Running 32Bit RDP on 64 Bit Windows OS

Recently I got Installed the Windows 7 64Bit Operating system in my laptop.  As usually I configured the software’s and utilities that required to support my clients. After everything set done I’m tried to connect my client’s server by using the RDP. Unfortunately not able to connect the server, the session never got initiated. But I’m able to connect the server from other 32 Bit Windows Machines without any issues, perhaps some problem with my system configuration. While digging further on the issue I came to know that the socks utility that I’m configured to connect my client network is not compactable with Windows 7, since its supports up to only Windows XP-32Bit. But the same utility works fine with the Windows 7 32Bit, so it might be some problem with the 64Bit OS Configuration.

I know by default 64 Bit windows Vista & 7 will use only 64 bit tools. So I though it may be some conflict   issues with the 64 Bit tools, then decided to use the 32 Bit RDP tool instead of 64 Bit. Tired to use the 32Bit RDP from the %SystemRoot%\SysWOW64 folder, but running the 32bit mstsc.exe will launch the 32 bit process but it will instantly launch the 64-bit mstsc.exe from System32 and shuts the 32Bit mstsc itself down. This makes it impossible to run Remote Desktop Connection 32 bit. This is a problem when you have 32 bit Terminal Services add-ins, which won’t run under 64 bit OS.

So the Solution to solve this problem is:

This Trick will be helpful in various kinds of scenarios.

First rename the 64-bit mstsc.exe from System32 to prevent it from replacing the 32-bit process. This is simple if you have rights to rename that file. If you’re on NTFS you may get a “You require permission from Trusted Installer to make changes to this file” error.

To solve this error, you need to take Ownership of the file and give yourself full permissions:

1. Browse to %SystemRoot%\System32
2. Right click mstsc.exe and choose Properties
3. Go to the Security tab
4. Click Advanced
5. Go to the Owner tab
6. Click Edit
7. From the “Change owner to:” list, choose your user name
8. Click OK
9. Go to the Permissions tab
10. Click Change Permissions…
11. Click Add
12. Enter your user name and click OK
13. Tick the box in the Allow column for Full control
14. Click OK
15. Click OK
16. A Windows Security warning will come up; click Yes to proceed
17. Click OK

Now, you can rename the file mstsc.exe to something like mstsc.exe.old or mstsc.exe.bak

Then, you can launch mstsc.exe from %SystemRoot%\SysWOW64 and you will have 32-bit Remote Desktop Connection running.  Make a shortcut of the 32 Bit mstsc.exe to your desktop or Pin it to your start menu.

After doing this small trick I can able to connect the servers through the RDP without having any issues. Hope this trick will help you to run the 32Bit Remote desktop connection in the 64Bit Windows Operating system.