Control the issuance of Terminal Server licenses

Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1, Windows Server 2003 with SP2

To control the issuance of Terminal Server licenses

Open Group Policy.
In Computer Configuration, Administrative Templates, Windows Components, Terminal Services, double-click the License Server Security Group setting.
Click Enabled, and then click OK.

Important
- You should thoroughly test any changes you make to Group Policy settings before applying them to users or computers. For more information on testing policy settings, see Resultant Set of Policy.

Notes

To perform this procedure, you must be a member of the Administrators group on the local computer, or you must have been delegated the appropriate authority. If the computer is joined to a domain, members of the Domain Admins group might be able to perform this procedure. As a security best practice, consider using Run as to perform this procedure. For more information, see Default local groups, Default groups, and Using Run as.
If the status of this setting is Enabled, only the computers you add to the Terminal Services Computers security group will receive licenses. By default, this group is not populated. You must add computers or groups to this security group if you want them to receive licenses. Any changes you make to the membership of this group take effect only after you stop and restart the Terminal Server Licensing service. For more information, see Related Topics.
If the status of this setting is either Disabled or Not Configured, the Terminal Server License Server issues a license to any computer that requests one. The Terminal Services Computers group is not deleted or changed in any way. This is the default behavior.
Use the above procedure to configure the local Group Policy object. To change a policy for a domain or an organizational unit, you must log on to the primary domain controller as an Administrator. Then, you must invoke Group Policy through the Active Directory Users and Computers snap-in.

Your server might function differently based on the version and edition of the operating system that is installed, your account permissions, and your menu settings. For more information, see Viewing Help on the Web.