/sodpit

Easily create or re-create an infinite number of RDP files WITH ONLY ONE CLICK.

Download

Download Page / Direct Download

1.0.1 Changes

RDP Blaster is now capable of setting/overriding all possible RDP options.

[settings]
allopts=n

N can be 0 or 1.  1 is default.

Allows you to enable/disable all of the possible RDP options.  If enabled, overrides for every possible RDP option are available.

If disabled, the first 19 lines of the RDP template must be the ones mentioned later on this page.

A new wesbsite shortcut is now automatically created if it doesn't exist.

Basic Information

Download the EXE and put it in a decent location, possibly your Program Files folder.  There is currently no installer.

Create a shortcut on your Desktop.

When you run it, it will automatically create a .DAT file and a .RDP file with the same main name as the EXE.

The DAT file is your mini database (INI format) of all of your RDP connections.

The RDP file is a template that is used to create all of the RDP files.

If you rename the EXE, new DAT/RDP files will be created.

The Bottom Line

While some of the information below might look confusing or overwhelming, trust me, it's not.  The bottom line is that RDP is arguably the best remote control software available but the ability for anyone to maintain working RDP files is nothing short of a lesson in frustration - especially if you are an IT/IS person that has to manage hundreds or thousands of these files.  As some of you know, the next time you format your computer or upgrader your OS or even if you end up having to create a new Windows user account, your RDP files are all INSTANTLY fubar...  the passwords you spent hours/days/weeks/months setting up will ALL BE LOST.  Yet another genious decision by Microsoft.

Remote Desktop Blaster allows you to manage all of your RDP connections in Notepad (or your favorite text editor) very easily and without a million mouse clicks.  It uses a template (RDP file) for most of the standard settings and the DAT (INI) file allows you to override the default settings from the template.  You can right click the RDP file one time and use the "Edit" option to use the official MS TS Client to edit things the way you want.  Once you have added all of your connections and setup the template the way you want all you will ever have to do from that point forward is run Remote Desktop Blaster and click the "Create" button.

I originally started out writing an RDP file manager but I stopped when I realized that even a better GUI wasn't the solution for my needs.  I needed something that would kick out hundreds or even thousands of RDP files in exact folder structures with a single mouse click.  I needed something that would just generate all of the files without me having to manually manage them every time...

RDP Mass Creation with ONE CLICK!!!

Why Use RDP Blaster?

Here are the steps to create a new RDP file from scratch, pay attention to the number of mouse clicks:

click start (1), search, type "remote", click "remote desktop connection" (1), window appears.
click options (1)
general tab (1):  type domain\computer (1), user name (1), check "allow me to save creds" (1)
display tab (1):  select size (1), all/one monitor(s) (1), quality (32bpp) (2), check "display connection bar" (1)
local resources tab (1): adjust audio (3+), keyboard settings (2), and local devices & resources (3+4+?+1)
experience tab (1): select a mode, (2), check reconnect auto (1)
advanced tab (1): select auth mode (2 clicks)
click back to general tab (1)
click "save as.." (1), select location (2+), type a name (1), click save (1)
click "connect" (1)
don't forget there will be at least one or two security warnings (2)
if you forgot to click "save" before you clicked "connect", nothing saved, start over from scratch
let's not forget all the right clicks we have to do, right click, edit or notepad for example.

Roughly 50 mouse clicks later:  one rdp file created.

If you had to create 250 RDP files manually it could take up to 12,500 mouse clicks.  thes rdp files will only work 100% until your next OS install or until you use a different windows account.

when you format, install a new os or change user accounts, your passwords will no longer work.  now you have to edit each rdp file, one at a time and tell it to re-save your passwords - and with v6 you have to actually attempt a connection before you can save your login credentials.  if your rdp files were created in ms ts client v5 your passwords might be saved inside the rdp file.  in v6 you can't do that anymore.  so now some of your rdp files have old / non-working passwords, and some might be v6 without any password information.

ALSO!!!  If you make an RDP file in windows you can only use one user/pass combination for that computer or IP address if you are on RDP V6.  Microsoft went super stupid in this regard.  In the past you could connect with different credentials for each RDP file...  now if you try that in V6 it will ONLY REMEMBER THE LAST USED CREDENTIALS.  How fricken STUPID!

Microsoft put the "NO" in innovation.

DAT File

This file can be edited with Notepad and is based on the Windows' INI format:

[section]
variable = value

Every section name must be unique.  If you use the same section name multiple times you will notice the RDP files that are generated will all be defined using the first time your section appears in the DAT file.

The DAT file will contain all of the connection information for all of your RDP files.  For obvious reasons (password exposure) you should store this file in an extremely safe place.

The "settings" section only offers three items and is the only section that is not used to generate an RDP file.  This section must be the first section inside the file.

The "sample" section offers a sample structure with some insight in to what you can do for each RDP file.

This sample is NOT complete by any means, see the next section below "Section Details" for more information.

Here is the DAT file as it appears the first time it is created in 1.0.1:

; for detailed information on all possible rdp settings please visit this page:
; http://support.microsoft.com/kb/885187

[settings]

; enter your screen resolution here...

screenx=1600
screeny=1200

; setting allopts to 1 will process all possible options but may run slower
; change this to 0 if you need better performance
; default is 1 (on)

allopts=1

[sample]

; required items...

folder=rdp\sample
filename=sample
address=192.168.1.1
username=insert_user_name_here
password=!lol!gt!

; optional (common) overrides...

; if you don't specify manual xy coordinates (show in the "manually overriding
; screen position" section below) remote desktop blaster will attempt to
; automagically resize and center your rdp sessions on your main screen.
; this is based on screenx, screeny (above) and width, height (below).

domain=
width=1024
height=768

; from this point down, all values are commented with a semicolon (;)
; to use the values shown, delete the semicolon.

; manually overriding screen position

; to use this, all four values below must be defined
; for "right" use:  left + width + 20 (roughly)
; for "bottom" use:  top + height + 40 (roughly)
; using all of these will ignore screenx, screeny, width, height (above).

; left=
; top=
; right=
; bottom=

; manual xy screen position offset

; you can use negative values but the rdp client can't position x or y at less
; than zero.  this should work for secondary monitors that are to the right
; of the main monitor but will not work if they are to the left (negative) of
; the main monitor.

; xoffset=
; yoffset=

; from this point down in the sample, all values are identically named to the
; values in your rdp files

fullscreen=0
multimon=0
connectionbar=1
redirectdrives=1
redirectprinters=0
redirectcomports=1
redirectsmartcards=1
redirectclipboard=1
redirectposdevices=1
redirectdirectx=1
drivestoredirect=*
devicestoredirect=*

; all remaining (less common) overrides...

; session bpp=32
; auto connect=0
; compression=1
; keyboardhook=1
; audiomode=0
; autoreconnection enabled=1
; alternate shell=
; shell working directory=
; disable wallpaper=0
; disable full window drag=0
; disable menu anims=0
; disable themes=0
; disable cursor setting=0
; bitmapcachepersistenable=1
; audiocapturemode=0
; videoplaybackmode=1
; connection type=6
; allow font smoothing=1
; allow desktop composition=1
; authentication level=0
; prompt for credentials=0
; negotiate security layer=1
; remoteapplicationmode=0
; gatewayhostname=
; gatewayusagemethod=4
; gatewaycredentialssource=4
; gatewayprofileusagemethod=0
; promptcredentialonce=1
; use redirection server name=0
; sgt-d@sodpit.com

Section Details

Using the sample above, the RDP session will be sized and formatted to the center of your main screen automatically.

Realistically you only need a few lines for each section to successfully mass-create RDP files:

folder=rdp\sample
filename=sample
address=192.168.1.1
username=insert_user_name_here
password=!lol!gt!
domain=

The width and height parameters possible values for RDP v6, respectively, are:

640x480
800x600
1024x768
1280x720
1280x768
1280x1024
1440x900
1440x1050
1600x1200

The session bpp variable can be:  15, 16, 24 or 32.

The folder argument is both relative and recursive.  The first folder will be created in the same (parent) folder that contains the EXE file.

Example:

folder=rdp\sample\home
filename=sample

In this example, the same folder as the EXE will have a new folder named "rdp".  Inside that folder will be a "sample" folder, and then below that will be a "home" folder.  The RDP file (in this example) will be named "sample.rdp".

The other arguments are self-explanitory.

Overrides

As shown above, you can override the default settings.  Remember, default settings are stored in the main RDP file/template.

Let's say that you edited your RDP template so that every connection used multiple monitors and now you need one connection to override that setting and NOT use multiple monitors.  Simple:

multimon=0

The same is true for all of the items shown, drive sharing, whatever you need.

Manual Position Override

To manually set the location and size you can add all four of these to a section:

left=n
top=n
right=n
bottom=n

N must be a valid integer.  This manual override will only work if ALL four of these are provided,  The "right" parameter should be:  left + width + 20 (roughly).  The bottom parameter should be:  top + height + 40 (roughly).

X,Y Position Offsets

You can offset the left/top/right/bottom by adding these parameters to a section.

xoffset=n
yoffset=n

N must be a valid integer.

N can be negative, but MSTSC.exe is too stupid to offset to a secondary monitor that is positioned to the left of the main screen because RDP sessions can't start at an X position less than 0.  Email Bill about it.  Everyone with secondary monitors to the right side of their main screens, rejoice.  I'm sure this will work for you.  Pisses me off though.

RDP File

This file can be edited with Notepad.

If the new "allopts" setting is disabled, the first 19 lines of the RDP template must contain the information shown below but the order does not matter.  This is very imporant, and the sample provided will work correctly.

full address:s:
username:s:
password 51:b:0100xxx
domain:s:
desktopwidth:i:1024
desktopheight:i:768
winposstr:s:0,1,280,178,1324,986
screen mode id:i:1
use multimon:i:0
displayconnectionbar:i:1
redirectdrives:i:1
redirectprinters:i:0
redirectcomports:i:1
redirectsmartcards:i:1
redirectclipboard:i:1
redirectposdevices:i:0
redirectdirectx:i:1
drivestoredirect:s:*
devicestoredirect:s:*

So, line 20 (or higher) should start with:  session bpp:i:32