Good day, I have a brand new Dell server that I installed 2008 R2 Enterprise on. After installing windows and all its updates I installed Remote Desktop Services using a TechNet tutorial I found. After installing RDS and rebooting the machine I log in to the console as an administrator and get 'Access Denied' when trying to open any program (My computer, Control Panel......anything). I cannot even open IE and surf the web. My only choice was to start from scratch and install Windows again. Rinse and repeat.....except the 2nd time the server was not able to be pinged. Any suggestions?

Hi, Thank you for your post. To address your problem, please first clarify what problem you are meeting now. Can you open program now after reinstall Windows? If your server cannot be pinged, have you enable ICMP Echo message? By default, Windows Firewall does not allow incoming ICMP Echo messages, and therefore the computer cannot send an ICMP Echo Reply in response. To enable ICMP Echo Request for ICMPv4 and ICMPv6 in Windows 2008: 1.In the Windows Firewall with Advanced Security snap-in, click Inbound Rules in the tree, and click New Rule in the Actions Pane. 2.Click Custom and click Next. 3.Click All programs and click Next. 4.For Protocol type, select ICMPv4. 5.Click Customize for Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) settings. 6.Click Echo Request, click OK, and then click Next. 7.Under Which local IP address does this rule match? and for Which remote IP address does this rule match click either Any IP address or These IP Addresses. If you click These IP addresses, specify the IP addresses and click Add, then click Next. 8.Click Allow the connection, and then click Next. 9.Under When does this rule apply?, click the active profile, any or all profiles (Domain, Private, Public) to which you want this rule to apply, and then click Next. 10.For Name type a name for this rule and for Description an optional description. Click Finish. 11.Repeat steps for ICMPv6, selecting ICMPv6 for Protocol Type instead of ICMPv4. Best Regards, James

Hello James, To be clear, the server worked perfectly until I installed Remote Desktop Services - that's when it stopped letting me open programs (when logged in to console) and refused to allow remote access. The server was pingable prior to RDS installation and subsequent reboot.