Reset Terminal license on Windows 2008, 2008 R2 and 2012


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While Windows installed with Terminal Server role it does work without License for 120 Days on trail license, where within 120 days if the License server is not connected, the server will stop accepting connection with below error and event ID:

Reset Terminal license on Windows 2008, 2008 R2 and 2012

EventID: 1128

Source: TerminalServices-RemoteConnectionManager
The RD Licensing grace period has expired and the service has not registered with a license server with installed licenses. A RD Licensing server is required for continuous operation. A Remote Desktop Session Host server can operate without a license server for 120 days after initial start up.

Reset Terminal license on Windows 2008, 2008 R2 and 2012

The official solution is to Activate the RDS/TS CAL License server and point the Server to License server with User/Device License and will be resolve the problem. But if you want to reset the timer and again avail 120 days grace time, here is the solution. The solution is to delete the REG_BINARY in:

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

Only leaving the default.

Reset Terminal license on Windows 2008, 2008 R2 and 2012

Note: you must take ownership and give admin users full control to be able to delete this key.

After a reboot the server should be working again for another 120 Days. Obviously, use this solution only for test and not in production environment.