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Enabling RDP on Windows 7 Home Premium Edition

Windows 7 Home Premium edition doesn't come with RDP enabled by default.  Luckily, there is a set of files available out there if you wish to enable it.  However, keep in mind, this is a workaround to lack of RDP on Windows 7 Home Premium so naturally there are risks associated (see the site disclaimer).  

To summrize, we do not recommend following these steps unless the reader is willing to take responsibility for all risks and consequences both perceived and real as a result of following these steps.  This worked for us but YMMV.  Keep this in mind!  On to the steps:

There is an avilable W7-SP1-RTM-RDP-v4.zip file (Either through a search on Google) or from one of the links directly.  

  • Download the file from the above link or search for it.  It should contain the following including Install.cmd (Add -? to see other options such as multi for multiple sessions):

     

     

     

     

     

     

    RDP for Windows 7 Home Premium

  • Run Install.cmd from the folder where you extracted the files too using option Run As Administrator.  Won't work otherwise.
  • Run cmd.exe or open the DOS prompt and run netstat -na.  Ensure port 3389 is listed as listening:

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

      TCP    [::]:3389              [::]:0                 LISTENING
     

  • (Optional / As Required) Enable the port in your firewall.  In this case Kaspersky Internet Security:

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    RDP Windows 7 Home Premium Kaspersky Settings

     

  • Test your configuration from another machine on your network.

# nmap -v -sS 192.168.0.10

Starting Nmap 5.51 ( http://nmap.org ) at 2013-06-11 00:10 EDT
Initiating ARP Ping Scan at 00:10
Scanning 192.168.0.10 [1 port]
Completed ARP Ping Scan at 00:10, 0.02s elapsed (1 total hosts)
Initiating SYN Stealth Scan at 00:10
Scanning tom-pc (192.168.0.10) [1000 ports]
Discovered open port 3389/tcp on 192.168.0.10
Discovered open port 80/tcp on 192.168.0.10
Discovered open port 443/tcp on 192.168.0.10
Completed SYN Stealth Scan at 00:10, 4.76s elapsed (1000 total ports)
Nmap scan report for tom-pc (192.168.0.10)
Host is up (0.0016s latency).
Not shown: 997 filtered ports
PORT     STATE SERVICE
80/tcp   open  http
443/tcp  open  https
3389/tcp open  ms-term-serv
MAC Address: 48:5D:60:CB:44:1C (Unknown)

Read data files from: /usr/share/nmap
Nmap done: 1 IP address (1 host up) scanned in 5.05 seconds
           Raw packets sent: 2000 (87.984KB) | Rcvd: 8 (328B)
#

  • Finally, RDP to your workstation from another machine.
  • Enjoy!

And you are done.  Try the RDP connection to your workstation from another machine and enjoy.  As long as the port is open, you should be good to go.

Cheers,
TK

4 Responses to “Enabling RDP on Windows 7 Home Premium Edition”

  1. […] we do that, ensure that the internal system behind the remote router at IP 192.168.0.16 is running RDP on port 3389. […]

  2. Does not work on 7600 build

  3. […] posts on Remote Desktop Connection: SSH Tunnel through Putty and DD-WRT for RDP / RDC and Enabling RDP on Windows 7 Home Premium Edition where we setup our RDP connections, we came across an issue of automatic disconnects in our RDP […]

  4. @mittorn what is "7600 build"? FYI, this works on my up-to-date Windows 7 Home Premium SP1. 

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