that matches it on the pc.
I would like to hear if you find out what you did, as i would gladly repeat it here, as remote desktop is a no go for me. But keeping terminal services could be cool, but not at the price of being forced upon remote desktop.

I've been struggling with this same issue the past few days after sp3 install. Lots of research and finally found out Nvidia is the problem. I had just done a fresh sp3 install just as you have and immediately downloaded nvidia's latest drivers.

http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=67147

Thread with a lot of upset people. I am going to try and find a past version to see if I can get RDP working. Hope this helps. I knew it wasn't sp3 because I had just done another SP3 fresh install on another box of mine that I could rdp to fine. ATI card in it though.

I registered on this forum because while researching the issue this post was close to the top on google with no answer. Here is your answer google.

Nvidia 175.16 drivers have the issue, I installed the 174.74 beta drivers and I can RDP fine now.

Here is the link to the beta drivers for the time being until Nvidia fixes this RDP issue with their next release.
http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_174.74.html

Seeing as people here are discovering problems with 175.16 latest whql drivers, i discovered something myself.
Namely that when trying to create custom resultions, a great way to get over 75hz on lcd btw, everything is greyed out there
except auto and manual. But it works if you set it to f.ex gtf and then click on manual afterwards, without letting the mouse pointer go over the other options in between. Kinda annoying but can live with it until something else turns up i guess. This was not a problem for me in the same beta version and beta before that, actually before that too and many others, i havent had such problem before.

Great find Brutis, I'll give this a try tomorrow. I know I have 175.16 installed so I'm pretty sure that's it. Thanks!

Edit: Yep, that was it. Woo hoo!