Question : XP display set to 4 bit color depth after Remote Desktop session

The host computer is a Windows XP Media Center 2005 with a NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GS graphics adapter. When a Remote Desktop session is started, the local display becomes distorted (the remote display is fine). When resuming the console session, the display is set to 4 bit color depth and cannot be changed. The options appear in Display Properties, but when they are changed nothing happens and they revert. Rebooting the computer returns the display to normal settings. This problem only occurs when the client computer is running a later version of the Remote Desktop client. Connections from a fresh Vista SP0 install do not cause this problem until updates are downloaded.

Answer : XP display set to 4 bit color depth after Remote Desktop session

Or you can copy from Vista SP0 for the four files of RDP as indicated below.

File                         Location
mstsc.exe             c:\windows\system32
mstscax.dll            c:\windows\system32
mstsc.exe.mui       c:\windows\system32\en-US
mstscax.dll.mui      c:\windows\system32\en-US

Actually, the above files for RDP can be run in Vista SP1 without problem. You can copy them to a thumb drive or any folder in your local drive; create a shortcut for mstsc.exe and use the shortcut to connect to your XP media Center.

For example. you can put the mstsc.exe and mstscax.dll in a folder, say x:\RDP\  and put mstsc.exe.mui and mstscax.dll.mui in a sub-folder, say x:\RDP\en-US. Assume x is the drive letter for your thumb drive.

In doing so, you have made a portable RDP client of your Vista SP0 and the said RDP client can be used on any Windows based machine (from XP onwards).