Terminal Services CALs Are Not Issued for Windows XP Embedded and Windows XP Home Edition (319555)

SYMPTOMS

The license server may not issue the required Terminal Services Client Access License (CAL) tokens that are added to the license server for use by devices that run Windows XP Home Edition and Windows XP Embedded.

CAUSE

The Terminal Services license server incorrectly issues "built-in" Terminal Services CAL tokens to clients that run Windows XP Embedded or Windows XP Home Edition instead of issuing the full Terminal Services CAL tokens that the administrator added to the license server as part of a license purchase. This problem occurs because the licensing technology in Windows 2000 Terminal Services cannot (as of May, 2002) distinguish among devices that are running Windows XP Embedded, Windows XP Home Edition, Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional, and Microsoft Windows XP Professional. Only computers that run Windows 2000 Professional and Windows XP Professional are permitted to connect to a Windows 2000-based Terminal Services server without a Terminal Services CAL having been purchased and assigned to the device.

RESOLUTION

Service pack information

To resolve this problem, obtain the latest service pack for Windows XP. For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

322389 How to obtain the latest Windows XP service pack

The English version of this update has the file attributes (or later) that are listed in the following table. The dates and times for these files are listed in coordinated universal time (UTC). When you view the file information, it is converted to local time. To find the difference between UTC and local time, use the Time Zone tab in the Date and Time tool in Control Panel.

   Date         Time   Version      Size     File name
   -----------------------------------------------------
   14-May-2002  10:36  5.1.2600.44  385,536  Mstsc.exe
   14-May-2002  10:36  5.1.2600.44  503,296  Mstscax.dll

WORKAROUND

If you do not fix the clients, you must purchase Terminal Services CALs for devices that run Windows XP Embedded and Windows XP Home Edition. However, do not install the corresponding license tokens on the license server for these devices. This makes sure that you do not have more devices accessing Windows 2000-based Terminal Services servers than you are licensed for. Installing these Terminal Services CAL tokens on the license server might cause inadvertent allocation to unlicensed devices.

MORE INFORMATION

Install this hotfix on the client before it connects to the Terminal Services server. Doing so makes sure that the proper CAL is issued.

If you install the hotfix after the client already has a built-in license, you can delete the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MSLicensing registry entry on the client. This causes the client to obtain the correct license.