Windows Server 2008 R2 remote service installation: How to execute program after RDP Connection in C#?

I want to remotely start a program on a Win2k8R2 Server, Web Edition, which installs Windows services.

Service installation is afaik only p开发者_运维知识库ossible if there's a "screen>0" - that means a user must be logged in to do that (I read somewhere that the login dialog window is representing "screen 0", correct me if I'm wrong here). So to get a screen, I open up a RDP connection and then trigger the setup exe which installs everything silently.

I made it run on Windows Server 2003 already. On 2008 R2 though it doesn't work anymore. I assume there may be some security policy or even completely other technique to achieve what I want.

Here's the code:

this.axMsRdpClient7 = new AxMSTSCLib.AxMsRdpClient7();

// ... some GUI stuff happens here..

axMsRdpClient7.Server = hostname;
axMsRdpClient7.UserName = username;
axMsRdpClient7.AdvancedSettings.Compress = -1;
axMsRdpClient7.AdvancedSettings2.DisplayConnectionBar = true;
axMsRdpClient7.AdvancedSettings7.ClearTextPassword = userpassword;
axMsRdpClient7.AdvancedSettings2.EncryptionEnabled = -1;

// Set start program information. vvv THIS IS NOT GOING TO BE EXECUTED vvv
axMsRdpClient7.SecuredSettings.StartProgram = executablePath + " " + arguments;
axMsRdpClient7.SecuredSettings.WorkDir = workingDirectory;

// ... here I'm attaching some events like OnDisconnect...

// Start connection
axMsRdpClient7.Connect();

// Now the startprogram should be executed, but doesn't.
// (at this time its ok that I have to manually log off to reach disconnect. Except you have a better idea to disconnect after startprogram finishes)
while (axMsRdpClient7.Connected != 0)
{
    Application.DoEvents();
    Thread.Sleep(1);
}

// End connection
axMsRdpClient7.Disconnect();

Anyone knows why StartProgram is not being executed? I don't have any error, it just doesn't start.

Or anyone knows a better method to remotely install services?

Thanks in advance!

You should not need to call Disconnect(). When using the StartProgram approach you are using what used to be called the 'Alternate Shell' approach. This means that when the program terminates, the session is automatically closed/disconnected.

See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms861803.aspx, search for 'AlternateShell'.

I recently wrote an ActiveX library that initiates an Windows 2008 RDS session using the StartProgram parameter. Once the user closes the program that is started automatically when the RDS session starts, the RDS session automatically terminates. So you shouldn't need the looping mechanism nor the call to Disconnect() with your approach.

In my code, for user credentials, I specify the domain as well. Is your user account a Windows Domain account? If so you probably need to specify that as well.

Additionally, I set the following parameters:

// server authentication is required - set Auth level to 2
AdvancedSettings7.AuthenticationLevel := 2;
// use CredSsp if the client supports it.
AdvancedSettings7.EnableCredSspSupport := True;
// setting PublicMode to false allows the saving of credentials, which prevents
// prompting the user to log in
AdvancedSettings7.PublicMode := False;

HTH