Scott Blomquist

Stupid Remote Desktop trick #1

1. Connect to a remote machine using Remote Desktop.
2. In device manager, right-click on your network card and choose “Disable“.
3. Kick yourself for being so stupid, go to the machine’s console (hopefully it’s within walking distance), and re-enable your network card.

Stupid Remote Desktop trick #2

1. Connect to a remote machine using Remote Desktop.
2. Press Ctrl-Alt-End, and choose to shut down your machine. (It seems that Windows Server 2003 warns that you may be shooting yourself in the foot, but Windows XP Pro doesn’t.)
3. Kick yourself for being so stupid, go to the machine’s console (hopefully it’s within walking distance), and turn the machine back on.

Stupid Remote Desktop trick #3 (most recently discovered, and all-time favorite)

1. Connect to a remote machine using Remote Desktop.
2. Get prompted to change your password while logging in (i.e. log in while it’s nearing its expiration date).
3. After typing your old password, but before typing your new password, accidentally hit Enter instead of Tab.
4. Windows will congratulate you on your new password.
5. Windows will tell you that you can’t log in because you have a blank password.
6. Kick yourself for being so stupid, go to the machine’s console (hopefully it’s within walking distance), and change your password to something that’s not blank.
7. Set group policy to prevent blank passwords.