xp sp3, vista sp1:I made the mistake of installing the xp update for remote desktop on xp, and now the client has trouble disconnecting. Before, in full screen mode I just hit the x button at the top, and the session was ended. It was logging me out on vista ok.Now the disconnects are broken. I click the x to disconnect, and I get a strange pop up about a broken connection, and the vista session doesn't end cleanly. I can't reconnect, and I can't log in at the vista console either. If I try to login at the console, the computer hangs and I have to hit the reset button.I suppose the questions are: how to revert to the older remote desktop client on xp, or how are you supposed to disconnect? I've used the x button to disconnect for years with no problems.

There is absolutely nothing on these forums valuable enough to force me to type my login name and password every time.There seem to be thousands of google hits on these rdp issues with vista. From my experience it's probably something they will never fix.I may have resolved the issue with repeated logins with rdp by disabling remote access to drives, etc.But I cannot recover the desktop login at the vista console after connecting to it with rdp. It never releases the rdp login session even though it appears disconnect on the xp system. The only thing I can do is reboot the vista system.This is way too much money to pay for a broken system.

Hi, Thank you for posting. Since the Windows Vista can be connected and disconnected properly before, I suspect the issue is on the Windows XP side. As everything worked before, a quick solution is to restore Windows XP back to the previous status when the issue didnt occur with System Restore. (Note: Performing a system restore may cause the loss of the current system settings; therefore, before doing this, please make sure that the system restore point is not too old and set a restore point for the current status.) Also, I suspect that the issue may not be directly caused by the update. If you would like, we can perform further troubleshooting. Note: Please setup a restore point before performing the following steps. 1. Restart the system into a clean-boot environment. How to perform advanced clean-boot troubleshooting in Windows XP http://support.microsoft.com/kb/316434 2. Install the update again. 3. Restart again to the clean-boot environment. Then check RDP again. How it works now? 4. If everything works, please restore the previously disabled startup items and check if the problem occurs. If not, the culprit of the previous problem is the previous incorrect installation. If yes, the culprit should be one of these disabled startup items. We can use MSCONFIG again to identify it. Hope it helps. Nicholas Li - MSFT

Thank you for providing an answer. Since the problem occurred after installing the rdp client v6, I think this is the problem.However, there is no restore point for this application -- I bleeping didn't know I would need one. I will try your steps and get back to you.The xp->vista rdp failed again today, the rdp client failed to connect, and reconnect attempts failed on the vista side with a message saying it was busy processing a connection request.Oh, and remote connections with rdp from ubuntu to vista completely hang on the vista side. But that's another issue.

Nicholas Li said: Hi, Thank you for posting. Since the Windows Vista can be connected and disconnected properly before, I suspect the issue is on the Windows XP side. As everything worked before, a quick solution is to restore Windows XP back to the previous status when the issue didnt occur with System Restore. (Note: Performing a system restore may cause the loss of the current system settings; therefore, before doing this, please make sure that the system restore point is not too old and set a restore point for the current status.) Also, I suspect that the issue may not be directly caused by the update. If you would like, we can perform further troubleshooting. Note: Please setup a restore point before performing the following steps. 1. Restart the system into a clean-boot environment. How to perform advanced clean-boot troubleshooting in Windows XP http://support.microsoft.com/kb/316434 2. Install the update again. 3. Restart again to the clean-boot environment. Then check RDP again. How it works now? 4. If everything works, please restore the previously disabled startup items and check if the problem occurs. If not, the culprit of the previous problem is the previous incorrect installation. If yes, the culprit should be one of these disabled startup items. We can use MSCONFIG again to identify it. Hope it helps. Nicholas Li - MSFTIt is impossible to do step 2. Running the update rdp 6 for xp says a newer service pack is installed -- the only one I can find is for xp sp2. My system is xp sp3 and I think the newer client update is included. I am unable to do a repair install or uninstall. The rdp client should be distributed as an application with a real install/uninstall. Of course you could say that about most of what's bundled with windows.Please give me instructions on how to revert to the rdp client 5.2 since it was reliable. Thanks in advance.

I have repeated my tests and get the same problem. If you disconnect rdp client on xp(by clicking the x in the upper left corner), then there is a problem at the vista console. The login screen shows the remote session still active. But the rdp client has disconnected. Now if you login at the vista console it should allow you to open a new session at the console, closing out the old session. But the vista login hangs after you put in the password. The only thing to do at that point is to hit the reset button on the computer. That's not too modern.I found one workaround (which is practically useless for using rdp). I enabled the hidden admin account in vista (maybe any other user account would work), then if I login to this account instead of the other user it doesn't hang. This seems like a bug in vista. Like they say in PC Magazine this week, it should just work.

I still am having a problem with disconnects from xp. Vista always hangs at the console with an empty login background graphic. I have to hit reset or power off to restart the system.Perhaps if I ask a different question?On XP, what are the exact steps I should use to disconnect a remote desktop connection to vista? Before, I would just close the remote desktop client but that doesn't work any more.This must have been extensively tested, and some sort of procedure written up?