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How to reset the Remote Desktop Server Licensing Grace Period on Windows Server 2012 with Remote Desktop Services

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So we recently started looking into Terminal Services and RemoteFX to power some of our admin users and move them off to thin clients instead of full blown desktops.  As a trial I begun setting up RDS on one of our Dev machines.  After going through the motions of enabling the Remote Desktop Features and setting up RemoteFX on a Virtual Machine for testing, I found that I couldn’t login via RDP to that machine.  Going back to the RDS host I found the Licensing popup that informed me that the 128 day trial license had expired.  Since this was a test I didn’t want to go using keys to activate or setup a licensing server (purely a PoC for us in IT at this stage).

To reset the grace period there is a registry key that we need to delete. As always when editing the registry, take a backup of the key/s you’re modifying. Navigate to the following location

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server\RCM\GracePeriod

Now there should be a binary key value (like in the screenshot), you first need to have full access permissions to the folder (or take ownership) and then simply delete that value and reboot the server.  Once back up your RDS Licensing should be back at the start of a 128 Day grace period.  I wouldn’t do this if you have already obtained licensing and should definitely not be used in a production environment.

11 responses to “How to reset the Remote Desktop Server Licensing Grace Period on Windows Server 2012 with Remote Desktop Services”

  1. Vyankat Avatar
    Vyankat

    This is an excellent solution for temporary purpose.
    But can we extend this registry key under Grace Period or can we simply make it permanent.

    Reply
    1. John Avatar
      John

      Hi Vyankat, this isn’t a permanent solution, only way I could think of would be to write a script to automate this registry change. But this definitely isn’t something for a production environment.

      Reply
  2. Vyankat Avatar
    Vyankat

    This is an excellent solution for temporary purpose.
    But can we extend this registry key under Grace Period or can we simply make it permanent.

    Reply
    1. John Avatar
      John

      Hi Vyankat, this isn’t a permanent solution, only way I could think of would be to write a script to automate this registry change. But this definitely isn’t something for a production environment.

      Reply
  3. testing2b Avatar
    testing2b

    excellent! Worked on Windows Server 2016

    Reply
  4. bola Avatar
    bola

    please how do i take permanent how do i take ownership permission of this folder

    Reply
    1. John Avatar
      John

      Hi Bola, I’ve just published Working with Windows File and Folder NTFS Permissions (Copy and Reset) that talks about taking ownership of folders.

      Reply
      1. Josef Avatar
        Josef

        To extend the grace period do as follows:
        delete the key as described
        set the date to the future EG. 2048
        Start in cmd the following command TLSBLN.exe
        Reboot

        Reply
        1. David Tesler Avatar
          David Tesler

          Works – thank you. Extended for 8888 days (we’re a non-profit)

          Reply
  5. admsoftvirtual Avatar
    admsoftvirtual

    I use this tip for some years, I had trouble only today, looks like I made a mistake and deleted a wrong registry entry.
    Now I am not able retriving the graceperiod value:

    wmic /namespace:\\root\CIMV2\TerminalServices PATH Win32_TerminalServiceSetting WHERE (__CLASS !=””) CALL GetGracePeriodDays

    Reply
    1. maramedinavirtual Avatar
      maramedinavirtual

      Hi admsoftvirtual, what happended then? How did you solve it? It just happened the same to me, I have 9 days left and I don’t know what to expect or how to get the gracePeriod folder back. Thanks in advance I hope you see this.

      Reply

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