In addition to the various desktop and laptop computers in my household, I also manage a couple servers, one of which runs Windows Small Business Server 2003, which is located in my garage.  Typically I connect to it using Remote Desktop Connection using the /console switch so that I can manage it as if I was at the console.

For the past week or two (maybe longer, I’m not sure) I’ve been frustrated that when I try to connect to the console from my Windows Vista desktop I get a new Terminal Services session rather than connecting to the console.  Today I finally decided to figure this out.

It turns out that, due to some changes in Windows Server 2008 and to some ambiguity in the /console switch, Microsoft has made some changes to the mstsc command.  The change that relates to my problem is that they’ve renamed the /console switch to /admin.

Nick MacKechnie at Microsoft has written a good blog post describing why the change was made.  Here is the meat of that article:

Here are the following are the examples of /console’s significance in the past and why the scenario does not apply for Windows Server 2008:

1. In Windows Server 2003, the /console option was used to connect to the session on the physical console (session 0), because some applications could not install and/or run in any session other than session 0. In Windows Server 2008, the windows components are re-architected, so that only services run in session 0 and applications do not need to run in session 0. So, the administrator does not need the /console option for this purpose.
2. In Windows Server 2003, the /console option was also used for the purpose of reconnecting back and resuming work in the user session on the physical console. In Windows Server 2008, this option is not required to get reconnected to existing session on physical console. Please refer to the blog post on console behavior differences for details.
3. In Windows Server 2003, the /console option was used for administering the server remotely without consuming a CAL. In Windows Server 2008, /admin option serves this purpose.

So, the /console option is not needed while connecting to Windows Server 2008. The /admin switch can be used to connect to physical console of Windows Server 2003.

Note that this change affects the mstsc.exe command on Windows Server 2008 AND Windows Vista SP1 but not Windows XP.