TS CAL Maintenance Tool (Windows CE 5.0)
RDP adds the Terminal Services Client Access License (TS CAL) maintenance tool to Control Panel in the Thin Client Shell or Windows Standard Shell. This tool displays TS CAL tokens for devices that connect to a Terminal Server or Web pad.
**Note **This tool provides an easy method of managing TS CALs, but does not replace the need to purchase them by using the appropriate sales channels. TS CAL tokens are electronic representations of real licenses, but they are not actual licenses.
The TS CAL maintenance tool requires that RDP is in the run-time image. It can be used in any OS design that supports control panel programs, such as the Enterprise Web Pad.
This tool is provided in public code in the following location: %_WINCEROOT%\Public\Rdp\Oak\Uit\licinfo.cpp. If it meets your needs for CAL maintenance, you can use it as it is. If it does not meet your needs, you can use it as a template and design your own user interface (UI) for presenting license information. If you design your own user interface, you must link your code to the helper library, Licinfo.lib, in the same manner as the TS CAL maintenance tool does.
For information about how to create or modify a Control Panel application, see How to Implement a Control Panel Application.
Obtaining TS CAL License Tokens
The Terminal Services license server stores all TS CAL license tokens that have been installed for a group of terminal servers, and tracks licenses issued.
The following list shows the process of obtaining TS CAL tokens:
When an RDP client first connects to the terminal server, the server uses a discovery process to locate the license servers. There can be multiple license servers for one Terminal Server. For example, rdp-autotest2 can access an enterprise license server MY-CORP-LS and a domain license server corp01.toledo.
The Terminal Server stores information about the license servers it discovered in the following registry keys:
- Enterprise license servers: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\MSLicensing\Parameters\EnterpriseServerMulti
- Domain license servers: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\MSLicensing\Parameters\DomainLicenseServerMulti
The license server responds with a temporary token for the device. A grace period begins that allows the client to connect to the server without a permanent license. This grace period allows the administrator to purchase the license.
The next time the RDP client tries to connect to the server, the license server issues a permanent CAL if one is available. If one is not available, the client continues to use the temporary CAL.
For more information about Terminal Services Licensing, see this Microsoft Web site.
See Also
RDP OS Design Development | Customizing a Thin Client
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