Change the listening port for Remote Desktop


To change the port that Remote Desktop listens on, follow these steps. 


Important This section, method, or task contains steps that tell you how to modify the registry. However, serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For added protection, back up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to back up and restore the registry.
  1. Start Registry Editor.
  2. Locate and then click the following registry subkey:
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\TerminalServer\WinStations\RDP-Tcp\PortNumber
  3. On the Edit menu, click Modify, and then click Decimal.
  4. Type the new port number, and then click OK.
  5. Quit Registry Editor.
  6. Restart the computer.
Note When you try to connect to this computer by using the Remote Desktop connection, you must type the new port. Maybe you have to set the firewall to allow the new port number before you connect to this computer by using the Remote Desktop connection.

To configure the Remote Desktop client to connect to a specific port when you use Windows XP
To change the port number that the Remote Desktop client connects to, follow these steps:
  1. Click Start, click All Programs, point to Accessories, point to Communications, and then click Remote Desktop Connection.
  2. In the Computer box, type the computer name or the IP address of the computer that you want to connect to, followed by a colon (:) and the port number that you want to use.

    For example, to connect to port 3390 on a computer that is named "MyXPPro," type the following information:
    MyXPPro:3390
    To connect to port 3391 on a computer with IP address 10.10.10.1, type the following information:
    10.10.10.1:3391
  3. Click Connect.