Latency, lag, or remote desktop client slowness

Occasionally, you'll run into major server lag and latency when trying to access remote desktop on certain servers. There are several potential causes of this issue. One cause of this is bad LAN drivers or graphics drivers. The first recommendation is to update your drivers to the latest version.

If driver updates don't solve the problem, here are several other potential fixes:

Disable AutoTuning

1. Open a command prompt as Administrator
2. Run this command:

   netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=disabled

If you need to turn AutoTuning back on, run this command to re-enable it:

netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=normal

Disable TCP Large Send Offload

1. Open Device Manager on the server
2. Find your network adapter in the tree
3. Go to the Properties dialog, Advanced tab
4. Select the property called Large Send Offload (IPv4)
5. Change the Value dropdown to "Disabled"
6. Click OK

Remotely enable remote desktop

Sometimes you're in a situation where you want to remotely access a computer, but Remote Desktop/Terminal Services isn't enabled on the machine. You might think you're stuck at this point, but if you have credentials on the machine and can remotely access the registry, you can actually enable remote desktop remotely.

The easy way to do this is through group policy. If you have access, you can change the following setting:

Group Policy Setting: Computer Configuration » Administrative Templates » Windows Components » Terminal Services » Allows users to connect remotely using Terminal Services

If you don't have access to group policy, here's the procedure to make the change through the registry:

1. Start Registry Editor on your local machine (by default, this is located atc:\windows\regedit.exe)
2. Click the File menu, then click "Connect Network Registry"
3. Either type the name of the remote server in the dialog box or browse Active Directory to locate the machine
4. Click OK
5. You may get a credentials screen – if so, enter in the credentials for the machine and hit OK
6. You are now connected to the registry of the remote computer
7. Go to the following registry key:HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\
       System\CurrentControlSet\Control\TerminalServer
8. If the fDenyTSConnections value doesn't exist, create a new DWORD value named fDenyTSConnections
9. Open the fDenyTSConnections value. The possible values for this setting are as follows:

   0x0

   Enable remote desktop

   0x1

   Disable remote desktop

10. Change the value from 1 (disable remote desktop) to 0 (enable remote desktop) and click OK
11. To make the change take effect, you will need to reboot the remote server
12. You can reboot the remote server by opening a command prompt and executing the following command:

    shutdown /m \\servername /r

13. Wait for the remote server to reboot – this usually takes a minute or two
14. Remote Desktop is now enabled on the remote machine

You can also make this change through the command prompt:

reg add "HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server" /v fDenyTSConnections /t REG_DWORD /d 0x00000000 /f

How to enable/disable built-in administrator in Windows 7

You can use simple administrator user accounts to perform almost part of the actions in Windows 7. But sometimes you might need to use built-in administrator account.

You can easily use that account by following the instructions:

1. Open Command Prompt: click Start button and type cmd in the Start Search string. Find Command Prompt in the search result list and right-click on this item, then choose Run as administrator.

2. Press Yes button if you are prompted for User Account Control permission.

3. At the Command Prompt type:

    net user administrator /active:yes

press Enter button on your keyboard.

4. If you want set the password for this account at the Command Prompt type

    net user administrator

and then press Enter button on your keyboard.

Note: Replace the your_password with desired password that you want to set to built-in administrator account.

5. Close Command Prompt.

6. Log off the current user account and check the results.

If you want disable built-in administrator account you can perform that by following the instructions:

1. Open Command Prompt: click Start button and type cmd in the Start Search string. Find Command Prompt in the search result list and right-click on this item, then choose Run as administrator.

2. In the Command Prompt type:

    net user administrator /active:no

press Enter button on your keyboard.

3. Close Command Prompt.

4. Log off the current user account and check the results.