Reset 120 Day Grace Period for Windows RDS Server with PowerShell

scottalanmiller

Tested with Windows Server 2016

For whatever reason, you may end up in a situation where you need to extend the grace period for Windows RDS server (remote desktop services, aka terminal server.) This can be a pain, especially if things time out and you lose RDP access to the server. In the Windows Server 2012 and Server 2012 R2 era, Microsoft provided the following PowerShell script for this scenario. But they no longer test or maintain the script. I have tested on Windows Server 2016 and it definitely still works.

To use the script, simply save to your RDS server and run in an elevated PowerShell prompt. The script is interactive and will tell you how many days are left (very handy as you can look it up extremely quickly this way) and lets you choose if you want to reset the time or not.

## This Script is intended to be used for Querying remaining time and resetting Terminal Server (RDS) Grace Licensing Period to Default 120 Days. 
## Developed by Prakash Kumar ([email protected]) May 28th 2016 
## www.adminthing.blogspot.com 
## Disclaimer: Please test this script in your test environment before executing on any production server. 
## Author will not be responsible for any misuse/damage caused by using it. 
 
Clear-Host 
$ErrorActionPreference = "SilentlyContinue" 
 
## Display current Status of remaining days from Grace period. 
$GracePeriod = (Invoke-WmiMethod -PATH (gwmi -namespace root\cimv2\terminalservices -class win32_terminalservicesetting).__PATH -name GetGracePeriodDays).daysleft 
Write-Host -fore Green ====================================================== 
Write-Host -fore Green 'Terminal Server (RDS) grace period Days remaining are' : $GracePeriod 
Write-Host -fore Green ======================================================   
Write-Host 
$Response = Read-Host "Do you want to reset Terminal Server (RDS) Grace period to Default 120 Days ? (Y/N)" 
 
if ($Response -eq "Y") { 
## Reset Terminal Services Grace period to 120 Days 
 
$definition = @" 
using System; 
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;  
namespace Win32Api 
{ 
    public class NtDll 
    { 
        [DllImport("ntdll.dll", EntryPoint="RtlAdjustPrivilege")] 
        public static extern int RtlAdjustPrivilege(ulong Privilege, bool Enable, bool CurrentThread, ref bool Enabled); 
    } 
} 
"@  
 
Add-Type -TypeDefinition $definition -PassThru 
 
$bEnabled = $false 
 
## Enable SeTakeOwnershipPrivilege 
$res = [Win32Api.NtDll]::RtlAdjustPrivilege(9, $true, $false, [ref]$bEnabled) 
 
## Take Ownership on the Key 
$key = [Microsoft.Win32.Registry]::LocalMachine.OpenSubKey("SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server\RCM\GracePeriod", [Microsoft.Win32.RegistryKeyPermissionCheck]::ReadWriteSubTree,[System.Security.AccessControl.RegistryRights]::takeownership) 
$acl = $key.GetAccessControl() 
$acl.SetOwner([System.Security.Principal.NTAccount]"Administrators") 
$key.SetAccessControl($acl) 
 
## Assign Full Controll permissions to Administrators on the key. 
$rule = New-Object System.Security.AccessControl.RegistryAccessRule ("Administrators","FullControl","Allow") 
$acl.SetAccessRule($rule) 
$key.SetAccessControl($acl) 
 
## Finally Delete the key which resets the Grace Period counter to 120 Days. 
Remove-Item 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server\RCM\GracePeriod' 
 
write-host 
Write-host -ForegroundColor Red 'Resetting, Please Wait....' 
Start-Sleep -Seconds 10  
 
  } 
 
Else  
    { 
Write-Host 
Write-Host -ForegroundColor Yellow '**You Chose not to reset Grace period of Terminal Server (RDS) Licensing' 
  } 
 
## Display Remaining Days again as final status 
tlsbln.exe 
$GracePost = (Invoke-WmiMethod -PATH (gwmi -namespace root\cimv2\terminalservices -class win32_terminalservicesetting).__PATH -name GetGracePeriodDays).daysleft 
Write-Host 
Write-Host -fore Yellow ===================================================== 
Write-Host -fore Yellow 'Terminal Server (RDS) grace period Days remaining are' : $GracePost 
Write-Host -fore Yellow ===================================================== 
 
## Cleanup of Variables 
Remove-Variable * -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

The original is kept here: https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/scriptcenter/Reset-Terminal-Server-RDS-44922d91

dbeato

@scottalanmiller I assume you needed to do this while dealing with the RDS CALs on your post about that right?

scottalanmiller

@dbeato said in Reset 120 Day Grace Period for Windows RDS Server with PowerShell:

@scottalanmiller I assume you needed to do this while dealing with the RDS CALs on your post about that right?

Yeah. They still have not come through, but there is a chance that they might today. We will see.

serseri26

I tried server 2019 and it was successful
you saved me from great trouble
thank you so much.

scottalanmiller

@serseri26 said in Reset 120 Day Grace Period for Windows RDS Server with PowerShell:

I tried server 2019 and it was successful
you saved me from great trouble
thank you so much.

Glad that it worked still!

ilyas

@scottalanmiller

Hi, Thanks for wonderful script that save my time.
Could You please guide me how we can run this script on multiple servers?

I tried foreach PowerShell method but it does not work.

Grey

@ilyas said in Reset 120 Day Grace Period for Windows RDS Server with PowerShell:

@scottalanmiller

Hi, Thanks for wonderful script that save my time.
Could You please guide me how we can run this script on multiple servers?

I tried foreach PowerShell method but it does not work.

From the ISE, load the script and then enter-pssession for each system. Once connected, run the script from the ise. Sorted.