Anyone that has to manage multiple computers understands that having multiple terminal service windows open is a pain. To combat this problem Microsoft has provided Remote Desktop Connection Manager (RDCMAN). I recommend RDCMAN to all my customers. What I have noticed however is, my customers struggle with getting all the servers they want into RDCMAN.
Note: Make sure the remote desktop is enabled on the servers that you want to manage from RDCMAN
In this blog I will cover how to quickly import all the servers from a lab environment into RDCMAN file. These steps can be used in production as well. The only difference might be that you may not want to import all your production servers into one RDCMAN session. In these scenarios using PowerShell servers can be filtered out. For example, if you’re the Exchange administrator for your organization, and all the Exchange servers are homed in the same Organizational Unit (OU), you would only export the servers in the Exchange Server OU.
From a computer with PowerShell 2.0 or higher, open PowerShell has an administrator
Within the PowerShell window type or copy the syntax below. This command will import the PowerShell commands to manage Active Directory.
Import-Module ActiveDirectory
Now that the Active Directory commands have been exposed to PowerShell, the Get-ADComputer can be used to return all the computer names stored in Active Directory. The Select command will only grab the computer name, the FT command will remove the table heading, and the > will export the pipeline to a text file.
Get-ADComputer -Filter ‘ObjectClass -eq “Computer”‘ | select name | ft -HideTableHeaders > C:exportServers.txt
The output should look something like this:
NOTE: Make sure there are no whitespaces in the text file. You can remove whitespace by opening the file in Excel and saving the file as a text file or using find and replace (Control + H) in notepad.
Lets open RDCMAN and get these servers imported. RDCMAN is located under C:Program Files (x86)Remote Desktop Connection Manager
Within RDCMAN go to File > New and create a new rdg file. I named my rdg file as lab
Right click on Lab.rdg and select Properties > select the Logon Credential tab > uncheck Inherit from Parent > enter your User Name Password Domain
Once your User name Password Domain have been entered click OK to save your settings
Within the RDCMAN window click Edit > Import servers…
In the Server Settings tab click the Browse button
Navigate to the Server text file and import the file
Now you should see all the servers in RDCMAN and be able to connect to any of the servers
