My MCE computer is used completely for home theater purposes, and so it is very rarely used outside of the MCE environment. It also does not have a keyboard and mouse hooked up to it. This makes it very hard to accomplish any maintenance tasks without using remote desktop.

Unfortunately, by default Vista does not allow concurrent users logging in at the same time. So, until recently, if I wanted to rearrange some files on the computer, I would have to log in using remote desktop (which logs out the MCE user), rearrange the files, log out, connect a keyboard to the MCE computer so I can enter the password, and re-login with the MCE user.

Fortunately, the relentless folks at The Green Button have put in a lot of effort to find a work around. After some clever hacking you can log on with multiple users to the same Vista machine. Here is a link to the discussion so you can see the progress they have made.

And finally a how to taken from Missing Remote…

1. Download Sunmorgus’ hacked Termsrv.dll file HERE (If you’re using Vista HOME PREMIUM, use this link and follow the reg instructions below.)
2. Now, Vista’s security needs a little massaging to allow you to modify the original termsrv.dll file, found in C:\Windows\System32, so….
3. Click Start, then type “cmd” in the search box & hit enter. This will launch the Command prompt
4. Type the following & hit enter: takeown /f C:\Windows\System32\termsrv.dll
5. Then type this & hit enter (NOTE: Replace USERNAME with YOUR USERNAME!! If your name has a space in it, enclose it with quotes, like “Mike Garcen”): cacls C:\Windows\System32\termsrv.dll /G USERNAME:F
6. Then go to your Windows Explorer, and go to C:\Windows\System32
7. Rename the original termsrv.dll to something else, like “termsrv.dll.ORIGINAL”, just in case
8. *NOTE* If you are unable to do the above, try rebooting into SAFE MODE
9. Then copy & paste the Hacked DLL you downloaded in Step 1 into the C:\Windows\System32 folder
10. And voila!

More details at Missing Remote and at Ricky’s Web Review